OOSTERHOUT - The high level at the World Cup continued with flying colors in the Kozoom league one day later. The leading team Babbelz is unstoppable so far, as in the tough away match, the Oosterhout derby against Team Eekhoorn, the Caudron train was unbeatable at all tables: 0-8. The Belgian leader himself won against Nick Polychronopoulos, Berkay Karakurt beat Peter Ceulemans, Dion Nelin was the better of Frans van Kuyk and Davy van Havere defeated Jerry Hermans. The top two Belgians were again the top winners in the Dutch league. Caudron won in 12 innings, Merckx in 14.
The two best Dutchmen were less successful in this sixth round of play. Dick Jaspers (Paperclip) was trounced by Spaniard Segio Jimenez (Zundert) 40-34 in 22, Glenn Hofman, with bad feelings back from the World Cup, was also treated to a hefty loss by Eddy Merckx: 40-19 in 14.
Babbelz, because of the name a newcomer to Dutch billiards, dominated the premier league impressively in the first weeks. The promising start has been no coincidence, as was evident in the away match against one of its rivals. The 0-8 in the derby against Team Eekhoorn comes hard on the opponent, who started with aspirations and thus squandered precious match points. The way in which, with four wins for Babbelz, is painful. The match wins were all convincing: Caudron with the 40-31 in 12 against Polychronopoulos, Berkay Karakurt stayed 5 points ahead of Peter Ceulemans in 30, Dion Nelin stayed well ahead of Frans van Kuyk with 40-24 in 21 and Davy van Havere won against Jerry Hermans 40-27 in 33.
Zundert and Cues&Darts remained close to the leaders on 1 match point with Cues&Darts winning against Aartsbouw with Pierre Soumagne and Therese Klompenhouwer (a nice 40 in 22 against Wesley de Jaeger). Only Glenn Hofman was far behind Eddy Merckx with 40-19 in 14, while Ruben Legazpi and Turgay Orak played to a draw in 21 innings. Zundert kept the match points at home against Paperclip 6-2 and did good business with, among others, Sergio Jimenez beating Dick Jaspers 40-34 in 22. Thorsten Frings and Francis Forton took care for the other wins.
SIS/Vervoort suffered one of its rare defeats in the premier league as a 3-5 was on the scoreboard at home against RCN Nieuwegein. Gerwin Valentijn was by far the best man of the day with a win over Harrie van de Ven: 40-30 in 16. Raymon Swertz went on to win against Dave Christiani 40-34 in 20 and Wilco van Wijk played a draw against Henk Blauwblomme in 31. For Nieuwegein, Barry van Beers was another winner: he beat Martien van der Spoel 40-38 in 31.
Bousema was on a roll against De Biljartacademie (8-0) and spoiled its own spectators above all with the Martin Horn-Roland Forthomme match. The German leader shone with 40-29 in 16, with Gökhan Salman scoring in 21, Jeffrey Jorissen in 27 and Stefan Galla in 35 innings.
De Biljartacademie remained at the bottom on 1 match point, J&F Auto's/Jorissen took away one point in Sluiskil against Dallinga. Steven van Acker was the best man for the home team with a win over Kay de Zwart (40-33 in 19). Jean Paul de Bruijn squandered a 16-1 lead against Murat Gökmen and lost 40-32 in 29 innings. Peter De Backer knocked Paul Bruijstens 40-27 in 29 and Herman van Daalen scored for the Hague team against Berry Dallinga 40-36 in 44.