BRUSSELS - The news that amazed many Belgian billiard players came from the tables of the Belgian federation. The new dates for the Belgian championship, postponed because of the cancellation of the Multi's, has led to many protests because the planned championship now coincides with important matches in the Dutch league. Many of the Belgians playing in the Netherlands are affected by this decision.
The other news in the 15th round came from the match tables at De Leug in Aartselaar and Biljart-World, where the ranking leader Mr. 100 continued his triumphal series. Roland Forthomme, the leading player in Zanzibar, played a world class match with Zanzibar in the away match against De Leug. His opponent was Johan Loncelle, who excelled with a run of 13, but was nevertheless beaten by generous figures. Rolandinho had one of his miracle days again: he won 40-21 in 12 innings, a magnificent 3,333 average, by far the best man of this round.
Wesley de Jaeger, who won against Pierre Soumagne (40-38 in 34) and Frank de Groof (winner against Andy de Bondt, who had an off-day, 40-16 in 28) still secured one match point for De Leug. For Zanzibar, Kenny Miatton scored as well, beating Lennart Schrauwen 40-37 in 35.
Zanzibar and De Leug find themselves in the top five of the league table following the leader Mister 100, Op de Meir that is second and Den Eik as number three.
The position is still biased. Martin Spoormans of Biljart Express reported: ''We did not play against Den Eik, because they had sick players, like Ludo Dielis.'' That means, said Spoormans, that we are now three games behind. What is the plan to equalise that again? ''We catch up on 28 February against De Ploeg, 29 February against De Witte Molen, play on Wednesday 2 March against De Leug and on 4 April against Biljart World.''
Two teams in the bottom half, Brugse and De Ploeg, have already played 14 matches, most teams are at 13 games. Among them are Mr 100, Op de Meir and Den Eik, the top three in the league table with 21, 21 and 16 points. The margin with Den Eik for those two teams is now five points.
Mister 100 Lier did not really have a walk-over against Biljart World: a match of the number 1 against the number last. Peter Ceulemans confessed: ''The man of the match was Jerry Hermans, who was behind for a whole game against Tom Persijn, but eventually won 40-33 in 28. I myself had a strong start, but a bad finish against Danny Wuyts (40-22 in 26), Kurt finished well against Luc Salvo (40-24 in 25) and Bart had a lesser day. He lost to Geert Meylemans (40-33 in 29).''
Op de Meir travelled to TBA Biljartpalace and returned with a 6-2 victory. Peter De Backer, solid and pretty good, was the best winner against Kay de Zwart, who was allowed today to go the European Championships as a substitute in one of two Dutch teams: he lost to De Backer 40-23 in 29 innings. Barry van Beers and Roland Uijtdewillegen won facing Frank Martens and Ronny Daniels. Only Ivan Stitschinsky had to give up the points to Eric Hendrickx.
Steven van Acker (Bruges) and Ronny Brants (Kortrijk) have a slightly lesser period behind them, but shone in nice games to Dustin Jäschke and Dirk Weeremans.
Ronny Brants did that in the home game against De Witte Molen, which was won 6-2 by the Kortrijk team, in which Philippe Vandendriessche was a strong winner against Sam van Etten (40-32 in 30 innings). Steven van Acker beat Jäschke in the match between Brugge and De Ploeg, which was won 7-1 by the West Flemish. Royal Brugse is approaching the middle of the table, Kortrijkse still has a small gap to bridge.
The position at the top:
1 Mister 100 13 games 21 points
2 Op de Meir 13-21
3 Den Eik 13-16
4 Zanzibar 12-15
5 De Leug 12-15
6 Biljart Express 11-14