RANST - The leaders (Den Eik) went to visit the champions (Op de Meir) in the Belgian league on Tuesday evening and the verdict fell in favur of the home-playing Op de Meir. The reinforced defending champion, who could deploy PBA'er Eddy Leppens in the third position, won 6-2. For Den Eik, which does remain the leader one point ahead of Op de Meir, only Eddy Merckx won the match with Jef Philipoom, the two leading players, in a modest match: 40-35 in 37. Barry van Beers triumphed against Jean van Erp (40-31 in 25), Leppens beat Van Havere (40-30 in 23) and Stitschinsky defeated Dielis (40-24 in 30).
The rankings undergo no major mutations on the fifth match day. Only Op de Meir launched its climb to the top by the victory over Den Eik. Promotion Team played a draw in the away match against Kortrijkse and now shares third place with Mister 100 Lier, Herstalien and De Leug, all four with six points out of five matches. Mister 100 Lier 2 and De Witte Molen play for the fifth round tonight, Wednesday.
Biljart Express, that lost Eddy Merckx, more or less recovered from its poor start with a 5-3 win over Herstalien. The most appealing match, between Roland Forthomme and Frans van Kuyk, ended in a close finish. Forthomme was the best starter with 26 in 11, Van Kuyk's come-back provided the Biljart Express leader the eventual win, 40-38 in 20 innings. Martin Spoormans won his first match of the season against Bottet (40-23 in 23), Valentijn and Mottet played a draw.
For the Kortrijk team, the two leaders Ronny Brants and Martin Ravestyn were beaten by Jean Paul de Bruijn and Danny Geysen. De Bruijn was the best winner this evening with a 40-21 in 18 against Brants and a run of 11. Vandendriessche and Beghin won for Kortrijk's home team vs Janssen and Meersman.
KBC Brugse surprised with a win at home against Mister 100, where Peter Ceulemans played the starring role. The Mister 100 frontrunner won against Steven van Acker 40-23 in 14 innings in a match in which he started 1, 2, 5 and 8, ran out with 7 in between to 24-18 in 9 and finally finished 2 and 7. Kurt Ceulemans then recorded the half win against Henk Blauwblomme (40-40 in 36), but Hermans and Janssen lost to Leys and Saver by minimal margin: 40-37 and 40-39.
Driebanden club De Leug joined the sub-top by winning 6-2 in the away match against TBA Biljartpalace. In that match, Frank Martens (TBA) was the best man with a win over Huub Wilkowski (40-27 in 24). Wesley de Jaeger took the match against Kay de Zwart 40-25 in 26. Miatton and Daniels were evenly matched all the way, the win went to Miatton by one point in 40 innings. That was good enough for De Leug's win.
The ranking at the top:
1 Den Eik 5-8
2 Op de Meir 5-7
3 Promotion Team 5-6
Mr. 100 Lier 5-6
Herstalien 5-6
De Leug 5-6.