3-Cushion
SINT NIKLAAS - Glenn Hoffman concluded that it had been incredible billiards evening. Benny van Goethem, team leader of De Witte Molen, was disappointed, but proud of his team, which had threatened the Belgian champion BC Deurne until the last caroms. ,,We were playing for a 6-2 win, but in two innings we lost 6-2’’, the coach realized.
,,But I am incredibly proud of my team, which has been a really tough opponent for world class players such as Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx.
The league match between De Witte Molen and BC Deurne turned out into a thriller on Monday evening. The champion team with Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Davy Havere excaped miraculously from a loss. Jaspers had a blistering end rush against Glenn Hoffman: on the scoreboard Hofman led 44-27 and 48-37. Then, Jaspers with his feared mindset, went to the table, had a little luck with his third carom and scored thirteen to the finish.
On the other table another curious match took place. Francis Forton led for the home team 45-31, in the thrilling innings to the finish, Eddy Merckx sprinted to 50-46 in 31.
Jean Paul de Bruijn also had a narrow escape in his match vs Ad Broeders. The ’Zeeuw’ finished the match in 45 innings, Broeders had to score four from the spots, but missed his last point.
Only Ronny Brants took two points for De Witte Molen, beating Davy van Havere: 42-29 in 39.
BC Deurne remains close behind De Goeie Queue with the same matchpoints (8). The Salpho boys kept their leading position by a 6-2 victory over BC Op de Meir 2, thanks to strong performances by Frédéric Caudron against Barry van Beers (50-21 in 23) and Eddy Leppens against Ronald Uytdewilligen (50-29 in 24). Peter Ceulemans defeated Ivan Stitschinksky 42-34 and Koen van Camp bested Michel van Camp 42-35.
Mister 100 Lier took his first point in this fourth round by a 4-4 against BC Op de Meir: Kurt and Raymond Ceulemans won for Mister 100, Henk Habraken and Marc Roofthooft for Op de Meir. BC Zanzibar moves up to second place with a victory over De Ploeg 2. Roland Forthomme had an off day against Thorsten Frings and lost 50-38 in 43 innings. The overall performance of both teams was very modest: both finished around one average.
So did the match between KBC Kortrijk and BC Herentals, in which Rudolph, Christiani and Smolders took the points for Herentals. Dave Christiani was the evening’s high flier with 1.851 average and the highest run of this competition round: 15.
BC Biljart Express and De Ploeg 1, two competitors for the top spots, played in Turhout a draw. Martin Horn was the best man for De Ploeg with a 50-31 victory over Frans van Kuyk in 25 innings.