TILBURG – The two Orange players for the Dutch team at the Nations championship in Viersen meet this Sunday in the Kozoom league in a sort of warm-up. Glenn Hofman and Dick Jaspers face each other two weeks before the start of the World Championship in the a match between Cues&Darts and Paperclip. The Netherlands is defending the title that was won last year at the World Championship with Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn. The premier league is almost complete again on Sunday with all its leading players. Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, and Jean Paul de Bruijn are returning from a week's absence in the Netherlands. Moreover, Eddy Leppens, who’s only playing in the run-up to the so-called PBA/World Championship in Korea, is back in Belgium for a while and will play for Team Eekhoorn on Sunday afternoon.
Aartsbouw, without Merckx, lost some of his leading points last week but remains on top. The Brabant team faces an away derby on Sunday against Burgmans Biljarts, where Marco Janssen, the team's fourth-place player, has been shining as the best of the entire round for two weeks now. Ronny Brants, another man with ups and downs, makes up for a tough match. Eddy Merckx faces Davy van Havere.
In Sluiskil, the Dallinga team, having climbed nicely to a respectable 5th place, is ready to host Team Eekhoorn with two particularly impressive matches. Jean Paul de Bruim will face Eddy Leppens, and Peter De Backer will also face Peter Ceulemans. Coincidentally, these two players also met this week in a preliminary round for a BTS tournament: Ceulemans won 40-39.
Cues&Darts is chasing the leader, including Ruben Legazpi, the player who won his third Spanish title last week in a final against Carlos Anguita. The most eye-catching match is, of course, Hofman against Jaspers, the Netherlands' World players at the National Team World Cup.
Bousema/Lochem shows up at home against Harwig, the team currently bottom of the table. Two teams in their farewell tour will also meet each other in this 15th round. SIS, almost certainly in its final year in the premier league, plays away against RCN Nieuwegein, the team that also retirea after this season. SIS is theoretically only two points behind the playoff positions. RCN certainly doesn't want to finish in the bottom positions.
The program and lineups:
Cues&Darts-Paperclip
Glenn Hofman-Dick Jaspers
Ruben Legazpi-Anno de Kleine
Jef Philipoom-Cédric Melnytschenko
Huub Wilkowski-Dan Breur
Dallinga.com-Team Eekhoorn
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Eddy Leppens
Peter De Backer-Peter Ceulemans
Steven van Acker-Frans van Kuyk
Berry Dallinga-Kurt Ceulemans
Aartsbouw/Domicili-Burgmans Biljarts
Eddy Merckx-Davy van Havere
Barry van Beers-Bart Ceulemans
Wesley de Jaeger-Erwin Kivits
Ronny Brants-Marco Janssen
RCN Nieuwegein-SIS/Vervoort
Dave Christiani-Jean van Erp
Gerwin Valentijn-Raimond Burgman
Henk Blauwblomme-Martien van der Spoel
Dirk Weeremans-Harrie van de Ven
Bousema/JBS-Harwig/OERbesitas
Jeffrey Jorissen-Andreas Niehaus
Gökhan Salman-Rob Lamboo
Johan Loncelle-Richard Dekker
Frans van Schaik-Theo Moes
Jean Paul de Bruijn, the opponent of Eddy Leppens in Sluiskil
Ronny Brants, waiting a touch match vs Marco Janssen