SPRUNDEL - He works about 40 to 50 hours every week and is therefore a pure amateur as a billiard player. This Sunday afternoon, Belgian Dirk Weeremans faced a thickly paid professional player in the Dutch premier three-cushion league: the Spanish number 1 of the Korean PBA tour, Javier Palazón. But how fickle, unpredictable a match of billiards was again this Sunday. Dirk Weeremans, for whom the clock goes off at 5 in the early morning, beat the player who earns tons of money per year in the PBA in these years. ’’I showed that in billiards anything is possible,'' Dirk Weeremans reacted this afternoon. ’’A world champion can lose to an amateur.'' That happened in the match between Aartsbouw from Sprundel and Cues&Darts from Tilburg, the number 2 of the rankings against the number 11. Before the break, the Tilburg team had taken a logical 4-0 lead, after the break Dirk Weeremans and Ronny Brants, two Belgians who were eliminated in the Belgian championship on Friday, came into the arena for Aartsbouw. The opponents? Ruben Legazpi against Ronny Brants, Javier Palazón against Dirk Weeremans.
’’My opponent started with 8,'' Weeremans said later. ’’So I had to chase right away, but I came back well. He made another 7, we went to the end together. I defended well, that made him make mistakes. And at the end I was able to reach the finish, how great. What was just a pity is that Ronny (Brants) could not finish it against Legazpi. He had 4 match balls, all 4 difficult, and missed them all. Then Legazpi finished 40-39.''
Cues&Darts thus escaped 6-2 and remains the main rival for SIS Schoonmaak. The frontrunner itself won against Team Nachtwacht, the last of the rankings. That also was a hard match. Frank Martens won for Nachtwacht against Martien van der Spoel (40-38 in 38) and Harrie van de Ven had the win up for grabs, but played a draw against Raymund Swertz (40-40 in 39). SIS' leaders were able to secure a 5-3 win. Jean van Erp beat Ismail Yasin 40-13 in 20, Raimond Burgman won against another PBA pro, Savas Bulut, 40-32 in 32.
Topbiljart Zundert triumphed 2-6 in the away match against DKM Tools thanks partly to an excellent Sergio Jimenez, who beat Davy van Havere 40-27 in 15. Frings and Forton were the other winners for Zundert. Bousema/JBS cues was in no danger against Burgmans Biljarts, winning 8-0. Jeffrey Jorissen was the best winner against Anno de Kleine: 40-30 in 19. Stefan Galla and Frans van Schaik won in 23 and 25 innings.