OOSTERHOUT - The premier three-cushion league in the Netherlands got off to a surprising three results on Sunday. The new Babbelz team shone with a 5-3 win over Cues&Darts, which is one of the title contenders. Paperclip made a promising start against Team Eekhoorn with 4-4 and SIS Biljarts made a half-miss against De Biljartacademie by another 4-4. The first three leaders with 2 match points are Babbelz, Bousema Lochem and Zundert. The best match came to the name of foreign players. Eddy Merckx with 40 in 14 innings, Frédéric Caudron won in 16 innings and Dion Nelin in 17.
The surprising first performance came from Babbelz, that made a wonderful start in its home match against Cues&Darts with three wins in four matches. Frédéric Caudron beat Glenn Hofman 40-25 in 16, helped by a run of 10. Dion Nelin also came up with a strong match against Huub Wilkowski, whom he defeated after 18-0 by 40-10 in 17. Jef Philipoom was the only winner for Cues by beating Berkay Karakurt 40-31 in 28, while Jack Wijnen and Joey de Kok played to a draw.
Paperclip also made an excellent debut in the Kozoom league by playing a 4-4 draw against one of the top favorites, Team Eekhoorn. Dick Jaspers was just the better of Nikos Polychronopoulos 40-37 in 26, but the big surprise came from Dan Breur, who won against Frans van Kuyk 40-23 in 27. Peter Ceulemans and Kurt Ceulemans won for Team Eekhoorn in 23 and 37 innings. Zundert joined the leaders with a 6-2 win over Aartsbouw. Only Eddy Merckx hurt the home team with a generous win over Sergei Jimenez: 40-15 in 14 innings, the best game of the day in the Kozoom league. Sam van Etten started sublimely with 40-17 in 20 against Turgay Orak.
Bousema won the away match against J&F Auto's 2-6 partly due to Martin Horn's victory in 21 innings. Jeffrey Jorissen just had a winning final sprint against Kay de Zwart 40-39 in 46 innings, Paul Bruijstens was a good winner against Stefan Galla.
Three games ended in a tie. Dallinga came with one point away from Nieuwegein with a strong Steven van Acker winning against Dave Christiani 40-28 in 27. Barry van Beers was the better over his billiard colleague Peter De Backer in 20 innings. De Biljartacademie held SIS Biljarts to a draw thanks to Roy Zielemans who excelled with a win over Raimond Burgman 40-27 in 20 innings (2,000 average). Jean van Erp just pulled out a win against Roland Forthomme with 40-39 in 23 after trailing 20-8.
Paperclip was the third with a draw in a home match against Team Eekhoorn.
Jean van Erp took the match with Roland Forthomme by 1 point