ZUNDERT – Glenn Hofman, a young man from The Hague plays the Dutch league in Sluiskil, on fourth board, and he looks up in awe to his team captain Frédéric Caudron. Still, that is no guarantee for the world number 1 that he will have a free ride against his talented teammate.
In the X-mas tournament, the two met in the first round of their flight. The Belgian did not have his best day, the young Dutchman did: he beat Caudron 50 – 39 (run of 10) in 28 innings. ,,I anm very happy'', said a delighted Hofman.
In the same flight, (D) Peter Ceulemans played Jean van Erp, the Belgian winning (50-45 in 32), despite the high run of the day by the man from Brabant (12).
Poule A has two rounds under its belt, and advancing chances begin to show. Tayfun Tasdemir is as good as qualified for the quarters by beating Barry van Beers (50-43 in 37) and Roland Forthomme (50-27 in 27).
Richard Bitalis is the third guy who is in with a shot: the Frenchman lost to Forthomme by a point and beat Barry van Beers in the last match of the evening (50-31 in 27).
Frans van Kuyk, back in the X-mas tourney after a longish absence, played the best match of the day in flight B, beating his teammate Dave Christiani (50-26 in 21, 2.173 average). Raimond Burgman had a flawless start in this flight, against Martin Spoormans (50-30 in 29).
In flight C Eddy Merckx beat Harry van de Ven (50-40 in 29) and Eddy Leppens overcame Jef Philipoom (50-27 in 35).