SPRUNDEL - At stake was the prestige between two top Belgian players and the match between the numbers 1 and 2 at the Dutch premier league. Eddy Merckx was winner against Frédéric Caudron 40-32 in 21 innings thanks to the better final sprint, but Babbelz, the leader in the Kozoom league, won the match against Aartsbouw 2-6. The number one could celebrate the position on top, three chasers went to maximum scores: 8-0 for Eekhoorn, Cues&Darts and RCN Nieuwegein.
The ninth day of play was marked by very nice encounters: Eddy Merckx not only won the match with Frédéric Caudron, Roland Forthomme played a starring role with a win over Dick Jaspers (40-26 in 21), Glenn Hofman beat Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-30 in 25 and Martin Horn was the better of Jean van Erp 40-28 in 18.
Merckx's victory over Caudron, winners of the World championship for nation teams four times in a row some years ago, came about in the closing innings, when Merckx took the lead 38-32, missed twice for the match, including an unfortunate kiss, and then claimed the win 40-32.
Glenn Hofman against Jean Paul de Bruijn was the repeat of this year's Masters final, in which De Bruijn took the title. The roles were reversed now, as Hofman again showed better form than De Bruijn, who is in a bad period and, as Dutch champion and leading player for Dallinga, has lost all his matches so far against all odds (against Hofman, Van Etten, Gökmen, Merckx, Van Erp and Jaspers).
Even against Hofman, De Bruijn could not live up to his reputation. The Zeeland player was left behind after half the match, could not close the gap and saw Hofman finish sovereignly 40-30 in 25. Dick Jaspers got off to a fast start against Roland Forthomme and led 24-12 in 16 innings at half-time. The Belgian seized power after the break and got into one of his high class matches. Jaspers fell completely silent, Forthomme crossed the finish line 40-26 in 21.
Martin Horn grew into one of the better winners on this matchday, securing his team's win by beating Jean van Erp 49-28 in 18 innings. The Belgian supremacy this day was most evident in the victories of Peter Ceulemans against Thorsten Frings (40-24 in 17) and of Jef Philipoom, apparently entering his third youth, by 40-27 in 17 against Steven van Acker. Only Dion Nelin was an even better winner on this matchday. The Dane, together with Davy van Havere and Jack Wijnen, made up for his leader Caudron's loss, winning against Ronny Brants 40-14 in 15.
For the league table, this meant that Team Babbelz remains in the lead with 15 match points after nine matches ahead of RCN Nieuwegein, Cues&Darts/Xtreme and Team Eekhoorn with 12 points. The middle group with 10 points is formed by Aartsbouw, Bousema, SIS and Zundert, followed by Paperclip with 8 points. J&F Auto's and De Biljartacademie are in the worrying last positions.
Team Eekhoorn had a top day against Zundert, one of its rivals in the sub-top. The Oosterhout team won 8-0 with an outstanding Peter Ceulemans, Nick Polychronopoulos, who passed Sam van Etten in the closing stages and still grabbed the win 40-33 in 21. Frans van Kuyk won vs Rik van Beers, Kurt Ceulemans vs Francis Forton 40-38. The maximum win also remained in Cues&Darts' home match against Dallinga, where Huub Wilkowski paved the way with 40-27 in 26 against Peter De Backer and Joey de Kok beat his provincial opponent Berry Dallinga 40-23 in 32.
RCN Nieuwegein went to the maximum win against J&F Auto's, having no chance in the four games. Gerwin Valentijn and Dave Christiani, in 21 and 22 innings, were the top winners for Nieuwegein. Bousema entertained its own audience with a flawless victory over SIS/Vervoort, which only saw Martien van der Spoel win against Stefan Galla (40-21 in 24), but lost out to Jean van Erp against Martin Horn, Raymund Swertz against Jeffrey Jorissen (40-34 in 25) and Harrie van de Ven against Frans van Schaik (40-35 in 32).
De Biljartacademie could not leave the last position despite Forthomme's win over Jaspers. Zielemans, Wallerand and Meusen lost to De Kleine, Breur and Van Lieshout.