DEN HAAG - The Hague team J&F Auto's ran into a merciless beating on the last match dayin the Dutch premier league: 8-0. Nevertheless, there were smiles and tears afterwards, as the team line up crawled through the eye of the needle and remains in the highest division, the Kozoom league. Burgmans Biljarts and Team Nachtwacht relegated directly, Aartsbouw Sprundel plays a promotion/relegation match against Post Luchtkanalen. After the final round, SIS Schoonmaak finished on top with 34 points ahead of Team Eekhoorn with 32, Topbiljart Zundert with 30 and Cues&Darts with 26. The first match in the playoffs between Zundert and Cues&Darts will be played in Zundert on Thursday evening at 7pm.
Jorissen's Hague team was wiped out 8-0 in the away match against Bousema and received unexpected good news. Because Aartsbouw Sprundel did not win against DKM Tools, but drew 4-4, J&F Auto's and Aartsbouw Sprundel finish equal in points. J&F finished 9th in the league table, having won 67 games and Aartsbouw 10th with 65 wins. Team Nachtwacht closed the league as the last one despite a 6-2 win against Dallinga.
The final day of play in the Kozoom league featured five high-profile matches. Eddy Merckx was again the best man, the same as he was this Saturday. The Belgian won Sunday against Thorsten Frings 40-20 in 12 innings (3.333 average). Merckx did the same on Saturday against Dave Christiani with 40-9 in 12 innings. Other great winners on the final day were Raymund Swertz, who won against Francis Forton 40-13 in 13, Jean Paul de Bruijn, winner in 13 innings against Erwin Kivits 40-13 with a final run of 15 and Barry van Beers, who beat Frans van Kuyk 40-18 in 14.
Bousema/JBScues, which just missed out on the playoffs, won its last game 8-0 from J&F Auto's in a very balanced match (26, 28, 31 and 33 innings).
Topbiljart Zundert and SIS Schoonmaak, two of the teams in the playoffs, played a draw against each other on Sunday. Merckx and Swertz were the stars in the SIS team against Forton and Frings, Merckx in 12, Swertz in 13 innings. Sam van Etten beat Jean van Erp, Danny Geysen won against Martien van der Spoel.
Team Eekhoorn closed with a 6-2 defeat against Dekker/AP Sprundel. For Eekhoorn, Nikos Polychronopoulos was best man of the day with a win over Dave Christiani: 40-30 in 18. Barry van Beers shone against Frans van Kuyk, Gerwin Valentijn beat Kurt Ceulemans and Henk Blauwblomme won against Jerry Hermans. Cues&Darts won in its last match facing Burgmans Biljarts 8-0. Glenn Hofman, Pierre Soumagne, Huub Wilkowski and Jack van Peer were winners in 24 and three times 27 innings.
DKM Tools, which had a flashy final sprint and finished in the middle ground, had to deal with an incident around Birol Uymaz in this double weekend. The Turk was immediately dismissed from the team after Saturday and was not allowed to play on Sunday. According to John Verkooijen, the team boss, Uymaz ‘did things that cannot be allowed.’’ Verkooijen has closed the Uymaz chapter and does not want to talk about it further. DKM Tools will enter the premier league next season with Frédéric Caudron, Dion Nelin, Ronny Lindemann, Davy van Havere, Roland Uijtdewillegen, Jack Wijnen and Eddy Willems. The team sponsors are still looking for reinforcements, but cannot report any further news yet.