SLUISKIL - The expectations were not that high, but half way, after eleven round in Buffalo league, the former champion Dallinga.com from Sluiskil tops the ranking. The five or six teams in the upper half seem to battle it out for the title. Dallinga, with Frédéric Caudron as its star player, is the best so far after some missteps of the other teams in the leading group.
The Zealand team had a great double weekend, because after the win over A1 Biljart without Caudron on Saturday, the team also bested one of its main competitors, STZ Zundert (now called Medisch Centrum Breda) with the maximum score: 8-0.
Frédéric Caudron was the best man in the team beating Roland Forthomme 40-20 in 12 innings and a run of sixteen. Jean Paul de Bruijn also starred with a win over Peter Ceulemans: 40-29 in 20. The success of the new leader was completed by Steven van Acker, who played Barry van Beers to his second loss of the weekend (40- 27 in 26) and Patrick Vasseur with a win over Raymon Groot: 40-30 in 32. The final score says it all: none of the players from Zundert gathered more than 30 points. Dallinga shone with a wonderful team average: 1,777.
Dallinga leads after 11 rounds with 17 points ahead of Eureka Billard, that lost another point, with 16, HCR Prinsen and Medisch Centrum Breda with 15 points. A1 Biljarts is four points down, Buffalo.nl five points.
Eureka Billard spoiled an unexpected point in the match against Burgmans Biljars, Prinsen shared the points with A1 Biljarts in which Eddy Merckx defeated Dick Jaspers 40-34 in 20 innings. Henk Blauwblomme was the better of Raymund Swertz 40-25 in 25. Jelle Pijl, in 24 innings vs Gerwin Valentijn and Anno de Kleine who won in 24 innings against Martien van der Spoel took points for Prinsen.
Glenn Hoffman was in an excellent form beating Nikos Polychronopoulos 40-33 in 23 innings. Martin Spoormans is already unbeatable in the Dutch league for some weeks. The Belgians was on his best again playing the best man of the Saturday round, Jean van Erp with his 21-run, decidedly 40-30 in 18 innings.
Tayfun Tasdemir couldn't share in the draw that 't Hartje took in the match against Eekhoorn. Frans van Kuyk had one of his better days and defeated the Turk 40-33 in 21 innings. Kurt Ceulemans also shone for Eekhoorn with a win over Davy van Havere: 40-33 in 27. Ad Koorevaar and Frank Martens scored for 't Hartje in the matches against Miatton and Heeremans in 35 and 33 innings.
TOVV 2, with Uymaz and Kokkoris on the first positions, was too strong for Bousema Lochem and took a 6-2 victory. Stefan Galla was the best winner of the day in 23 innings. Birol Uymaz won the Turkish encounter against Murat Naci Coklu 40-36 in 31.