OOSTERHOUT/DEN HAAG - 50-year-old Turkish billiard player Ismail Yasin had an excellent performance in the Dutch premier league this weekend with two stunning victories. He beat former PBA player Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-35 in 30 innings on Saturday of the double round and current PBA player Eddy Leppens 40-28 in 16 on Sunday, one of the best games of this sixth round of play. SIS Schoonmaak remains in the lead after Sunday's 7-1 win against A1 Biljarts, Bousema moves into a shared second place after the win over J&F Auto's, Cues&Darts won the match vs Zundert and Dekker/AP played a draw against Dallinga (4-4).
Ismail Yasin, this weekend's most outstanding player, who plays for Woonwonder/Het Hartje, has a billiard centre in Konya, 500 kilometrers from Istanbul, and travels up and down for his matches in the Dutch premier league. He commented this Sunday afternoon: ''I feel so happy after my two wins against the PBA pros. For the first one, against Jean Paul de Bruijn, I had to fight hard in a tactical game. On Sunday, against Eddy Leppens, I faced a lot of difficult positions, because Leppens was defending all the way, but I was able to break through with a lot of bank shots.'' The PBA'er even failed to get through in the closing stages of the match: 40-28.
Woonwonder's 6-2 victory over Burgmans Biljarts puts Het Hartje's team in a nice fifth place. The team boss, Peter Broeders, assures: ''We make no serious illusions, but we've made a wonderful start against some of the top teams.'' He points out that Ismail Yasin, this weekend's standout, is even not a front-runner. ''Berkay Karakurt and Carlos Crespo, when they play, are the leading players, Ismail is our second man.''
The premier league closed the sixth round with SIS Schoonmaak leading with 10 points out of six, followed by three teams with eight points: Bousema Lochem, Dekker/AP and Cues&Darts. Bousema took the most surprising win in the away match against J&F Auto's. For the Hague team, Jeffrey Jorissen drew against Martin Horn in 26 innings, Glenn Hofman equalised with 1 against Johan Loncelle, also in 26 innings. The Bousema success came at the table by Stefan Galla's win against Therese Klompenhouwer, who could not shine like Saturday and lost 40-29 in 41. Frans van Schaik beat Herman van Daalen 40-31 in 29.
SIS Schoonmaak maintained its lead by a 7-1 victory, which was mainly due to Tom Löwe's win over Kay de Zwart (40-38 in 40) and Toine Dekkers' equal score against Addy Wienk (40-40 in 56). While the averages were not too high, the match points were important, as Eddy Merckx won in the second game against Ronny Lindemann 40-28 in 24 and Raymund Swertz kept the speed with his leader recording a 40-23 win, also in 24 innings, against Jelle Pijl.
Cues&Darts faced a strong STZ Zundert, with Polychronopoulos and Forthomme leading the team. Ruben Legazpi managed to draw with the Greek (40-40 in 34) and Huub Wilkowski beat his opponent Thorsten Frings 40-38 in 32 before the break. Roland Forthomme had one of his highlights against Pierre Soumagne, winning 40-17 in 17, but Volkan Cetin secured the maximum win for Cues&Darts by beating Francis Forton 40-34 in 41.
Another important match, between Dekker and Dallinga, ended in a tie. Jean Paul de Bruijn recovered for the Zeeland team from Saturday's loss, beating Dave Christiani 40-34 in 21. The other, generous Zeeland winner was Steven van Acker against Gerwin Valentijn 40-18 in 20. Henk Blauwblomme scored another win for Dekker in his match against Berry Dallinga with a narrow margin: 40-38 in 35.
For Woonwonder, with its splendid leader Ismail Yasin, including a run of 12 and his 16 innings match, Harrie van de Ven and Frank Martens were the other winners against Davy van Havere and Anno de Kleine in 23 and 33 innings. Marco Janssen beat Martin Spoormans, who has yet to find his usual rhythm, 40-31 in 36.
Team Eekhoorn beat last-ranked Post Luchtkanalen 6-2. That was not an really great performance for Eekhoorn, but Peter Ceulemans won in 44 innings, Frans van Kuyk in 31 and Kurt Ceulemans in 33. Only Jerry Hermans had to drop out in the final against Wilco van Wijk: 40-39 in 35.
The ranking after six rounds:
1 SIS Schoonmaak 6-10
2 Bousema Lochem 6-8
2 Dekker/AP 6-8
2 Cues&Darts 6-8
5 Woonwonder/Hartje 6-7
6 Burgmans Biljarts 6-6
6 Eekhoorn 6-6
6 J&F Auto's 6-6
6 Dallinga 6-6
10 Zundert 6-4
11 A1 Biljarts 6-3
12 Post Luchtkanalen 6-0
Ismail Yasin, the star in the double weekend in Holland
Barry van Beers, strong win against his former Belgian team mate Peter De Backer