DEN HAAG/SLUISKIL - The younger generation can look back on a good day in the Eredivisie, and Eureka Billard presented itself as a candidate for the top-3. A1 Biljarts had a bad start of the season with two painful losses, Dallinga, with Frédéric Caudron and Jean Paul de Bruijn, played on a high level in their home match against De Eekhoorn. The team of TOVV 2 produced an upset in their match against the first team of that same room in Vlaardingen: a 6-2 win over the big guns. The second day of play produced some separation in the table. Eureka Billiard and STZ Zundert are the two teams with the maximum 4 points, and are now joint leaders. The new Eureka formation beat A1 Biljarts 7-1 (with only Eddy Merckx winning a point, he drew with Martin Horn, 40-40 in 34), and for Zundert Roland Forthomme was the only player who lost (to Stefan Galla, 40-37 in 30).
Glenn Hofman, Steven van Acker, Raymund Swertz and Raymon Groot were the exponents of the younger generation. Hofman, the player from The Hague, shone against Peter De Backer with a 40-22 win in 16 innings (high run 10). Steven van Acker, who complained about bad form before the match, still managed to fire on all cylindersd against Kenny Miatton, a match that could be seen as a rematch of last year's small table final at the EC in Brandenburg. Miatton won that one, this time Van Acker was in control. His run of thirteen in the penultimate inning (the 40th wa a long rail-first, just missed) did Miatton in: 40-19 in 18.
Frédéric Caudron did some coughing as he walked around the billiard against Frans van Kuyk. ,,That cold I had even before the World Cup in Korea is still not gone, it has been three weeks. I'm still on antibiotics'', said the Belgian captain of the Dallinga team after the 6-2 victory over de Eekhoorn. Caudron had a slow-ish start, but the final score of 40-34 (in 21) was convincing. Man of the match was Jean Paul de Bruijn, who played Kurt Ceulemans: the Belgian had a comfortable 38-31 lead when De Bruijn ran out with a flawless 9. Ceulemans missed the chance to equalize.
't Hartje/Van Wanrooy and Burgmans Biljarts shared the points, thanks mostly to a surprise victory by Christian Rudolph over Tayfun Tasdemir: 40-38 in 21. Davy van Havere and Ad Koorevaar scored for the home team. Koorevaar won 40-27 in 47, van Havere did better, using 32 innings.
Buffalo.nl thanked Glenn Hofman and booked this season's first full win. Jean van Erp and Jeffrey Jorissen, against Jelle Pijl and Anno de Kleine in 38 and 35 innings, were the team's two other winners. Raymund Swertz made Herman van Daalen's life miserable, with a 40-36 in 34.
Peter Ceulemans made the difference against Gökhan Salman as early as the second inning, when he ran a nice 9. The Belgian finished with superiority: 40-26 in 24 which made him the best player of his team. Barry van Beers also did well against Therese Klompenhouwer, winning 40-26 in 26.
Dave Christiani has played well in these early weeks of the season, both in the Netherlands and in Belgium. he was never in danger in his match against Gerwin Valentijn (40-28 in 24). Raimond Burgman booked a 40-31 in 21 against Martien van der Spoel, to be the best player in his team. Martin Spoormans was the second best player of the round (behind Glenn Hofman) when he used 17 innings to dismiss Kay de Zwart: 40-14. It did TOVV/Royal Pro no good: they were painfully tripped by the reserves of TOVV2. Sander Jonen beat Emilio Sciacca (40-31 in 28), Ger Windt saw off Frans van Schaik (40-36 in 30) and Marcel Scheffer got the better of Danny Molier, 40-31 in 43.