The star players come from faraway countries, but the best come from close to home. Glenn Hofman, from The Hague, and Wesley de Jaeger, from Ghent, shone in the Dutch premier league this Sunday with great matches. They both won for their team in the Kozoom league with games of 40 in 14 innings, averaging 2.857. What came from afar was by no means better! Sameh Sidhom (24 in 22 against Jimenez) could not score for Dallinga both for the league and for the cup. The leading players Nikos Polychronopoulos and Eddy Leppens could not prevent Team Eekhoorn's embarrassing loss against Bousema (7-1). In short: Glenn Hofman and Wesley de Jaeger were simply the best of this league day in these strong team line-ups.
Frédéric Caudron could quietly pick up a European title with his French team without his top Dutch team suffering. Babbelz simply won again 6-2 from J&F Auto's, with only Javier Palazón able to inflict some pain on the frontrunner with a win over Dion Nelin, the leader in Caudron's place. Savas Bulut, Davy van Havere and Jack Wijnen secured full wins, which makes Babbelz already sure of the lead in the playoffs at three rounds of play from the end. Cues&Darts delivered a flawless round by beating SIS/Vervoort, the dethroned champions, 8-0. Glenn Hofman was sublime, as Jean van Erp was half the caroms short: 40-20. Legazpi, Wilkowski and De Kok beat Burgman, Van der Spoel and Van der Ven with a score that SIS was not used to for years.
Team Eekhoorn, still qualified for the cup final on Friday, dropped to fourth place in the rankings after losing 7-1 against Bousema, which it shares with Bousema. So that team was the big winner of this matchday. While Tayfun Tasdemir fought his way to a draw against Polychronopoulos, the other four players went for success in nice matches: Jorissen beat Leppens 40-35 in 36, Salman was just a bit stronger than Peter Ceulemans 40-37 in 24 and Johan Loncelle was winner against Frans van Kuyk 40-35 in 29.
Aartsbouw played a draw against De Biljartacademie, with a good looking Merckx-Forthomme: 40-37 in 18. Dallinga and Zundert also shared the win, with Thorsten Frings the best winner against Steven van Acker: 40-18 in 17. Paperclip won the away match against RCN Nieuwegein 2-6: Dick Jaspers, Anno de Kleine and Cédric Melnytschenko won against Dave Christiani, Barry van Beers and Gerwin Valentijn.
Tension is rising for the play-offs positions, as at three games Babbelz and Cues&Darts are out of contention and seven teams still have a chance for the other two places
Glenn Hofman, another great match in the Dutch league
The standings after the 19th round:
- Team Babbelz 19-33-1,449
- Cues&Darts 19-27-1,439
- STZ Zundert 19-24-1,257
- Team Eekhoorn 19-22-1,406
- Bousema/JBSCues 19-22-1,320
- RCN Nieuwegein 19-20-1,321
- Archbouw/Domicili 19-20-1,313
- SIS/Vervoort 19-18-1,391
- Paperclip 19-18-1,236
- Dallinga 19-15-1,188
- J&F Auto's/Jorissen 19-7-1,077
- The Billiard Academy 19-2-1,103