BERGEIJK - The Dutch 3-cushion league starts a new season with new rules. The maximum of two non-Dutch players per team has been cancelled, so all teams are now allowed to put as many as four "foreigners" on their list, and possibly even use all four at the same time. The other, much debated new rule is the match length, which has been reduced from 50 to 40. The league title holders are Buffalo.nl from The Hague, but this year's favorites are many. The opening weekend showed how unpredictable this competition is going to be. Champion Buffalo.nl played freshly promoted Burgmans in round 1, and immediately lost a point. A1 Biljarts, on paper one of the title favorites, was humiliated at home by Zundert (0-8). HCR Prinsen, with Dick Jaspers as first player, was handed an equal defeat by Eureka Billard (0-8), Dave Christiani being the most remarkable winner for Eureka, beating Jaspers.
Buffalo.nl, in their championship line-up with Glenn Hofman and Jean van Erp as spearheads, travelled to Bergeijk with high expectations. The debutant from Brabant welcomed their opponents in a true sauna, but the heat did not appear to affect the level of play. Rik van Beers, one of the home players, later said: ,,I've played volleyball for fifteen years, but I have never sweated as profusely as this evening.'' The Burgmans team scored a surprising 4-4 draw, because Bert van Manen played well against Jeffrey Jorissen (40-33 in 26) and Johan Roijers did even better against Herman van Daalen: 40-23 in 24. The top players from The Hague did the damage control: Jean van Erp was the best player of the evening with a 19-inning win over Rik van Beers (40-31 in 19), Glenn Hofman was equally convincing in his win over Marco Janssen: 40-26 in 20.
STZ Zundert played without Roland Forthomme (already in Korea for the World Cup) and Peter Ceulemans. Nevertheless, they started their year well against A1 Biljarts. Thorsten Frings beat an unusually tame Eddy Merckx (40-21 in 27), and Barry van Beers won the provincial derby against Gerwin Valentijn: 40-33 in 23. Roland Uytdewillegen got the better of Martien van der Spoel (40-38 in 33), Raymon Groot completed the maximum victory against Henk Blauwblomme (40-29 in 31).
Eureka Billiard, having moved at the latest hour to another room, saw Dave Christiani (40-28 in 23 innings against Jaspers), Raimond Burgman (40-29 in 30 against Jelle Pijl) and John Tijssens (40-39 in 31 against Anno de Kleine) win their matches. Substitute Paul Bruijstens made a strong fourth-player debut beating Raymund Swertz (40-27 in 41). Dinand Prinsen had wished for a very different start to the season, and Eureka Billard may prove to be this year's dark horse for the title.
TOVV/Royal Pro, the first team in that room, lived up to expectations with a win over 't Hartje/Van Wanrooy (7-1), with Martin Spoormans drawing against Savas Bulut (in 29 innings, Bulut equalizing with 11!) and Frans van Schaik narrowly beating Ad Koorevaar (40-38 in 31). Richard Bitalis was the best player of the evening, with a 40-20 in 20 victory over Frank Martens.
Frans van Kuyk opened his year in great style with a solo-performance against helpless Kay de Zwart: 40-7 in 15. Eekhoorn was superior to TOVV 2 in every department, and the 8-0 was the logical result. Bousema Lochem and Dallinga.com shared the points. Jean Paul de Bruijn, about to leave for Korea, scored a good win over Dane Lars Dunch: 40-34 in 22.