DOETINCHEM - The Eureka Billiard team has won the title, in its first and also last year in the Buffalo league. The led the table after 22 rounds of regular play, and this Sunday also won the play-off. In a double encounter with MCB, played in Doetinchem, they scored a 6-2 win followed by a 4-4 draw, which was good enough to win them the championship.
Dave Christiani, Raimond Burgman and John Tijssens were the match winners in the final weekend. Only the super-sub lead player from Germany, Martin Horn, could not win either of his matches with Roland Forthomme. This was the first national team title for Dave Christiani and John Tijssens, Raimond Burgman had already won previously in other teams. Last year, then named Distel Biljarts, this foursome won the Dutch Cup.
Eureka Billard played in the highest 3-cushion division (Buffalo League) for one season. The sponsor of the team, based in Maarssen, ends his committment at the end of this season, so the players move on to other teams. Dave Christiani and John Tijssens will play in Hoeven next year, Raimond Burgman will go to The Hague. Raimond Burgman and John Tijssens played all 22 matches for Eureka this season, Dave Christiani played 21, Martin Horn 3. Ronny Brants, Henk Habraken, Adrie Demming, Paul Bruijstens and Hans van der Wurf shared the remaining matches between them.
For John Tijssens, player and team captain, this Sunday brought mixed emotions. ,,Ik had been celebrating my 49th birthday until about 3 AM, and was woken up around 6, because my father had been rushed to a hospital by ambulance. He was later brought to Den Bosch, with a serious kidney malfunction.'' The player from Brabant later commented that he was "happy with the title", but not in the mood for a championship party.
Dave Christiani, the board 1 player, had the best season of his career. ,It's remarkable, because this year I had all the strongest opponents.'' Raimond Burgman was a rock solid second board player, who is no stranger to winning team titles. John Tijssens: ,,We were a strong collective this season, with a string of good wins.'' Dave Christiani: ,,We were in the lead for 21 of the 22 rounds. And still, you could end up losing the title in the play-off. Luckily, that did not happen.''
The battle with Medisch Centrum Breda was most interesting on Saturday, when two of the four matches ended with just a single point in it: 40-39 twice. Eureka took a 6-2 lead with 12 caroms to their credit. On Sunday, that score did not change much when Tijssens won for Eureka and van Beers won for MCB. In the second session, Martin Horn took a monster lead against Forthomme (19-0 in 3), but in the end he lost 40-38 in 22. Dave Christiani then got Eureka across the line when he won his one-sided match against Peter Ceulemans, 40-22 in 31.
A name for the new team is not yet known, but the players are. Dave Christiani and John Tijssens will play in Hoeven, where they will be joined by Eddy Merckx and Gerwin Valentijn. That foursome will surely be a candidate for the national team title, once again.