Rounds 3 and 4: lots of rain and a new leader in the Topklasse
Published at 18 May, 2021On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May, the fourth and third round of play respectively, took place in the men's Topklasse. The Ascension Day program had been moved to Sunday due to the Netherlands A's tour to Ireland. Only HBS played against ACC on Thursday, where the visitors took the win. The rain was unfortunately often a gamechanger, but the vast majority of the games were able to go on as planned. All in all, this schedule made for a busy week. See all the results below. The Dosti - HBS match has been postponed to May 30th.
Round 3 (13 & 16 May)
In the third round, which was divided over two match days, it was Punjab, VOC and VCC who took the win.
The Dosti - HCC match was ultimately abandoned due to rainfall.
See all the results below:
Round 4 (15 May)
The fourth round, played on Saturday, also had a game that could not be played regularly. HCC-VCC was called a draw after the rain started to wreak havoc. Excelsior'20, VRA and VOC won the other three games!
See below how the games unfolded:
Reactions
VOC won both games this weekend. The new addition to the selection, 17-year-old Siebe van Wingerden, enjoys every second he gets on the field: “For me, every match I play with VOC's 1st is pure joy. It was great to play two games this weekend in a team with so much experience; especially if it goes so well and I can contribute to the two victories.”
VCC beat VRA on Sunday, their game against HCC on Saturday rained out. Dutch national player Vivian Kingma was disappointed in the conditions with which he had to deal: "Very disappointing that we could not play the game on Saturday. You always have to do everything you can to be able to play. That's why we were all busy on Sunday morning in the rain, putting on the covers and the field to play as fast as possible. Then you are ready to do well as a team from the very first ball, and get a fantastic result as a reward."
Header image: copyright Mark Steffelaar
VCC leads women's Hoofdklasse
On Ascension Day, both VCC and Quick got themselves a clear victory. Quick won by two centuries against Helmien Rambaldo (135*) and Robine Rijke (121*) with 235 runs from Ajax (326/2 at 91 a.o.), VCC defeated Rood en Wit at home by 73 runs.
By producing the necessary runs in an extremely exciting final phase, the women of VCC won their third match, at VRA on Saturday. With that, they remained in the lead in the Hoofdklasse. The match, interrupted several times by the rain, saw VRA be the first to come out batting on 120 runs, being hindered by three stumpings from international wicket-keeper Babette de Leede. After a flashy start, the runs stopped at VCC. With the alternating par scores, then again in favor of VRA and then again for VCC, the game headed towards a nerve-racking end, with the numbers 10 and 11 of VCC making the winning runs.
The meeting between Rood en Wit and Quick in Haarlem ended in a D/L victory for the visitors from The Hague.
