Bridge Over Troubled Water

HSV Hoek  1  DVS’33 Ermelo  2

Derde Divisie (Zaterdag)

Right, three blokes, a pack of bacon and a grill without an instruction manual, guess what happened next?

Yes, that’s right, try as we might we simply couldn’t fathom out how to turn the grill on, but we did work out how to light the hob rings, so fried swine it was, and very welcome too.

After a decent lie in, it was a lunchtime departure in the trusty Yaris back across the border to the small village of Hoek which sits just before the mightily impressive eight kilometre long Westerscheidetunnelweg (big tunnel), which is toll free at weekends if anyone is interested in such detail?

Hoek is a small place, but as our arrival was quite early, we managed to grab one of the last spaces in the small car park. Once in the ground we had a mission to find a chap called Art who was the Chairman of HSV. One thing Stu is very good at is building cross channel relations with football clubs, all in the name of promoting Sheffield FC, who are of course one of the oldest football clubs in the entire interplanetary system.

All jokes aside about Bridges Over Troubled Water, Art van der Staal was a super chap who wore marvelous shoes with picture of flowers on them, and after the obligatory exchanges of shirts and photographs, and a meeting with a Dutch Groundhopper from Rotterdam, it was a chance to sample some of the local lager.

The ground at HSV was not untypical of many of the larger amateur set ups in Holland. The clubhouse behind the goal had an overhang in front of it where al-fresco boozing is not just allowed, but encouraged. Moving round the ground, one side is open, as is the area behind the opposite goal, but the main stand sits on the left hand side to the clubhouse end. The pitch is artificial and it is floodlit of course.

Hoek play in the Derde Divisie, which is the fourth tier of football in Holland. Dutch football has gone through a series of changes over recent seasons, because previously you had the two professional divisions, and then sat below that was the Hoofdklasse, which in turn was split into Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

It then changed, whereby the two Hoofdklasse became known as the Topklasse, from which promotion to the professional ranks could be gained. This was short lived as the best clubs formed a single division known as the Tweede Divisie, which combined both Saturday and Sunday sides. This new division obtained its own TV deal, and was a step on the way to create a pyramid structure, but, with promotion to the second tier not obligatory, many wondered what the wisdom was behind it?

The Derde Divisie fed into the Tweede Divisie, but remained split across the weekend. Interestingly, when the changes first came about, Groesbeek based Achilles 29 took the plunge and moved into the second tier (professional ranks). They now sit bottom of the Derde Divisie, it went spectacularly wrong from a financial perspective. The appetite for professional football is not huge in Holland, with only a handful of sides considering taking the plunge.

This was a big game, Hoek sat third in the table with the visitors from Gelderland just one place below them. A crowd of around a thousand turned up to watch the game, with around 150 of them having made the journey West.

In all honesty, DVS won the game 2-1, having been 2-0 up at one point, and it was difficult to argue with the outcome as the team in yellow and black were much more effective with the ball than the hosts. The victory moved them to second in the table over both Hoek and Quick Boys, but with a six point gap to leaders Noordwijk, it’s a tough ask for them to win the league and with it promotion to the Tweede Divisie.

Farewells were bade, and departures made, but not before a random photo opportunity at the end of the road next to the sign for the football club. We only held the traffic up a little bit!

The next game was a good hour and a half away, the other side of Antwerp, but with loads of time on our side we decided to head to the town of Terneuzen where a bar called the Café De Vriendschap was located. Despite a few issues with some ships and a bridge (over troubled water) that took an age to close, we were soon parked up with menu in hand.

It was time for a Pilsner..