The Tulip Hoofdklasse Men is in the middle of its fiftieth season. In this section we regularly reflect on this anniversary: we fish up anecdotes, fun facts, photos and notable players and statistics from the big big league pond. Part 5 today.
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From the old box 📦
The NOS radio program Langs de Lijn made an urgent appeal to EHV and Den Bosch during the live broadcast during the fifth competition weekend of the 1994-1995 season. The clubhouses of both clubs turned out to be inaccessible for the editors of the sports program that Sunday. After reading only four of the six half-time positions in the men’s competition, presenter Govert van Brakel called on the clubhouses of the clubs concerned to ‘please pick up the phone.’ Ferry de Groot, chief of NOS Sport, declared an exception on the radio afterwards. “Usually we reach the clubs, but on Sunday it was a drama.”
Oh yes, the missing rest positions: EHV-Amsterdam 1-2 and Den Bosch-HGC 0-1.
In the spotlight 💡
Remarkable photo 📸
In the image below from the 1997-1998 season, Den Bosch is preparing for the first match of their semi-final in the play-offs for the national title, in and against Bloemendaal. If you look closely you will see that the players – including the current national coach Jeroen Delmée – are not dressed in their traditional black shirt, but in blue training jackets. Team manager Tonnie de Groot had accidentally left the match shirts in Brabant.
Playing in the far too spacious jackets on which back numbers had been stuck with white tape, Den Bosch suffered a painful 5-3 defeat at ‘t Kopje. Fortunately for the Bossche formation, they did play in their familiar outfit in the return: the team won that game 5-1. Den Bosch later also won the decisive third game against Bloemendaal (after penalty shots) and won its very first national title a week later at the expense of Amsterdam.
From the scoreboard 🧮
The penultimate round of the 2014-2015 season is an unforgettable one in the history of the big league. In the six matches on Sunday, April 19, 2015, a total of fifty goals are scored, an average of 8.33 goals per match. To this day, that is still a record production for one round at the highest level.
Six goals are scored this day at Hurley-Pinoké (4-2) and Tilburg-Rotterdam (0-6), eight times at Amsterdam-Push (7-1), nine times at Bloemendaal-Schaerweijde (8-1), ten times at Kampong-Den Bosch (6-4) and eleven times at Oranje Zwart-HGC (8-3). In that last game, Mink van der Weerden claims a leading role: he accounts for six of the eight Eindhoven goals (a club record), of course all from a penalty corner. Furthermore, Rogier Hofman (Bloemendaal, four goals), Mirco Pruyser (Amsterdam, three), Justin Reid-Ross (Amsterdam, three) and Jeroen Hertzberger (Rotterdam, three) all score at least three times.
Mink van der Weerden cheers on behalf of Orange Black. Photo: William Vernes
Episode 1: Rocky start and Patty Mundt’s scoop
Episode 2: Sea of goals after offside removal
Episode 3: Goalkeeping with a Hannibal Mask
Episode 4: First ever Title Prey for Kampong
