BERLICUM - The Dutch three cushion matadors are two days underway in the special Jumbo Masters ambiance in Berlicum. Two main players in the sixteen-man field (Dick Jaspers and Jeffrey Jorissen) are already assured of a place in the eight-player knock-outs before the final qualifying rounds. The fate of the other finalists will be decided in the last four sessions of the preliminaries. Tomorrow, Tuesday, the final matches for the pre-rounds restart at 10.00, all matches can be seen live on Ziggo Sport, Kozoom and KNBB youtube.
On the capricious second day of this Masters, with marathons and quickies in the sets that varied from 2 to 15 and 16 innings for 10 points, Dick Jaspers (3,000 average), Huub Wilkowski (2,058), Raymund Swertz (1,777), Jeffrey Jorissen (1,560), Barry van Beers (1,520) and one of the losing player, Jean van Erp (1,882), were in the spotlights. Joey de Kok recovered from a bad first day and still has chances to qualify in his last match, Ludo Kools turned out to be the outsider of the field by a victory over Dave Christiani.
Raymund Swertz showed up in a phenomenal match in the last session of the second day with a win in a high class clash over his teammate Jean van Erp.
The group overviews:
Group A:
The first gain for Dick Jaspers is in the bag after two days in Group A. The tv-interview after the match on Ziggo Sport showed a very delighted reigning titleholder, who after the solid overture against Raimond Burgman (3-1), took the maximum score against Frans van Schaik (3-0, 10-3, 10-4, 10-5), with exactly double the average: 3,000 versus 1,500. The result was that Jaspers climbed just over 2 on average in two appearances. The match on the other table was a nail-biter, won by Raimond Burgman, 10-8 in the fifth set. That resulted in the Harrie van de Ven's elimination after his first loss against Van Schaik. Burgman won the first two sets against Van de Ven (10-5 in 9, 10-7 in 5), in the next two sets Van de Ven levelled with 10-0 in 2 and 10-9 in 8. In the close finish, Burgman proved the strongest. Before the start of the third day, Jaspers has already qualified. Van Schaik and Burgman battle it out for the second place.
The ranking in Group A after two rounds (with the set difference):
1 Dick Jaspers 4-2,062-6 (6-1)
2 Frans van Schaik 2-1,354-5 (3-3)
3 Raimond Burgman 2-1,274-7 (4-5)
4 Harrie van de Ven 0-1,153-7 (2-6)
Dick Jaspers, comfortable to the knock-out rounds
Raimond Burgman, a tough win in his second match
Group B:
The most bizarre match so far finally came to a deserved winner. Jeffrey Jorissen had a strange and bad start against Martien van der Spoel, which he lost 10-9 in a 16 innings marathon. The Hague player, who wanted a quick revenge, went into the counter attack in the second and found his rhythm with set wins 10-1 in 2 and 10-2 in 3 innings. The long Nijmegen player had lost his way and was only close to his opponent at 10-8 in the fourth set. The 3-1 Jorissen victory put him on his way to the top eight. Joey de Kok stepped out of the shadow from his first, very nervous appearance. The match against Jack van Peer, with two left-handed players at the table, was much better for the young 'Zeeuw player' with set wins 10-3 in 4, 10-3 in 11 and 10-5 in 15. De Kok's recovery was good for 1 average in that match, his opponent was completely out with a minimal 0.4. Jeffrey Jorissen secured his qualification, Van der Spoel and De Kok play for the second position.
Ranking in Group B after two rounds:
1 Jeffrey Jorissen 4-1,604-8 (6-1)
2 Martien van der Spoel 2-0,923-5 (4-4)
3 Joey de Kok 2-0,847-4 (3-3)
4 Jack van Peer 0-0,647-4 (1-6)
Jeffrey Jorissen is in the knock-outs after two wins
Joey de Kok, a revenge for his poor start at the Masters
Group C:
Was there a new phenomenon emerging in Dutch three-cushion? The reactions of viewers on the social media were delighted: Raymund Swertz, a brilliant balk-line player on the world stage, demonstrated his rapid progression on this second day in the discipline he has favoured for a few years now. He has the potential, as the experts and colleagues say, to become an incredibly strong, technically superb player in three cushion. A 'new Jaspers' for the future? Much too early to look ahead that way'', Swertz replied. The victory over Jean van Erp, nevertheless, made a big impression, among others because of the brilliant points he scored. Swertz won the first set 10-7 in 5, the second 10-3 in 9 after a worldclass ball for his last carom. Van Erp came back with 10-2 in 3/2, but was counted out in the next set with 10-9 in 6. With his four match points, Swertz has one and a half legs in the knock-outs, but because of Huub Wilkowski's excellent win over Roland Uijtdewillegen (3-1, 5-10 (6), 10-1 (2), 10-7 (5), 10-3 (5), still there are other options. Swertz may not lose 3-0 to Wilkowski, with a 3-1 loss and any other score he is qualified. Jean van Erp is certainly in the knock-outs with a win over Uijtdewillegen.
The ranking in Group C after two rounds:
1 Raymund Swertz 4-1,313-6 (6-2)
2 Jean van Erp 2-1,675-6 (4-3)
3 Huub Wilkowski 2-1,371-8 (3-4)
4 Roland Uijtdewillegen 0-0,916-6 (2-6)
Huuw Wilkowski showed up in an over 2 average match
Group D:
The second victory of Barry van Beers, last year's finalist, puts the 45-year-old Brabander on top of the ranking after two rounds. With a first 3-1 in sets against Dave Christiani and on the second day against Kay de Zwart, the frontrunner has a comfortable score: 4 points, 1,565 on average. The tension for the runner-up position, which gives the right to a place in the quarter-finals as well, is reaching the climax on the third day. Dave Christiani is now the number last and has to win 3-0 against Kay de Zwart to play for his last, minimal chance. For Ludo Kools the mission is: win against Barry van Beers and watch the other table where De Zwart and Christiani are playing.
The ranking after two rounds in Group D:
1 Barry van Beers 4-1,565-5 (6-2)
2 Kay de Zwart 2-1,268-6 (4-3)
3 Ludo Kools 2-1,279-8 (3-4)
4 Dave Christiani 0-1,195-8 (2-6)
Barry van Beers took an important win over Kay de Zwart
Ludo Kools, an outsider at the Masters