Dutch Kozoom league fires up the tension on top

Who remembers the day when SIS Schoonmaak was not on top of the Dutch premier league three-cushion, the Kozoom league? The start of the top team, with the aspirations of its manager Carl Verhoeven, has kept the competition at a great distance, because especially in the days with Jaspers and Merckx as proud leaders, SIS Schoonmaak rarely made even little missteps. This Sunday, on the third day of the premier league, the top team was vulnerable at times, but the SIS team was saved by Raimond Burgman. The routine player, who is struggling with his form, suddenly got a rebound and levelled with six in the equalizer against Steven van Acker. Therefore, SIS Schoonmaak against Dallinga did not end in a draw, but SIS still won cleverly 5-3.

The ranking in the Kozoom league drew slightly further in the lead with two teams (SIS Schoonmaak and Zundert) with the full six match points and Cues&Darts in pursuit with 1 point behind. Bousema and Aartsbouw suffered losses. Eddy Merckx was the star player on this Sunday with a demonstration of his class against Jean Paul de Bruijn: 40-17 in 12 innings, after Merckx had missed his match point by a hair in the 10th inning. It was almost a Belgian day in the SIS arena anyway, as Peter De Backer beat Raymund Swertz 40-38 in 31 and Steven van Acker seemed so masterfully on his way to a win over Raimond Burgman. However, the North Holland player, after an unlucky day at the Grand Prix, managed to outdo himself with a top run of six for the precious draw (40-40).

At another venue, the 'dying seconds' of a match were also so wonderfully exciting. J&F Auto's battled for its first full win against Dekker in Sprundel with a nice 4-2 score on the board, as Kay de Zwart had won against Dave Christiani and Herman van Daalen against Henk Blauwblomme. Two coryphies were still at the table: Gerwin Valentijn and Therese Klompenhouwer. The Brabant paver, who fortunately extended his career by another year, had a mighty final sprint when the scoreboard pointed 33-33. Gerwin scored smoothly and brought the score to 40-33 with his 7th point (a nice renversé). Therese, though still having an equalizer, also got off to a brisk start and seemed to tie the game: and thus give J&F the full win. What a misfortune, however: Therese's third ball, the red one, ended up deep in the corner, making the carom almost impossible. As it turned out, she missed the seventh and thus the draw. The final score in the match: 4-4.

So two leaders, one chaser and a long middle order led by Team Eekhoorn and Burgmans Biljarts. Eddy Merckx with 40 in 12 by far the best player on the third day, followed by two Spanish guest players: Ruben Legazpi, who won against Jeffrey Jorissen 40-29 in 20) and Sergio Jimenez, winner against Dirk Weeremans 40-24 in 21. And also in 21 innings, Eddy Leppens won against Birol Uymaz with 40-32. Furthermore, apart from Eddy Merckx's shine, notable scores on this day were Kay de Zwart's victory, after a few mediocre weeks back on the sidelines, over Dave Christiani (40-37 in 26), Tom Persyn's win, an unexpected standout in these weeks, against Thorsten Frings (40-28 in 34), Glenn Hofman's resounding victory over Martin Horn (40-27 in 23) after the Hague- player's good second place in the Grand Prix on Saturday. And the win by Eddy Leppens, who beat Birol Uymaz in a PBA match by 40-32 in 21.

Of the two leaders, SIS Schoonmaak owed the 5-3 win to Eddy Merckx and Martien van der Spoel and Raimond Burgman's draw. Zundert is in the lead thanks to wins by Sergio Jimenez, Roland Forthomme against Ronny Brants (40-34 in 26) and Sam van Etten over Ad Broeders (40-22 in 27). At Cues&Darts, not only Hofman and Legazpi shone. Jef Philipoom beat his compatriot Johan Loncelle 40-31 in 24. Team Eekhoorn beat Team Nachtwacht 7-1 with Peter Ceulemans as best winner against Erwin Kivits (40-36 in 23) and Jerry Hermans as strikingly generous winner against Frits Broeders: 40-12 in 25. Apart from Leppens, Burgmans also saw Arno de Kleine and Bart Ceulemans win against Davy van Havere and Ronny Lindemann in 26 and 28 innings. Marco Janssen and Roland Uijtdewillegen drew in 34 innings.