BERLICUM - The team winner Carl Verhoeven made an unusually emotional impression on the terrace of the Benelux Theatre in Berlicum after his SIS Schoonmaak team's cup victory on Saturday evening. After the long hunt for the first big success of his golden team, it was a relief for his players, but especially for the people close to him. Yes, Carl Verhoeven said sincerely, but without going into details when the 6-2 victory over Dekker Keukens was celebrated afterwards: ''We surely have fought awfully hard for this and everyone is happy for the team, our players and for our family.''
He admits that private matters play a role in the background and make billiards at times a side issue. But it doesn't make the success any less, because everyone on the team sympathises and had a good feeling for hours after the cup win. Moreover because the cup was won by a lot of team strenght and fighting spirit at the moments that the players had to fight for each other. Dick Jaspers did that most of all in the semi-final against Team Eekhoorn and against Frans van Kuyk, in which the elimination was so close. And again in the final against Dekker Keukens, well started by Martien van der Spoel with a 3-0 victory against the much weaker John Roovers, but with an excellent 2.142 average. And then after the unexpected loss of Raimond Burgman against Henk Blauwblomme with 2-1 (15-11, 0-15 and 15-12) the final sprint had to decide.
''We all knew that Eddy Merckx was not himself, he was not mentally very strong as he always is, lost way too much for his liking, but nobody could tell anything about what was wrong'', the team boss realized when the last part started: Eddy Merckx against Gerwin Valentijn and Dick Jaspers against Tayfun Tasdemir. The relief was huge when Merckx took the win in the first two sets against Valentijn (15-9, 15-10 and 13-15), because as Jaspers and Tasdemir were tied at 1-1 (15-9, 4-15), the final win was secured. Carl Verhoeven: ''But I was even more happy when Dick won 15-14 and therefore 2-1, because that brought us to 6-2 and we did not have to take the gold medal after a 4-4.''
The team boss philosophised further: ''We have finally, yes say finally, achieved this first big success, which we had to wait so long for because of Corona. This feels really good, it's finally the liberation for what we do for this sport. But of course we now want to hold on to that cup with the big ears on Monday 20 June after the second game of the play-offs. I am already very proud of my boys, I realize that Dick has dragged us through this, but this success belongs to all of us. And if we win the title later on it will be complete.''
Semi-finals
SIS Schoonmaak qualified for the final by winning against Team Eekhoorn 6-2, Dekker Keukens did that by playing 't Hartje van Oosterhout after the break from 2-2 to a 6-2 win. For SIS, Jaspers was the saviour, as the world champion was tied 1-1 against Frans van Kuyk and in the third set grabbed the win (and team win) with a final run of 10. SIS Schoonmaak seemed to be on their way to a comfortable win against Team Eekhoorn at first in the break. The first victories of Jean van Erp and Raymund Swertz against Kurt Ceulemans and Adrie Demming (twice 2-1) put the top-favourite in a comfortable position, because Jaspers and Merckx would act as finishers.
But that was not counting on the opponents of Team Eekhoorn. Dick Jaspers started with a win on Frans van Kuyk (15-13 in 11), but the less experienced local player Frans van Kuyk reacted in the second set with a win in five innings (15-9). And at that moment Peter Ceulemans had taken a 2-0 lead against Eddy Merckx with sets of 15-12 in 10 and 15-14 in 13. So it could still go either way, because if Peter Ceulemans would win 3-0 and Frans van Kuyk would win 2-1, the final victory would go to Team Eekhoorn and not to SIS Schoonmaak.
That was not the outcome, because Jaspers, when the tension went to the top, demonstrated his high class with a final run of 10 against Frans van Kuyk. That brought the score to 6-0 for SIS and only Peter Ceulemans could score against Merckx for Team Eekhoorn with 3-0.
Tayfun Tasdemir and Gerwin Valentijn made quick work of the opponent of Hartje van Oosterhout for Dekker Keukens after the 2-2 score in the break. Tayfun Tasdemir beat Davy van Havere 15-4 (10) in the first set and secured his win with 15-14 in 6 and 15-13 in 7 (highest run 11). Gerwin Valentijn, opposite good old Martin Spoormans, joined in the success, first with 15-12 in 14 and then also with 15-14 in 16. With that, the final place for Dekker Keukens was already assured.
The team captain and sponsor Carl Verhoeven and his wife Astrid: cheering the cup win