Top four in Dutch league slides together

OOSTERHOUT/UDEN - The Dutch premier three-cushion league entered the winter stop with notable scores. SIS Schoonmaak lost some of its unbeaten status again by losing at home against Topbiljart Zundert. The reigning champion is no longer the sole frontrunner after 11 rounds. The Eekhoorn team shone with a winning final sprint against Dekker and overtook SIS with the same number of match points (15 from 11). The top four slided together further and is facing an exciting second half. But individually too, the Kozoom league dealt some heavy blows on the last matchday of the year. Eddy Leppens even nearly held his former PBA mate Glenn Hofman below 10 (40-15). Raimond Burgman was ruthless to Sam van Etten (40-10), Ronny Brants was a superior winner in the Belgian clash with Davy van Havere (40-15) and Francis Forton, after an early 16 and a generous margin against Martien van der Spoel, also had such an outlier in sight.

The Belgian allowed his opponent to come back at the end of the match, but did win 40-26, eventually bringing the Zundert team a 6-2 victory in the well-attended match at the SIS centre. The most striking moments were the two high runs that went up at the same time. Raimond Burgman made a 17 against Sam van Etten and went from 16-2 to a 33-2 lead. Francis Forton was ahead 17-4 against Martien van der Spoel when he made 16 and ran to 33-4.

SIS Schoonmaak had to deal with its third home loss (after Cues&Darts and The Hague) by losses of Jean van Erp and Eddy Merckx. The Belgian leader saw many bad balls from Sergio Jimenez, the Spaniard went over his opponent in the closing stages: 40-28 in 22 innings. Jean van Erp, who played Thorsten Frings, missed the match ball (a five-cushion in kiss), Frings finished with 3 (40-39 in 31 innings).

That deception at SIS Schoonmaak led to some joy in Team Eekhoorns camp. There, the home match against Dekker went to 2-2 at half-time, after Jerry Hermans had won against Henk Blauwblomme (40-36 in 42) and Gerwin Valentijn had levelled the score with a win over Kurt Ceulemans (40-39 in 28).

After the break, the two leaders still pulled out the win. Peter Ceulemans did so with a winning run against Dave Christiani (40-34 in 27) and Frans van Kuyk in a nice battle against Barry van Beers, who came within one point of finishing after a run of seven, but saw Frans van Kuyk finish with three: 40-39 in 26.

Cues&Darts could not take full advantage of the SIS miser. The Tilburg team was notably floored by a strong Eddy Leppens, who excelled against Hofman, could even finish earlier at 39-8, but then won 40-15 in 11 innings. Huub Wilkowski was the other player to lose: 40-26 against Marco Janssen in 33. The two foreigners from Cues&Darts won and took home the single match point. Leppens thus won against Hofman, Pierre Soumagne against Bart Ceulemans 40-33 in 25.

Bousema Lochem travelled to The Hague and returned with a 6-2 victory over J&F Auto's. Martin Horn, Jeffrey Jorissen and Stefan Galla won the matches with Kay de Zwart (40-33in 27), Joey de Kok (40-20 in 19) and Therese Klompenhouwer (40-37 in 35). Herman van Daalen was the only Hague player who could cheer after winning over Frans van Schaik 40-35 in 34.

Aartsbouw and DKM Tools played to a 4-4 draw. Turgay Orak was an excellent frontman for Aarsbouw with a win over Dion Nelin: 40-24 in 18. Ronny Brants beat Davy van Havere 40-15 in 24. Ronny Lindemann (in 22 innings) and Jack Wijnen (in 30) were the two winners for DKM Tools.

The standings at the end of the year:

1. Team Eekhoorn 11-15
2. SIS Schoonmaak 11-15
3. Cues&Darts 11-14
4. Bousema/JBScues 11-14
5. Topbiljart Zundert 11-13
6. Dekker/APSprundel 11-11
7. Burgmans Biljarts 11-11
8. Dallinga.com 11-10
9. DKM Tools 11-9
10. J&F Auto’s 11-8
11. Aartsbouw Sprundel 11-7
12. Team Nachtwacht 11-6.

Eddy Leppens was the better of Glenn Hofman with a big margin