SLUISKIL - The compliment came from another room than where Raymond Ceulemans had played his match. The Belgian Eddy Leppens looked at the score of his illusrious compatriot (50 in 26 innings, 40 in 15) before he started off himself in Sluiskil and said: ,,I said to Frédéric Caudron this week: every time I play a match over two average, when I am 75, I give a barrel of beer to my friends. But to be honest, I do not think many people will get drunk in those years.''
On Sunday, it was Belgians-day today in the Dutch league with many matches around two average. Frédéric Caudron was the best in eighteen innings, Roland Forthomme came in 22 innings to the finish, Eddy Leppens in 23, Jef Philipoom and ... Raymond Ceulemans in 26. One Dutchman also played at high level: Raimond Burgman closed his match in 23 innings.
But what an admiration again for the phenomenon Ceulemans, who shows his top form already for weeks, scoring averages of two, something more and something less.
,,He has never played so well as he does now,'' said the young guy Glenn Hofmann, one of his young admirers. And Eddy Leppens added: ,,When I see Raymond standing at the table, I see a man who is fighting for every carom. That is almost unbelievable after such a long and glorious career.''
For the Zeeland team of Martens, that defeated Dekker Keukens 6-2, the win of Ceulemans was very important. He beat John Tijssens with miles, however the Dutchman played not that bad: 50-38 in 26.
Jef Philipoom was (against Jens van Dam) the only player who scored for his team, but it was not enough for Dekker to connect with the top five.
TOVV.nl/MCR was strong as always, winning all its matches against FDV Jacoby/Schuler. Without real highlights: Dave Christiani was the best in 33 innings against Jeffrey van Nijnatten. Eddy Merckx took his revenge for the Belgian cup final and defeated Davy van Havere 50-42 in 38 innings.
Frédéric Caudron started with a backlog in the first innings against Francis Forton, but then pulled the trigger and devoured his opponent. The machine gun under the billiard players made the one after the other run and came in an hour to finish: 50-18 in 18 innings.
He showed a sense of relief and looked back to the start of the season: ,I was not on my best during the weeks when we opened the Salpho and I realized that it is very hard to play on the top level in a period of fatigue. Fortunately, we are doing well now and I myself feel very fit again when I'm playing billiards.''
Eddy Leppens showed again his brilliant form in which he performs already for a mounth. He scored runs of nine, two times and even could have played a better average. Yet he crowned his match against Ronny Daniels with a spacious 50-25 in 23 innings. Thus he remains - as Caudron - in the top three of the best players in the league.
Holland Mineraal climbed to fifth place in the ranking thanks to a 6-2 victory over Post Luchtkanalen. For the Lochem squad only Steffan Galla played below his level: he lost to Huub Wilkowski 50-35 in 44.
Snellen Recycling continued his way up by a 8-0 victory over Van Wanrooij Transport. Not only Roland Forthomme, also Peter Ceulemans played an excellent game: 50-42 in 29 against Jan Arnouts.
Raimond Burgman was the bighitter for A1 Biljarts in the home match against Van de Broek Biljarts. The leader (because Nilsson and Nelin were missing) started his match against Kang with three zeros, but then made the gap in the eighth and tenth inning with runs of 12 and 9. The Korean was far behind with one average: 50-23 in 23.
Martien van der Stoel ran away from Rob Lamboo in the second half of his match. Henk Blauwblomme had not a great start in his match against Frans van Schaik (21-11 behind), but recovered after the break when his opponent faltered and the Belgian continued scoring points (50-35).