ANTALYA - Who will remember Jean Paul de Bruijn's opponent in his first match for the World Cup. The Austrian Oswald Luksch played a match he will never forget in his further life. The Dutchman allowed him to walk nine times to the table: he scored only three times...!
The match score has been rarely seen in a World Cup: 30-3 in 9 innings. The Dutchman made a one man show of his performance and finished the game with 3.333 average.
What does it mean about the form of JP? Maybe a lot, but certainly not all. Jean Paul de Bruijn is not exactly a player of regularity in three cushion. He is, for sure, in one cushion, but has too many highs and lows in three cushion.
The Dutchman nevertheless has found his rhythm again after some minor weeks. He seemed to be a serious threat for Dick Jaspers in the Grand Prix of Osdorp last week, but lost unlucky by penalties against Harrie van de Ven.
Thirty in nine innings is obviously a formidable start: the best so far in three days of competition. His second opponent is the Turk Idbrahim Erciyas, who lost his first game against Luksch.
Group H will get ready for a blistering showdown in the early evening. Ronny Lindemann had a termendous start in his first match against Asbey Kuslu: 30 in 12 innings. But Glenn Hofmann, the third man in the group, who defeated Dick Jaspers by penalties last week in the Dutch Grand Prix, played on the same level as his opponent for the evening. The young Dutchman also won in 12 innings (2.500).
Volkan Cimentepe (1.500) will be a tough opponent for Pierre Soumagne. Christian Rudolph had a good start and Peter Ceulemans won his match against Ihab El Messery. The Belgian however needs a victory over Jean David Zapata for the qualification.