ZUNDERT/UTRECHT - The frontrunners in the Buffalo league have lost their commanding position. Eureka Billard and STZ Zundert were both defeated in the sixth round, allowing Dallinga.com, A1 Biljarts and HCR Prinsen to reduce their deficit to a single point. Prinsen from Haarlo has marched ahead in the past weeks, with three consecutive wins. In today's round, Zundert was handed an 8-0 drubbing. Dick Jaspers (22 innings against Roland Forthomme, Jelle Pijl (in 29 against Peter Ceulemans), Anno de Kleine (in 24 against Barry van Beers) and Raymund Swertz (in 25 against Raymon Groot) tortured the team from Brabant. Ceulemans was the only one who got close, with 37 points.
Eureke Billard had a 3-1 lead at halftime, after Patrick Vasseur and Paul Bruijstens had shared the points in 46 innings, and John Tijssens had easily beaten Steven van Acker (40-25 in 41). Frédéric Caudron had one of his customary quick starts against Dave Christiani (31-4 in 9 ) and finished the job in 19 innings: 40-20. Jean Paul de Bruijn, brilliant in 1-cushion yesterday with 100 in 1 inning, went neck and neck with Raimond Burgman for most of the mattch, but he ran a well-timed seven at the end: 40-35 in 31. Dallinga, Prinsen but also A1 Biljarts rose to the top thanks to a 6-2 win over 't Hartje. Team captain Jan Nieuwenhuizen: ,,We played on brand new cloth, developed by A1, so that took a little getting used to.'' Eddy Merckx had a slow start against Davy van Havere (13-20), but he regrouped after the break with runs of 6,4 and 5 to win 40-28 in 22.
Ad Broeders ran away with a nine in his match against Martien van der Spoel, but his opponent quickly responded with a ten of his own, to win 40-32 in 35. Gerwin Valentijn started with a 19-7 lead, then lost traction and needed six attemts for his last two points (40-32 in 27). Buffalo.nl has found the way back up, but it has to be said that TOVV2 did not offer much resistance. Jeffrey Jorissen produced a good match, with 19 innings the shared best one of the round: 40-17 in 19 against Marcel Scheffer. Glenn Hofman beat Kay de Zwart 40-17 in 26, Jean van Erp won in 27, Herman van Daalen in 33 innings.
Eekhoorn edged TOVV/Royal Pro 5-3, thanks to good wins from Frans van Kuyk over Martin Spoormans (40-31 in 26) and Kurt Ceulemans over Emilio Sciacca (40-17 in 23). Bousema from Lochem celebrated the first win of the season when it got past Burgmans: 6-2. ,,That was a monster result'', concluded team captain Ronny Hazewinkel. ,,A win would give us some hope, had we lost, the gap would have only grown.''
Halfway, both teams were in balance. Therese Klompenhouwer could never keep up with Rik van Beers (40-24 in 25), Wesley de Jaeger equally dominated his match against Marco Janssen: 40-17 in 25. Murat Naci Coklu and Stefan Galla brought home the points for Bousema, the Turk defeated Christian Rudolph 40-26 in 20, the German overcame his countryman Ronny Lindemann 40-38 in 32.