OOSTERHOUT/UDEN - The double weekend in the Dutch premier three-cushion league, the Kozoom league, slightly strengthened the front-runner's position again. The Babbelz team led the standings on Saturday at the halfway point of the two-day event one match point ahead, after the Sunday matches, the margin had increased to three points. The small, mostly half-misses by the subtop teams changed the standings at the top quite nicely. Six teams share the second position with 10 points after this eighth round. Babbelz, frontrunner with 13, also didn’t come through the weekend unscathed, but the draw on Saturday was followed by a win on Sunday against J&F Auto's. The double winners this weekend were SIS/Vervoort, Aartsbouw Domicili and RCN Nieuwegein. Eddy Merckx was once again the best player over the weekend. The Aartsbouw leading player won in 15 innings against Murat Gökmen (Sunday's winner against Caudron) on Saturday, one day later Merckx went out again in 15 innings, this time against his Belgian rival Forthomme 40-31. Raimond Burgman dragged over the maximum match points for SIS/Vervoort in Sunday's match against Cues&Darts. With a 4-0 lead, Burgman won against Spaniard Legazpi, who squandered the match with a makeable miss and then also missed his last ball for the equalizer.
Dick Jaspers was the best winner on Sunday, winning 40-14 against Dave Christiani in 11 innings (3.636 average). Glenn Hofman was the only winner for Cues&Darts on Sunday: not only in the French competition, Hofman also gave a flawless exhibition of his current form in the Netherlands. The victory over Jean van Erp was insufficient for team wins on Sunday, because Legazpi, Wilkowski and Klompenhouwer lost to Burgman, Swertz and Van der Spoel. As a result, Cues&Darts gained only 1 match point from two encounters.
Not only Cues&Darts, also Eekhoorn and especially Zundert lost expensive points. Team Eekhoorn did recover on Sunday against Bousema with a 6-2 win. The most special match in that encounter was played between Peter Ceulemans and Gökhan Salman on Sunday. The Belgian international coming-man played tough and uninhibited, the Turkish World Cup player was swept away with an improbable score: 40-5 in 17. Peter Ceulemans commented: ‘’I defended well and scored fiercely, my opponent only got difficult positions.‘’ Among others, Ceulemans made an 11, two 4’s and one 6, Salman recorded 13 zeros in 17 innings.
For leader Babbelz, Dion Nelin, Savas Bulut and Roland Uijtdewillegen won their games against Kay de Zwart (40-30 in 30), Paul Bruijstens (40-21 in 29) and Herman van Daalen (40-24 in 31). Frédéric Caudron was painfully beaten by Murat Gökmen, an unorthodox playing Hague recruit, who could cheer loudly when he was the hero of the home crowd for this day.
SIS/Vervoort ousted Cues&Darts from the second position in the league table in a capital match. That was most of all to the credit of Raimond Burgman, who remained cool in the final battle with Ruben Legazpi. For Team Eekhoorn, Nick Polychronopoulos won the winning match against Jeffrey Jorissen 40-24 in 26 and Peter Ceulemans experienced a miraculous match.
Sam van Etten secured one match point for Zundert by beating Jean Paul de Bruijn in the deciding game: 40-25 in 18. Steven van Acker and Berry Dallinga were winners for the Zeeland team, Rik van Beers beat Peter De Backer.
RCN Nieuwegein recorded its second win of the weekend by beating Paperclip 2-6 in an away match. Dick Jaspers was crowned man of the match with his win in 11 innings, Barry van Beers, Gerwin Valentijn and Henk Blauwblomme pulled the match points over the line for Nieuwegein.
Aartsbouw climbed to the top three of the rankings by winning on Sunday against De Biljartacademie. The Brabant team could be proud of his leading player Eddy Merckx, who shone in a superb weekend for his team.
The standings after eight rounds:
- Team Babbelz 13
- Aartsbouw 10
- SIS/Vervoort 10
- RCN Nieuwegein 10
- Cues&Darts 10
- Team Eekhoorn 10
- Zundert 10
- Bousema 8
- Paperclip 6
- Dallinga 6
- J&F Auto’s 2
- De Biljartacademie 1