The Belgian team competition counts two frontrunners in the midweek standings with an uneven number of matches played. Op de Meir triumphed on Tuesday evening in the away match against T's Place by the maximum score 8-0 and joined the other leading team, Herstalien, for the time being: both with 12 match points, Herstal still need to catch up one match at home against Bruges next Friday evening.
The leaders of the teams in the top half have been showing great form in the World Cups for several weeks. Eddy Merckx (started in Seoul in the first group stage with 2.418), Peter Ceulemans (reached semi-finals in Veghel) and Roland Forthomme (eliminated in Veghel by Peter Ceulemans in the quarter-finals) lead three teams competing for the top spots.
Roland Forthomme is leader at Herstalien, Peter Ceulemans at Mr 100 and Eddy Merckx at Biljart Express, the reigning champion in Belgium.
Eddy Merckx returned from the World Cup on Monday morning after a long flight from Seoul and was already at the billiard table in the evening in the away match against Kortrijk. The Belgian from the top of the world rankings was still struggling with a jet lag, but shone in the final part of his match against Ronny Brants, when Merckx finished 8 and 6 on a 38-26 deficit. That earned Kortrijk another 6-2 win. By the way, the standout in that match was Philippe Vandendriessche from Kortrijk, who beat Frans van Kuyk 40-21 in 18 innings. Eddy Merckx, Dave Christiani and Guy van Litsenborg were the winners for Biljart Express in 31, 31 and 50 innings.
Biljart Express moves to 1 match point from the two leaders with that win. BC Op de Meir had an easy opponent in T's Place on Tuesday evening thanks to wins by Jef Philipoom, Barry van Beers, Roland Uijtdewillegen and Wesley de Jaeger in 42, 29, 32 and 38 innings against Peter De Backer, Huub Wilkowski, Joey de Kok and Patrick Kesteloot. T's Place, having a strong start in the league, has now dropped to 7th place.
De Witte Molen had a couple of strong matches and moved up to sixth place. The St Niklaas team won the away match against De Leug (the number 5) no less than 0-8 and had beaten TBA 7-1 in the previous week. In the match against De Leug, which had an off-day, Johan Loncelle was the winning leader against Davy van Havere (40-37 in 29), Francis Forton won vs Therese Klompenhouwer (40-24 in 35), Ad Broeders vs Andy de Bondt (40-25 in 31) and Benny Ceulemans vs Mik Durwael (40-17 in 24).
Other results from recent weeks in Belgium:
Op de Meir-Herstal 4-4
De Ploeg-Kortrijk 2 4-4
Mr. 100-T's Place 8-0
De Leug-Kortrijk 2 8-0
Biljart Express-De Ploeg 7-1.
Wednesday's standings:
- Herstal 7-12
- Op de Meir 8-12
- Biljart Express 8-11
- Mr 100 7-10
- De Leug 8-9
- De Witte Molen 8-9
- T's Place -6
- Kortrijk 1 8-6
- De Ploeg 8-5
- Bruges 7-5
- Kortrijk 2 8-5
- TBA Biljartpalace 7-2.