The frontrunner in the Dutch three cushion league, Babbelz from Oosterhout, has secured a ticket for the play-offs at three rounds from the end. Eight teams (!) are still in the battle for the other three play-off places in this final stage. The system, with four positions for the play-offs in the battle for the championship, guarantees excitement until the final days. Tomorrow, Sunday 27 April, is the 20th round with a double weekend played next week to conclude: the 21st and 22nd rounds.
Babbelz leads the league table with 33 points, Cues&Darts, STZ Zunder and Team Eekhoorn are provisional numbers 2, 3 and 4, Bousema is the shared number 5 with 22 points, the same as Team Eekhoorn.
The current situation:
x Nine teams still have chances for the championship: Babbelz, Cues&Darts, Zundert, Eekhoorn, Bousema, RCN Nieuwegein, Aartsbouw, SIS and Papercip.
x Two teams are certain of relegation: J&F Auto's and De Biljartacademie.
x Five teams can still finish in the number 10 position, that team has to play a promotion/degradation match at the end: Dallinga, Paperclip, SIS, Aartsbouw and RCN Nieuwegein.
This weekend's round pits Babbelz and Aartsbouw against each other, among others; Zundert plays at home against Eekhoorn, the current numbers 3 and 4. Cues&Darts travels to Dallinga, Bousema to SIS. Many top foreign players will join the teams, including Sidhom (Dallinga), Tasdemir (Bousema), Polychronopoulos and Leppens (Eekhoorn), Jimenez (Zundert) and Karakurt (Babbelz).
Section chairman Paul Brekelmans: ’’We will discuss the system with play-offs again in a meeting with the team leaders at the end of the season. We think: the way we are playing now, there is tension until the end. We could also have had a champion six rounds before the end and two relegators. Then, the league would have been decided by now and teams would not play with the strongest line-ups. In short: we are happy with this system.‘’
Babbelz, which is assured of the play-offs, still plays at home against Aartsbouw, away against De Biljartacademie and at home against Nieuwegein. Cues&Darts has a rather tough schedule with Dallinga away, Bousema away and Zundert at home. Zundert is also under pressure, playing at home against Eekhoorn and SIS and away against Cues&Darts.
In the play-offs, numbers 3 and 4 show up in a play-off match in the week of 5 to 11 May at the number 3's venue. The winner will play out against the number 2 in the week of 26 May to 1 June. The winner of that match will play first at home against the league No 1 in the weekend of 6/8 June and then away. If there is no winner by then, a third match will follow.
The number 10 at the end of the league will play a match against the best number 2 from the first division. That will be the winner of Post Luchtkanalen against Café De Kuul/Royal Pro. These two teams play a double match against each other in Uden on 3 May.
Champions in the first division and thus sure of promotion are Café ‘t Vossenhol from Daarlerveen and Burgmans Biljarts from Bergeijk.
The matches for this weekend, Sunday 27 April:
Team Babbelz-Aartsbouw/Domicili
Berkay Karakurt-Eddy Merckx
Savas Bulut-Ronny Brants
Davy van Havere-Tom Persyn
Jack Wijnen-Wesley de Jaeger
Paperclip-De Biljartacademie
Dick Jaspers-Roland Forthomme
Anno de Kleine-Thomas Broux
Cédric Melnytschenko-Maarten Janssen
Dan Breur-Wilco Meusen
SIS/Vervoort-Bousema/JBSCues
Jean van Erp-Tayfun Tasdemir
Raimond Burgman-Jeffrey Jorissen
Martien van der Spoel-Gökhan Salman
Harrie van de Ven-Johan Loncelle
STZ Zundert-Team Eekhoorn
Sergio Jimenez-Nick Polychronopoulos
Sam van Etten-Eddy Leppens
Martin Spoormans-Peter Ceulemans
Francis Forton-Kurt Ceulemans
Dallinga.com-Cues&Darts/Xtreme
Sameh Sidhom-Glenn Hofman
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Pierre Soumagne
Steven van Acker-Huub Wilkowski
Peter De Backer-Joey de Kok
J&F Auto's/Jorissen-RCN Nieuwegein
Javier Palazón-Dave Christiani
Murat Gökmen-Barry van Beers
Paul Bruijstens-Gerwin Valentijn
Herman van Daalen-Henk Blauwblomme
The Vossenhol team made the promotion