Two icemen, one winner: Jean van Erp

KAPELLE - Jean van Erp is among friends and in the billiard world known as 'The Iceman'. Dave Christiani is another player who seems to be very cold-blooded at the table. But this afternoon, in the quarterfinals of the Masters in Kapelle, the tension was so high, that nobody could speak about 'Ice-rabbits'.

Jean van Erp, a former player of the champions team of Van Donge en De Roo, won the fight 3-2 after having been 2-0 behind in sets (Dave Christiani averaged 0.983, Jean van Erp 1.166). The match was on beforehand a battle between two evenly matched, as the mutual duels and averages of the qualification already showed.

Dave Christiani was the winner of the B-group with six points and an average of 1.460, Jean Van Erp was the second and 1.459, so thousandth under his opponent. The mutual match in the group was a thriller, won by Christiani: 3-2.

Today, in the quarterfinals, Christiani was leading 2-0 after 15-14 and 15-11. Van Erp took the next sets 15-8 and 15-8. In the decider the players scored on and on to 4-4 and 8-8, in the breathtaking endrush Jean van Erp won the set 15-13.

Dick Jaspers was by far the big favorite in the other quarterfinal match against Barry van Beers this afternoon. The defending champion won the match, like expected, although his tough opponent took one set to equal the score (1-1), thereafter Jaspers started his winning streak.

There was even some tention in the fourth set, when Van Beers was on thirteen. Jasper felt the danger and finished 15-13 in ten innings, although his final carom was one with a little kiss.

Jean van Erp plays against Dick Jaspers in the semifinal tonight (19.00).

The next quarter-finals are between Harrie van de Ven and Glenn Hoffman at table 1 and Jean-Paul de Bruijn and Raimond Burgman at table 2. These matches have started at 16.00.