LEUVEN - The last evening in Café Sport, where the Zanzibar team played its last home match for the Belgian league against Op de Meir, was mostly the evening of Roland Uijtdewillegen. The 45-year Dutchman, playing for Op de Meir, had a fairly poor start in his match against Kenny Miatton, which resulted in a 10-7 score in nine innings. But then, as a thunderclap in a clear sky, the Dutchman powered away for the final stretch of the match and only stopped his score after four amazing innings when he reached the finish with runs of 13-9-2-8. And look what happened: the match was played: 42-13 in 13 innings.
Thus, Roland Uijtdewillegen was the hero of the week in Belgium. He once was one of the players in the BWA tournaments, the famous professional circuit. This Monday night, on a more or less historic evening (the closing of Zanzibar billiard's place) he did even better than Dave Christiani. The other Dutchman, who plays for Zanzibar, excelled in his match against Barry van Beers 50-27 in 17 innings.
Roland Uijtdewillegen, in his daily life team leader catering in the Glorieux parc in Eindhoven, became father of a son a week ago, the third in his family. He delivers some highlights in billiards now and then, including at the 2016 Masters, when he played a draw against Dick Jaspers. That result meant the elimination of the Dutch number one for the championship.
The final sprint, on Monday night, was exceptional: he nabbed in the win by a flow with 32 points in his last four innings. ,,Yes, it felt wonderful to speed up at the end like this'', he explained later. ,,Perhaps, the birth of our son Ief gave me a boost. My opponent, Kenny Miatton is a very good young player, so I can be very happy with this victory. My form is very good at the start of this year and after the Masters I climbed to the 13th place in the Dutch overall ranking. For now, I play in the first division in the Netherlands, but I would like to return to the highest league.''
Zanzibar lost his second chance to take the second place on the ranking. The match ended in a 6-2 win for Op de Meir with other victories of Eddy Leppens over Roland Forthomme (50-41 in 32) and Ivan Stitschinsky against Jimmy Mues (42-38 in 42).
BC Deurne actually took the title last week, but secured itself definitely by the 8-0 win in the home match against De Ploeg 2: Blomdahl, Philipoom Van Erp and Van Havere won in 29, 43, 23 and 27 innings.
De Goeie Queue took the second place in the match against Herentals. Frédéric Caudron was the best winner, Martin Horn had an off day and was bettered by DGQ's lead player: 50-21 in 21. Jerry Hermans impressed against Gert Meylemans 42-19 in 24. Biljart Express closes the leading group on top with a fourth place after beating De Witte Molen 5-3.
Mr. 100 Lier narrowly won the match against DOS Roeselare: Peter Ceulemans and Steven van Acker shared the win after a heated battle. Philippe Van den Driessche managed to beat Raymond Ceulemans.
De Ploeg 1 has the best chance of three teams at the bottom to stay in the league thanks to a tie against Biljartvrienden. Jack Wijnen had an excellent performance with a victory over Raimond Burgman, who couldn't bridge the gap at the end: 50-47 in 29.
The BC Deurne team celebrates the title with its team leader and sponsors