Jean van Erp: ambitions, but not for the title

MALLE/LIER - This was the week in which Frans van Kuyk made his fantastic race of 21, Mister 100 played a great team average (1,855), Biljart Express, Frans van Kuyk's team, slipped further down the ranking and Den Eik team won for the fourth time and is the only team on the lead of the rankings The Belgian team competition is now four weeks underway, it promises to be an exciting battle for the championship. ''We do have ambitions with Den Eik, but I don't believe we have a chance of winning the title,'' assured Jean van Erp, who was the man on top on the position of Eddy Merckx in the match against TBA Biljartpalace.

So, who else are the big contenders in Belgium? The striking thing about the matches so far is, that the first days of the week are scheduled as the playing days, but Herstalien plays its home matches on Friday evening. That means, this team with Roland Forthomme, still plays Op de Meir on Friday and the rankings are still slightly skewed. But the contenders? Jean van Erp: ''I still rate Op de Meir again, playing with Eddy Leppens in the coming weeks, so also in the matches against Herstalien and next week against us. And beyond that? Mister 100 maybe, and De Leug. Biljart Express is getting a bit too far behind now, they have lost Merckx, therefore they are no longer directly competing at the top.''

Den Eik itself plays with a rotating line-up (Eddy Merckx and Jean van Erp 15 matches of 22) and has not really met the other title favorites yet. ''It's with some luck that we are now at the top,'' Jean van Erp concludes. ''Last week Merckx lost to Brants, but the rest of the team makes up for it. This week things could also have gone worse, but fortunately Ludo Dielis won his match against Hendrickx.''

Richard Bitalis is a special story: the French veteran underwent major surgery, felt himself on the verge of death, but has resurrected. ''It is incredibly clever what he is showing,'' his teammates think. Jean van Erp: ''When I will be 75, I surely will not play 1 average anymore, but Bitalis is back, standing proud and like a real winner at the billiard table.'' On Monday, against TBA, Davy van Havere was the team's only loser against Frank Martens: 40-36 in 34. Jean van Erp won his match against Kay de Zwart 40-33 in 21. Jean: ''I'm in pretty good form, I think, also in the Netherlands. But what is form? Four weeks ago Ajax was unbeatable, now they are very much down on earth.''

Frans van Kuyk was the man of the week in Belgium with his fabulous run against Peter Ceulemans. The Dutchman made that super run in the third inning, giving him a 27-1 lead in 3 at the break. Peter Ceulemans, who had a tough weekend and is emotionally involved in the accident of his sister-in-law Emmy, came back a bit in the match, but was rendered ruthless by Frans van Kuyk's attack with 40-21 in 13.

Mister 100 still grabbed the win in the match thanks to Marco Janssen (starting 11 and 8 in the first two innings, beating Guy van Litsenborg 40-20 in 17), Kurt Ceulemans (against an also excellent Gerwin Valentijn 40-38 in 23) and Jerry Hermans, who perfectly played out in 23 innings against Martin Spoormans (40-13). Mister 100 recorded a fantastic team average: 141 in 76 innings, is 1.855 average.

Driebandenclub De Leug secured a precious 6-2 win against Bruges with Robinson Morales excelling against Steven van Acker (40-29 in 23) and a strong performance by Huub Wilkowski against Bart Leys (40-23 in 27).

Billiard Promotion Team nestled into provisional third place thanks to the home win against Mister 100 2, which was beaten 8-0 despite not too high scores. Jean Paul de Bruijn beat his compatriot Paul Bruijstens to the line: 40-37 in 39. De Witte Molen won its match Kortrijkse in a 6-2 home match, partly due to Tom Löwe's win over Ronny Brants 40-30 in 23. The loss unexpectedly put the usually feared Kortrijkse team in last place with Mister 100 2: 1 point out of four matches.

Frans van Kuyk: fantastic run of 21 in Belgium