LOCHEM/OOSTERHOUT - The 17th round of play in the Dutch premier league showed a starring roles for Bousema/JBScues and Team Eekhoorn with the maximum team win: 8-0. The victims were two teams from the lower part of the ranking: J&F Auto's/Jorissen and Post Luchtkanalen. SIS Schoonmaak, the frontrunner who had a day off, saw its three main competitors make half-misses and the teamWoonwonder even lose more ground by losing 5-3 against Burgmans Biljarts. The best individual winners of these playing day were Robinson Morales (Cues&Darts) and Steven van Acker (Dallinga) with 40 points matches in only 15 innings.The battle for the four play-off places, in the battle towards the final stages, with SIS Schoonmaak allowed to watch from the side to the pack of chasers setting themselves up for the final sprint with constantly changing odds. Cues&Darts and Dekker/AP Sprundel are in the best position after round 17 with 21 points, Cues&Darts out of 16 matches, Dekker out of 17. Topsport Zundert follows two points down from these shared number 2, Woonwonder on 3 points.
Bousema and Eekhoorn started the important catch-up with 8-0 wins. However, the Bousema team, which in theory faced a tough obstacle against J&F Auto's, was a strong moral winner. Martin Horn, Johan Loncelle and Stefan Galla won all three their games by five points difference (40-35) against Jeffrey Jorissen, Therese Klompenhouwer and Joey de Kok. The only big winner was Frans van Schaik with 40-15 in 23 against Herman van Daalen. This beating doesn’t make things look any better for the Hague team, which wants to start a new path, but must first get away from the dangerous zone.
Post Luchtkanalen, which lost 8-0 to Team Eekhoorn at the campsite, is close to its final farewell to the premier league. Jose Maria Mas was the best winner for Eekhoorn against Erwin Hens 40-23 in 26. Frans van Kuyk was a bridge too far for Marc Celen 40-16 in 31, Peter Ceulemans was the better of Lesley van Neyen 40-35 in 28.
Woonwonder came with a narrow miss from the away match against Burgmans Biljarts (5-3), which, partly due to the injection of Eddy Leppens in this PBA idle period, wants to start the climb up. The Belgian leader defeated Erwin Kivits 40-22 in 25 to secure the winning point for the team. The other win was for Marco Janssen against Frank Martens (40-19 in 30), Anno de Kleine and Harrie van de Ven drew in 34 innings.
Two other matches out of five in total ended in shared wins. Cues&Darts and Zundert were evenly matched with excellent wins by Robinson Morales against Thorsten Frings (40-13 in 15) and by Huub Wilkowski against Francis Forton 40-24 in 23. Zundert's opposition came from Roland Forthomme, who beat Ruben Legazpi (40-32 in 22) and from Sam van Etten in a thrilling final sprint against Wesley de Jaeger (40-38 in 31).
The standings:
1 SIS Schoonmaak 16-26
2 Cues&Darts 16-21
3 Dekker AP 17-21
4 Zundert 17-19
5 Woonwonder 17-18
6 Eekhoorn 16-17
7 Bousema 16-16
8 Dallinga 16-16
9 Burgmans Biljarts 16-15
10 J&F Auto’s 17-14
11 Post Luchtkanalen 17-5.
Robinson Morales was the best man in the Cues&Darts team with a win in 15 innings
Full house for the match between Burgmans Biljarts and Woonwonder