LIER - In the Belgian team league, matches have been cancelled, postponed and played far in advance. The ranking is distorted by the many changes in the schedule. Most teams have now played 7 or 8 matches. Mister 100 is the leader after this week with 13 out if 8 ahead of Op de Meir with 12 out of 7, Biljart Express is third with 12 out of 8. The good news for Belgium is that for the first BTS tournament, which starts early December in Bruges, there are already more than 70 registrations.
For the competition, it is mostly improvising: Biljart Express played a match ahead of the schedule for the 11th round against Zanzibar (4-4 draw) on Wednesday evening, as Roland Forthomme is travelling to Sharm El Sheikh for the World Cup and the World Championship in that period. The Op de Meir-Zanzibar match was postponed again for this week. Roland Uijtdewillegen (Op de Meir) had an open heart surgery last week and is back home now. Barry van Beers is in an area of Corona victims. The World Cup in Veghel has yielded some positive cases by the way, such as a few billiard players from The Hague, and two SIS players, Raimond Burgman and Martien van der Spoel. Two league matches have also been postponed for that reason.
Eddy Merckx travelled to Switzerland today for the Lausanne Billard Masters. The Belgian top player also had slight complaints, but tested negative. He was able to play with Biljart Express in the competition on Wednesday and lost the match to Roland Forthomme. Merckx started with 10, was 21-7 ahead in 6 innings and 30-20 in 15 at the break, but Forthomme came back strongly, made 5-4-7 and won the match 40-35 in 20.
This week, matches were played in the Belgian league that were postponed due to the World Cup in Veghel. The match Zanzibar against Biljart Express was not the only one played far ahead. Mister 100 already showed up against Op de Meir (4-4). For the ranking it means that Mister 100 and Biljart Express have one match point more than showed on the ranking. Mister 100 plays on December 13 the home match against Biljart Express, which is about the first place. Biljart Express plays De Leug on Monday.
The match between Mister 100 and De Ploeg had one very striking result. Kurt Ceulemans won no less than 40-5 vs Huub Wilkowski in 17 innings: for the Belgian 2,352 on average, for the Dutchman, who even had a run of 3, 0,294 on average! Peter Ceulemans bested Dustin Jäschke (40-38 in 28), Bart Ceulemans beat Roger Roefs (40-14 in 33). Biljart Express already defeated KBC Brugse in that 8th round with wins for Merckx, Van Kuyk and Valentijn and only a Brugge win for Koen Saver, who left Guy van Litsenborg behind 40-32 in 35.
BC Den Eik stays in pursuit of the leaders by winning 6-2 over Biljartpalace, that is in bottom position with one point. Davy van Havere played the best match against Frank Martens (40-21 in 25). KBC Kortrijkse descended a bit further by losing in the home match against Biljart World: 2-6. Ronny Brants, far from his best form for a while now, won the only match for his team against Danny Wuyts 40-24 in 25. Driebandenclub De Leug shared the win with De Witte Molen. Johan Loncelle played the best match of this entire round and defeated Dirk Weeremans with a big score: 40-19 in 13 (average 3.076, run 11).