DEN HAAG - He wouldn't be Glenn Hofman if he hadn't said, before the match: ,,I am not so sure, Frans van Kuyk is always a tough opponent.'' But no matter who they are, Eddy Merckx is, Martin Horn, Murat Naci Coklu, Frédéric Caudron or a host of Dutch players, he beats them all. His winning streak is now 18 matches long. ,,I try not to name-drop, because I can also lose to all of these guys. But it does feel good'', he said modestly, this Sunday. It begs the related question: who will stop the frontrunner from The Hague in the Buffalo League? The Hague fan base could cheer once again: SIS Schoonmaak beat Team Eekhoorn, a team from the chasing pack. The score? An impressive 8-0.
The Glenniator is the proud nickname of a player in form, who tandems up with Jean van Erp to fush the Dutch game as high as it will go. Glenn Hofman rises above himself, and can now look back at victories over Merckx, Caudron, Horn, Coklu, Tasdemir, Van Kuyk and Forthomme. His individual class reflects on his teams: last week Hofman and BC Deurne won the title in Belgium, and his German club BCC Witten (without Hofman today) did the same in the Bundesliga.
The best weapon the SIS Schoonmaak team has is the final sprint tot he finish. Jeffrey Jorissen today beat Jerry Hermans with a closing run of 7, Glenn Hofman did the same to Frans van Kuyk with an 8 (40-22 in 17) and Raimond Burgman decided his match against Kenny Miatton with a run of 13 (40-31 in 22). Wham, bam, sign the score sheet and go get a beer at the counter, compliments of Jorissen senior. The team's averages: Glenn Hofman 2.352, Raimond Burgman 1.818, Jean van Erp 1.739, Jeffrey Jorissen 1.176. As Carl Verhoeven, the new sponsor had said before the season: ,,We aim for the very highest goal.'' We'll see how far they can go, in the play-offs with three teams.
HCR Prinsen booked a 6-2 win over A1 and are now certain of second place. For third, there is still a race, between L&B Ledermode, after an 8-0 win, and Eekhoorn (losing big to SIS), DPC (a loss against 't Hartje/Van Wanrooy) and Dallinga.com (win over Bousema). The most unexpected result was DPC's loss. Danny Molier watched as his team slipped and fell against 't Hartje, lead by the efoorts of Peter De Backer and Davy van Havere. The Belgians got the better of Birol Uymaz and David Martinez. De Backer beat Uymaz 40-24 in 21, Van Havere got past Martinez 40-28 in 25. The full points were also credited to Ad Broeders, who edged Richard Bitalis 40-39.
The absence of Dick Jaspers could not stop Prinsen from getting a full-points victory against A1 Biljarts. Anno de Kleine was the best player today in 20 innings, Leppens neede 28, Pijl 29 and Swertz (run of 12 in the first inning) used 31. For L&B Ledermode, Eddy Merckx hed the shortest match in 23 innings, with Christiani and Valentijn not far behind.
Dallinga.com played Bousema and saw 3-1 on the score board at halftime. Bart Ceulemans had a strong start (two 8's) against Spilleman, and Salman shared with de Bruijn after the Turk equalized with 5. In round 2, it looked ominous for Caudron, who got steamrolled by an excellent Coklu: 26-6 and 36-11. The world champion scored heavily in the last five innings to make the score bearable: 40-30 in 15. For Dallinga, van Acker was of value as he so often is: he beat de Jaeger 40-31 in 30.
De Veemarkt and Zundert was an undecided battle (4-4), but the win by 't Hartje did put De Veemarkt under more pressure in relegation country. Sub Roland Uytdewillegen won points for Zundert by beating René Dericks 40-22 in 30.
The top of the table:
1 SIS Schoonmaak 17-30
2 HCR Prinsen 17-27
3 L&B Ledermode 17-19
4 Team Eekhoorn 17-19
5 DPC 17-18
6 Dallinga 17-17
7 Zundert 17-17.