Bethal’s pool players make it to the quarter-finals at da Vinci’s
In the Vitruvian quarter-finals it was very difficult to call a favourite in any of the matches beforehand because all eight players boast of provincial experience.
BETHAL – The two Da Vinci Pool Club leagues, Vitruvian (men) and Mona Lisa (women) held their quarter-final rounds on Sunday, 8 November.
The excitement was felt early on as the women began their matches first.
Jackie van den Berg faced Sylvia Pieterse and Jolanie Kruger took on Elicia Kruger.
Unfortunately for Van den Berg, Pieterse’s game was on point.
Van den Berg put up a brave fight, but the experienced Pieterse won the match 3-0.
Jolanie Kruger caused a major upset in her game against a relatively more experienced Elicia Kruger.
Elicia got out of the blocks with a first victory and the score was 1-0.
Jolanie showed some great spirit in the next game to bring the score to 1-1.
That was when things started to go horribly wrong for Elicia.
Her cuts were either under or over, and the white ball found the pocket more often than not.
Jolanie kept her cool and run out the victor 3-1 in the end.
The next round for the women saw Carien le Roux and Cecilia Vos in battle and Elaine Muller taking on Suné Etsebeth.
Le Roux has a wealth of experience over Vos and it showed in their match Sunday.
Vos took the early lead with 1-0 but the experience of Le Roux was just too much and she was able to clinch the 3-1 victory.
The match between Muller and Etsebeth was pretty even in the beginning with Muller winning the first and Etsebeth the second match to make 1 all.
However, the superior cutting skills of Muller proved too much for Etsebeth. Muller won the match 3-1.
In the Vitruvian quarter-finals it was very difficult to call a favourite in any of the matches beforehand because all eight players boast of provincial experience.
The men’s quarter-finals were played between Neels “Pensioner” Botha and Bertus Nel, Wilfred van Niekerk and Micheal Martins, Shane Nolan and André van Wyk and Jean “007” Vos and Frans Muller.
The match between Neels Botha and Bertus Nel was a pretty one-sided affair, even though Nel made the Pensioner fight for every victory.
The pensioner won 5-0.
Micheal Martins tried his best against Wilfred van Niekerk which provided some good entertainment, but Van Niekerk cut and banked his way to pocket a 5-3 victory over Martins.
André van Wyk had a rather unprecedented bad day at the table against Shane “the laaitie” Nolan.
Nolan, who is one of the most consistent players in the league, went up 4-0 before Van Wyk made an appearance to win one frame, only to lose the last frame and the match 5-1.
The most talked-about match of the day went to Frans Muller and the youngster Jean “007” Vos.
Muller placed first and Vos seventh after the round-robin stages of the league, but rankings made no difference to these players on Sunday.
After two frames the score was tied at one each.
Both players brought out their tactical game and it was like watching chess, each player thinking carefully before taking their next shot.
The next two frames were won by Vos to put him up 3-1.
Even though he was behind on the scoreboard Muller showed no signs of panic and just kept on playing his game, forcing Vos to make some very costly mistakes.
After each mistake, Muller capitalised and was relentless in his pursuit of victory.
In the end, Vos made one too many mistakes and Muller won the match 5-3.
As is the Da Vinci way no one goes home empty-handed.
Everyone who was knocked out on Sunday received a trophy and a certificate for their efforts.
