ROSMALEN - Six of the seven teams from the top of the Dutch premier league are gearing up for the KNBB cup final, to be played next week from Wednesday 3 to Saturday 6 April in Rosmalen, Brabant. The champion and cup holder SIS Schoonmaak leads the field of eight teams with Dallinga's second team as the outsider. The KNBB, Dutch federation, is hoping for full stands of fans and team mates at the Rosmalen Theatre Perron-3, which has some 225 seats. Among the frontrunners at the teams: Eddy Merckx, Glenn Hofman, Jeffrey Jorissen, Peter Ceulemans and Dave Christiani.
The long marathon of matches in the run-up led to the final field. A total of 151 teams participated in the preliminary rounds. 147 matches were played across the country. The BEN Foundation is the organizer in cooperation with the KNBB three cushion Section. The eight teams play against each other in two days of four teams each, playing in sets for the four positions in the semi-finals. SIS Schoonmaak, Cues&Darts/Xtreme, Dekker/AP Sprundel and Burgmans Biljarts will compete, the other four teams are Team Eekhoorn, Bousema Lochem/JBScues.nl, Aartsbouw Sprundel and Dallinga 2.
The teams are making a bid for the podium in strong line-ups. SIS Schoonmaak, for instance, plays with Eddy Merckx, Jean van Erp, Raimon Burgman, Raymund Swertz and Martien van der Spoel. Cues&Darts is certainly also a contender with Glenn Hofman, Ruben Legazpi, Pierre Soumagne, Huub Wilkowski and Jack van Peer. Team Eekhoorn shows up with Peter Ceulemans, Frans van Kuyk, Kurt Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans and Adrie Demming.
The Dekker/AP Sprundel team has no surprises in its line-up. The team comes with the regular four players, so with Dave Christiani, Barry van Beers, Gerwin Valentijn and Henk Blauwblomme. For Bousema Lochem, Jeffrey Jorissen, Johan Loncelle, Gökhan Salman and Frans van Schaik will be in action. Burgmans Biljarts has Anno de Kleine as its leader and also Bart Ceulemans, Marco Janssen and Johan Royers. The other team from Sprundel, Aartsbouw, travels to the KNBB cup final with Ronny Brants, Dirk Weeremans, Tom Persyn and Ad Broeders. And then there is the team from Dallinga 2, which could so surprisingly place itself between the well-known teams. The Zeeland team eliminated HCR Prinsen, among others, in the last round.
Richard de Bruin is the best-known player, Michael Vink is known from the Grand Prix tournaments. The two other players are David de Vlieger and Dion Bergmans.
Of the well-known teams, Dallinga 1 was eliminated by Burgmans Biljarts and ST Zundert by Team Nachtwacht. Jorissen missed the placement by losing against Biljartacademie/Jansen Grafimedia (Team Forthomme), which in turn was eliminated in the fifth round by Team Eekhoorn.
The system pits the first four teams against each other on the first day of play, Wednesday 3 April. On Thursday, the other four teams meet in two matches. The winners advance to the semi-finals on Friday and the final on Saturday.
Matches to 2 won sets of 15 points. In case of tie in match points (4-4) a Scotch Double of 15 points for qualification to semi-finals. In those semi-finals, Friday will be played to 2 sets won, in case of tie in match points (4-4), Scotch Double will be played to 15 points.
Saturday in the finals with two teams, from 11.00 am, the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 will play consecutively against each other each time. The sequence repeats until either team has won 9 sets. In case of a tie of 8-8 in sets, Scotch Double will follow.
Wednesday 3 April
13.00 A against B: SIS Schoonmaak-Burgmans Biljarts (players 3 and 4)
15.00: C against D: Dekker/AP Sprundel-Cues&Darts Xtreme (players 3 and 4)
18.00: SIS Schoonmaak-Burgmans Biljarts (players 1 and 2)
20.00: Dekker/AP Sprundel-Cues&Darts/Xtreme (players 1 and 2).
Thursday 4 April:
13.00: E vs F: Team Eekhoorn-Aartsbouw Sprundel (players 3 and 4)
15.00: G against H: Bousema Lochem/JBSCues.nl-Dallinga 2 (players 3 against 4)
18.00: E against F: Team Eekhoorn-Aartsbouw Sprundel (players 1 against 2)
20.00: Bousema Lochem-Dallinga 2 (players 1 against 2).
Friday 5 April: semi-finals
1 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Saturday 6 April: finals from
11am.
The matches will be broadcast by Kozoom.