LIER - The Belgian three cushion league was launched this week with a match between two champions. Mister 100, the reigning title holder, played its away match against BC Op de Meir, the previous champion. The Ceulemans team triumphed 6-2 mainly thanks to the best match of the evening: Bart Ceulemans was the better of Wesley de Jaeger 40-28 in 20 innings. Two teams shone on the opening day of the competition with maximum 8-0 victories. Herstalien played the away match against Kortrijk and won all four games and BC T's Place beat Bruges by the same score, 8-0. By no means a good day for the West Flemish teams in the competition. Biljart Express started with a win in the home match against Witte Molen (5-3), BC De Leug 1 and BC De Leug 2 played a draw against each other and Billiard Promotion shared the victory points with BC De Ploeg.
The champions' match was the spearhead of the start in Marc Verhaegen's billiard arena. Peter Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans and Bart Ceulemans took the win for Mister 100. Peter Ceulemans met Jef Philipoom, who had beaten him in the Super Cup. The victory now went to the Mister 100 leader, because Philipoom started his final sprint too late: 40-36 in 23. Kurt Ceulemans bumped into Barry van Beers, who scored a 10 run (40-18 in 30), Jerry Hermans won the Dutch battle against Roland Uijtdewillegen 40-30 in 40, but the man of the evening was Bart Ceulemans with his magnificent season start.
He was not the only 2+ player this week, because Jean Paul de Bruijn, who won against Dick Jaspers in the first round at the World championship in Ankara but was later eliminated, earlier this week played for the competition. The ’Zeeuw’ won for Billiard Promotion against Dustin Jäschke (De Ploeg) 40-20 in 17, which was good for 2.352 on average, the highest in this round. Peter Meersman also won in this match (4-4) in a nice game against Roger Roefs 40-26 in 25. Roland Forthomme played for Herstalien before he left for the World championship in Ankara. His team won 8-0 in Kortrijk with a win by Forthomme himself against Ronny Brants (40-25 in 21), the other scores came from Pierre Soumagne (40 in 27), Dany Boutet (40 in 41) and Thomas Broux (40 in 36).
BC T'S Place debuted with a clever 8-0 against Bruges among others by Peter De Backer and Huub Wilkowski, who won against Steven van Acker (the Supercup winner) and Henk Blauwblomme in 32 and 27 innings. Freddy Staelens and Patrick Kesteloot rounded off the maximum score.
For BC De Leug 1 in the clash against the second team, Jeffrey Jorissen and Davy van Havere were successful against Johan Loncelle and Frans van Schaik. The promoted team owed the draw to Kenny Miatton (who beat Therese Klompenhouwer 40-13 in 19) and Joeri de Cleen against Andy de Bondt.
Biljart Express closed the league round with a 5-3 win over De Witte Molen on Thursday evening. That match got the finish of a thriller. Frans van Kuyk won the last game vs Fréderic Mottet 40-39 in 29 innings (runs 9 and 10). Mottet was leading 35-25 in that match, when Van Kuyk forced the decision with a run of 9. Mottet had to score three times in the subsequent turn, but missed his last one, so the win narrowly went to Biljart Express. Dave Christiani and Francis Forton played a draw in 25 innings. Ad Broeders won vs Martin Spoormans, Guy van Litsenborg vs Benny Ceulemans.
Bart Ceulemans (right) with his brother `peter: starting with a victory over Op de Meir.