SCHIJNDEL - At the kick-off of the KNBB cup final, this morning (Wednesday) at Theatre Het Spectrum in Schijndel, eight teams start the battle for the coveted trophy. Cues&Darts is the titleholder, six teams have played this year in the highest league, the Kozoom league, the team De Distel from Roosendaal plays in the first division and has qualified, the same as Bonanza from Brunssum, which plays in the second division. The other six teams are Cues&Darts, Team Eekhoorn, Bousema, SIS/Vervoort, Paperclip and J&F Auto's. The big absentee is the proud frontrunner in the premier league, the Babbelz team, which was eliminated by Bousema in the pre-selection playing without its top players.
The BEN Foundation, which organizes together with the KNBB three-cushion section, has opted for a new venue at Het Spectrum in Schijndel. Harry Mathijssen, organizing chairman, speaks of a wonderful, atmospheric arena, which is even slightly more spacious than in the Beneluxtheatre in Berlicum. ’’I warmly invite people to come and watch. We expect beautiful, exciting matches with many top national and international players at the tables,‘’ said the tournament director.
Harry Mathijssen and his organization will end a rather quiet year in the Cup final, for the first time without a World Cup in Veghel. Plans for the coming years are still premature. ‘’We are looking for the coming years, but have already made plans.‘’
In the Cup final, the result of the long period of preliminary matches with 156 teams and some 7/800 players in total, Team Eekhoorn from Oosterhout and Bonanza/LS Elektro.nl from Brunssum will start this Wednesday morning at 11.00 a.m. with players 3 and 4 at the tables. Then at 1pm, Bousema/JBSCues.nl from Lochem and SIS/Vervoort Installatie from Uden will play with players 3 and 4. In the second sessions, players 1 and 2 of these teams will be in action in the 3pm and 5pm rounds. Tomorrow, Thursday, the other four teams will work that stretch with J&F Auto's/Jorissen from The Hague against De Distel/Groene Cijfers from Roosendaal at 11.00am and Paperclip from Capelle aan den IJssel against Cues&Darts/Xtreme from Tilburg at 1.00pm.
The matches are played over 2 won sets of 15 points. In case of a tie in the final score (4-4), a Scotch Double of 15 points will be played to qualify for the semi-finals. Those semi-finals are on Friday from 11am, and the finals on Saturday from 11am.
In the preliminary rounds, plenty of fireworks can already be expected, including the matches on the first day between Nick Polychronopoulos and Kenny Miatton, Tayfun Tasdemir-Jean van Erp and Jeffrey Jorissen-Raimond Burgman. On the second day, the schedule includes Dick Jaspers-Glenn Hofman, Ruben Legazpi-Anno de Kleine, Murat Gökmen-Omer Karakurt and Adrie Demming-Kay de Zwart.
All matches can be seen live on Kozoom.
The teams and players:
Team Eekhoorn
Nick Polychronopoulos, Eddy Leppens, Peter Ceulemans, Kurt Ceulemans
Bonanza 1/LS Elektro
Kenny Miatton, Joop Baars, Heinz Jacobs, Karel de Roy Zuydewijn
Bousema/JBSCues
Tayfun Tasdemir, Jeffrey Jorissen, Gökhan Salman, Frans van Schaik
SIS/Vervoort
Jean van Erp, Raimond Burgman, Raymund Swertz, Harrie van de Ven
J&F Auto’s/Jorissen
Murat Gökmen, Kay de Zwart, Paul Bruijstens, Herman van Daalen
De Distel/Groene Cijfers:
Omer Karakurt, Adrie Demming, Frits Broeders, Peter van Nassau
Cues&Darts/Xtreme
Glenn Hofman, Ruben Legazpi, Jef Philipoom, Huub Wilkowski
Paperclip
Dick Jaspers, Anno de Kleine, Dan Breur, Peter van Lieshout