ZUNDERT/UDEN - The lead in the Dutch premier three-cushion league is in the hands of the two teams that played the final of last year's play-offs. SIS Schoonmaak and Zundert are the only two teams with the maximum match points out of two rounds of play. Even the non-playing of Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx in the SIS team and the departure of Roland Forthomme in Zundert team could not prevent the optimal start. Bousema Lochem, Cues&Darts/Xtreme and Aartsbouw Sprundel are the chasers with one match point behind. Dekker/AP Sprundel, one of the four teams in the play-offs last season, was beaten on this second day by Aartsbouw Sprundel, the team that plays its home matches in the same venue. The promoted team won 5-3 against one of the contenders for the play-offs thanks to Tom Persyn and Ad Broeders, who won against Gerwin Valentijn and Henk Blauwblomme. The winning point was secured by Dirk Weeremans with an equal score against Barry van Beers (40-40 in 30). Dave Christiani was the only winner for his team in a nice match against Ronny Brants: 40-10 in 11 innings, the best game of this matchday.
The leader started with 11 and 5 and immediately had a wide margin, which Christiani was then able to maintain with nice scores and strong positional play. ''It's nice to play a match like this just before the Grand Prix, it gives confidence,'' was Dave's comment. His team's loss gave a less good feeling. ’’We could have done good business by winning, but unfortunately it didn't work out.'' Barry van Beers just squandered the full win as Dirk Weeremans was able to equalize with 1 and Henk Blauwblomme gave away the match against Ad Broeders in the closing stages. ’’Whereas last season we were occasionally lucky, now things fell the other way for a while,'' Christiani realized.
It is often commitments of players in other countries that determine positions in the premier league. Jean Paul de Bruijn, Dallinga's frontman, for instance, had cancelled for his team on Sunday, preferring to play for his Danish team. Dallinga could not deploy its leading man and lost 8-0 without any chance against Cues&Darts in their own crowd. That weakening actually also applied to SIS Schoonmaak, where Jaspers is not playing for the league and Eddy Merckx is also missing in the first two matches.
Unlike Dallinga, the reigning champion does have four players who still can score high. The away match against DKM Tools, which had PBA player Birol Uymaz as its one-match leader, was won by SIS 6-2, as Jean van Erp beat the Turkish PBA player 40-28 in 27. That match was decisive for the win although it was by heels. Raimond Burgman eventually fought his way to a victory with one point difference against Davy van Havere (40-39 in 30), Raymund Swertz won with two points difference against Roland Uijtdewillegen (40-38 in 32), after Martien van der Spoel lost his match against Jack Wijnen for the champions 40-33 in 25 innings.
Topbiljart Zundert managed to camouflage the departure of its leader Forthomme quite nicely. Sam van Etten, Rik van Beers and Francis Forton (draw) took home a neat 5-3 victory from the away match against Team Nachtwacht. Francis Forton played a draw against Harrie van de Ven.
Dallinga, which expressed ambitions to reach the play-offs, had a total off-day without its leader De Bruijn, but was also outclassed by the strong Cues&Darts. Glenn Hofman in particular played a great game and had no resistance from Steven van Acker (40-18 in 14) after an early series in the match. This underlines the form of the Hague player, who won in his first game from Ronny Brants in 16 innings and is now the highest in average of the competition over two games: 2.666. Peter De Backer (Dallinga) also came up a short distance against Pierre Soumagne (40-22 in 20) and Berry Dallinga got trounced by Jack van Peer after a good start. Huub Wilkowski provided the maximum win score by his victory over Koen Saver.
Nikos Polychronopoulos, called up as Team Eekhoorn's leader, demonstrated his class in the match against Jeffrey Jorissen. The Greek excelled and won 40-23 in 17 innings. In doing so, Nikos secured an important point for his team from Eekhoorn, which subdued Bousema in their home match: 4-4. Stefan Galla and Frans van Schaik won for the home team against Frans van Kuyk and Kurt Ceulemans, Peter Ceulemans was the other winner for Team Eekhoorn against Johan Loncelle 40-20 in 19 innings.
At J&F Auto's, Therese Klompenhouwer was the only winner against Burgmans Biljarts in an enthralling but low-quality match against Bart Ceulemans (40-39 in 51). De Zwart, De Kok and Van Daalen were beaten by Leppens (40 in 23), De Kleine (40 in 25) and Janssen (40 in 40).
Nikos Polychronopoulos, one of the stars in the second round of Kozoom league