This was the day in the Dutch league when the Babbelz team already secured the final match in the playoffs, the battle for the next positions remained unusually exciting, but certainly it also was the day of the knock-out scores that colored this day of play. Eddy Merckx beat Berkay Karakurt by an unlikely score: 40-9 in 11, Jean van Erp made a chance less opponent of Tayfun Tasdemir (40-13 in 12) and Javier Palazón was much stronger than Dave Christiani (40-22 in 12). Glenn Hofman outplayed expensive foreign player Sameh Sidhom by 40-33 in 13 and finally Nick Polychronopoulos gave his team Eekhoorn a nice day by winning over Sergio Jimenez: 40-13 in 16.
High averages gave this match day lustre ahead of the final, double weekend in the premier league, the Kozoom league. Babbelz, the frontrunner, was the big winner, despite Berkay Karakurt's sensational loss against Eddy Merckx, but that one loss was compensated by the team with victories for Savas Bulut, Davy van Havere and Jack Wijnen, which again showed Babbelz's collective strength. The Oosterhout team, that played without Caudron, now has an eight-point lead over Cues&Darts and is thus unbeatable for the final rounds.
Cues&Darts made a slip at Dallinga with a 6-2 loss, leaving Team Eekhoorn on a three-point difference. The leading group moved closer together with a win by Team Eekhoorn in the away match against STZ Zundert 2-6. Francis Forton was the only one for the home team from Zundert to win: Kurt Ceulemans did not even exceed a poor 0.500 (40-18 in 36 innings). However, the Eekhoorn victory came down thanks to Polychronopoulos against Jimenez (40-13 in 16), Eddy Leppens against Sam van Etten (40-37 in 28) and Peter Ceulemans against Martin Spoormans (40-23 in 31).
Bousema Lochem still has a small chance, having played 4-4 against SIS in the away match. The spectacle in that match came from Jean van Erp, who started with 10 against Tayfun Tasdemir and made the final gap a few innings later with 13: eventually 40-13 in 12. The Brabant frontman later philosophised: ’’My record is 40 in 9 innings, which I did twice. Now I could have done it in 7 or 8 innings, but I choked on an important point. Anyway, I am obviously super satisfied with such a nice victory over a world-class player.‘’ Martien van der Spoel still scored for SIS against Salman, Jeffrey Jorissen and Frans van Schaik made the draw through wins against Raimond Burgman and Harrie van de Ven.
Cues&Darts was the loser of the day, despite Glenn Hofman's nice win against Sameh Sidhom, the Egyptian brought in by Dallinga as high class player for the closing stages, but was beaten three times in three games. Dallinga did get the win against Cues&Darts on the other three tables where Jean Paul de Bruijn, Peter De Backer and Steven van Acker won against Soumagne, De Kok and Wilkowski in 25, 24 and 29 innings.
Paperclip took a precious win against De Biljartacademie by 7-1 including by Anno de Kleine who outlasted Thomas Broux in 17 innings. Dick Jaspers played a draw against Roland Forthomme in 29 innings. J&F Auto's held RCN Nieuwegein to 4-4 in a home match with a best game by Javier Palazón in 12 innings.
The standings with 2 rounds to play (match points, average):
Eddy Merckx, a 40-9 in 11 vs Berkay Karakurt
- Team Babbelz 35-1.440
- Cues&Darts 27-1,442
- Eekhoorn 24-1,397
- Zundert 24-1,250
- Bousema 23-1,323
- RCN Nieuwegein 21-1,319
- Aartsbouw 20-1,309
- Paperclip 20-1,234
- SIS 19-1,405
- Dallinga 17-1,208
- J&F Auto's 8-1,084
- Biljart Academie 2-1,103.