LIER - What's going on? and, what is going happen to the Ceulemans team? playing in the Belgian team competition for Mr. 100 in Lier. Is the team with billiard legend Raymond Ceulemans doomed to relegate because the home matches are legally converted by the sports director into 8-0 defeats? Is there a solution in the air about the billiard cloths, or is there a long lasting sound of silence around the Mr. 100? Kurt Ceulemans, the room manager, has gone to court, but has been saying for some weeks: "I don't have any news yet.'' The federation itself has announced a verdict and also refrains from official announcements. And so, Mr. 100 lost to De Goeie Queue 6-2 this week, but in the official results bulletin all results are virginal white.
A short explanation. The Belgian federation wants the room owner to put Simonis clothes on the tables because of the sponsor contract with Simonis. Kurt Ceulemans has chosen for Royal Pro clothes in the Mr.100 room because they are less expensive and better suited for his tables. That has led to a stalemate, which has yet to be resolved by the parties.
Meanwhile, the competition continues and the only match victory for the Mr. 100 team this week was from Raymond Ceulemans and is not counted in the results. Mr. 100 officially loses 8-0. By these results, Mr. 100, with Peter, Kurt, Raymond and Bart or Koen Ceulemans, are now close to relegation places.
The top positions have been out of sight. Biljart Express and BC Deurne lead the ranking with 20 match points, De Goeie Queue and Op de Meir are trailing five points, the other pursuers are virtually eliminated for the title chances. Biljart Express did it well this week with a riant victory over Op de Meir: 8-0. Frans van Kuyk, with 5, 5, 11 and 10 runs in the second part of his match, and Gerwin Valentijn were the best winners with averages around two. Eddy Merckx defeated Eddy Leppens (weak start with 2-12 and 12-29) 50-43 in 29 innings.
BC Deurne remained on the same level in match points after a win over TBA Biljartpalace 5-3. Glenn Hoffman defeated Kay de Zwart 50-19 in 31, Frank Martens bested Jef Philipoom, Jean van Erp was the better of Ronny Daniels and Davy van Havere played a draw against Erik Hendrickx 42-42 in 42.
Martin Horn was the best winner on game day in the match between Herentals and De Leug. The German defeated Frank de Groof 50-19 in 18 innings. Kortrijk had an off-day in the home match against De Witte Molen and lost 0-8 with victories by Pierre Soumagne, Francis Forton, Dirk Weeremans and Ad Broeders. De Ploeg won the home match against Zanzibar 6-2, partly thanks to Therese Klompenhouwer's victory over Andy de Bondt: 42-36 in 39 innings.