DEN HAAG - The Hague billiards team J&F Auto's is up for sale, looking for a new playing venue, but is certainly showing power to the end. In front of its own Hague fans, the team put itself in the shop window of the Dutch premier league this Sunday. J&F Auto's, where Jeffrey Jorissen will leave for Bousema Lochem next season, beat the frontrunners SIS Schoonmaak 6-2 in the sixteenth round and is slowly moving up to the middle of the table. The unapproachable SIS team is losing some of its lead, but still maintains the safe margin against Dekker and Cues&Darts at six points behind. J&F Auto's victory over the league leaders came thanks to victories by Jeffrey Jorissen over Eddy Merckx (40-33 in 26), Glenn Hofman over Jean van Erp (40-30 in 24) and Joey de Kok over Martien van der Spoel (40-34 in 34). Raimond Burgman signed for the only SIS win by beating Therese Klompenhouwer 40-29 in 28.
It was not the first win for J&F against SIS, as the away match was also won by the Hague side this season. Jeffrey Jorissen: ’’We prove once again that we can beat the best teams when we are at full strength.'' J&F Auto's is now in 9th position and can move up even further in the coming matches. Jeffrey Jorissen: ’’I want to announce the news that I am leaving the team, but of course we would like to stay in the premier league. There is a chance that Therese and Joey will stay and another player will be recruited later. Nothing is certain about next year's location. It is even possible that the team will still stay in The Hague with a slightly reduced budget.''
The leading player, Jeffrey Jorissen, will enter an environment where he will soon feel at home. ''It is only an hour's drive from where I live.'' Bousema Lochem wants to keep the current team (with Horn, Galla, Loncelle, Van Schaik) and, with Jorissen as reinforcement, have a go at the top positions.
The top-three teams in the premier league did not come out unscathed in the sixteenth round. SIS Schoonmaak did not have its best day, but Dekker also lost an important match point in its home match against Burgmans Biljarts: 4-4. The leaders Dave Christiani and Barry van Beers were both beaten. Eddy Leppens won to Christiani 40-32 in 22, Anno de Kleine beat Van Beers 40-23 in 17 innings. Gerwin Valentijn and Henk Blauwblomme won for Dekker against Marco Janssen and Johan Roijers in 27 and 21 innings. Despite that 4-4, Burgmans remains in tenth place, which would lead to play for preservation at the end of the league against one number two from the first division.
Cues&Darts came second with Dekker thanks to a 6-2 win over Post Luchtkanalen. The Tilburg victories came from Huub Wilkowski, Wesley de Jaeger and Volkan Cetin in 24, 34 and 31 innings. Only Cues leader Pierre Soumagne was surprised by Leslie van Neyen: 40-36 in 29 innings.
Dallinga approached the top five with a remarkable 7-1 win in Sluiskil against Woonwonder/'t Hartje. The Zeeland players had a better final shot in two matches. Peter De Backer battled his way alongside Erwin Kivits after a mediocre start and even beat his opponent 40-38 in 30. And Barry Dallinga levelled the score with 2 against Frits Broeders in the equalizer. For Dallinga, Jean Paul de Bruijn won against Ismaïl Yasin (40-31 in 23) and Steven van Acker against Harrie van de Ven: 40-25 in 22.
The Brabant derby between Zundert and Team Eekhoorn remained in balance, with Zundert climbing to fourth position. Team Eekhoorn, together with Dallinga, is 6th in the rankings. Peter Ceulemans (Eekhoorn) and Thorsten Frings (Zundert) were the standouts of the encounter.
Ceulemans went past Roland Forthomme (40-29 in 21) in a nice fight, Frings won sublimely and amply against Frans van Kuyk 40-16 in 19. On the other positions, Sam van Etten was trounced after a costly miss at 37-34 by a run of 6 from Jerry Hermans: 40-37 in 36. Francis Forton beat Kurt Ceulemans 40-33 in 28.