Round 1 - Cricket is back!

After a long wait, the first weekend of May finally marked the return of cricket in the Netherlands! The Dutch government has allowed for the continuation of elite sports games and therefore the women’s Hoofdklasse and men’s Topklasse were able to commence this past Saturday! The schedules were as follows:

For the men, HBS kicked their season off at home against Sparta 1888, Excelsior’20 faced VCC, VRA started their 2021 at VOC in Rotterdam, and HCC traveled to Amsterdam to face off against ACC. The Dosti-Punjab game was postponed and will be played Sunday 9 May 2021.

For The Hague’s HBS, the season started with a win over Cappelle’s Sparta 1888. With nine wickets to spare, HBS were able to take the lead and finish their match before 50 overs were ever played.

Excelsior’20 Schiedam started their year off right by beating Voorburg Cricket Club by 6 wickets to move third in the standings after one round. Tristan Stubbs, debuting for Excelsior, left a great impression on his new teammates by scoring 79 runs.

Stubbs and Excelsior will be looking to continue their great form this Saturday at Sparta 1888.

Sybrandt Engelbrecht of VCC: “This was a tough game for sure, but we know we’ll bounce back for sure.”

VOC Rotterdam hosted VRA and managed to keep them in check for 142 runs, scoring 192 themselves for the round 1 win at home. Arnav Jain of VOC, who scored 3 wickets himself, commented after the game: “A great start to the season, in typical VOC fashion. A game of cricket that rocked back and forth between two teams, but was ultimately seized by the bloodhounds from Rotterdam!”

The final match played in the men’s Topklasse this past weekend was between ACC Amsterdam and HCC The Hague. It’s safe to say HCC came out of the gate with a bang, winning their first regular season match by 177 runs against the Amsterdam-based team.

HCC will face VRA this Saturday, whereas ACC will host Dosti, one of two teams that have yet to start their 2021 campaign.

This week featured the first application of the new points system, introduced by the KNCB for this season. From this round forward, teams will receive 4 points for every win, 2 points per draw and both teams will receive 1 point if, for some reason, a match cannot be completed in its entirety.

The women’s Hoofdklasse featured two matches this weekend, sending Rood en Wit on a bye-week for the first round. VRA faced Ajax Cricket Club at home and Voorburg Cricket Club hosted Quick.

VRA Amsterdam’s ladies team made sure they started their year off properly with an 8-wicket win over Ajax Cricket Club. They managed to beat Ajax in just over 14 overs, for a part thanks to Miranda Veringmeier, who scored 74 runs batting and Gwen Bloemen who bowled 5 wickets.

Voorburg Cricket Club moved into second place in the ladders when they beat Quick by 69 runs in round 1 of 2021. Babette de Leede scored 97 runs to help her team achieve this result. VCC captain Julia Corder was overly proud of her squad: “Great team performance. Good start of the season and looking forward to the rest!”

Next week, Quick will be on a bye-week. VCC will face Ajax in Oegstgeest and will be looking to continue their momentum.