Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: vv Noordwijk (1950-2012)

Sportpark Duinwetering I, Noordwijk (vv Noordwijk)

Netherlands, province: South Holland = Zuid-Holland

17 IV 2010 / vv Noordwijk - KVV Quick Boys 0-0 / Zaterdag Hoofdklasse A (= NL level 3)

Timeline

1933 / Foundation of a football club in Noordwijk, which takes on the name vv Noordwijk. This is not the oldest club in the seaside town, given that RKVV SJC dates back to 1920. Whereas its prefix betrays RKVV SJC as a Roman Catholic club, playing its football on Sundays, vv Noordwijk is founded by the staunchly Protestant (Evangelical) part of the town’s population – which frowns on any activities on Sundays other than churchgoing. Vv Noordwijk joins the Leidsche Voetbalbond (LVB), the Leyden sub-branch of the Netherlands’ Football Association (KNVB), being placed in the fledgling Saturday divisions of this association. Not having the luxury of its own accommodation as yet, the new club concludes a groundsharing agreement with RKVV SJC, which means it can use that club’s pitches at Lageweg on Saturdays.
1936 / Rescinding its groundsharing agreement with RKVV SJC, vv Noordwijk settles on a newly laid-out pitch at Achterweg, a plot of farmland which the club rents from the Count of Limburg-Stirum.
1941 / As a Saturday League 4 is introduced as the top division of the Saturday pyramid in District West II, topping the divisions of the LVB and all others (K)NVB sub-branches, vv Noordwijk is among the first clubs to qualify for this new division.
1942 / In its first season in District West II’s Saturday League 4A, vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up, 6 points behind champions KVV Quick Boys.
1945 / As Terrein Achterweg has been left abandoned in the course of the war, with footballing activities coming to a standstill, vv Noordwijk resumes its activities as a competitive club once again as groundsharers with RKVV SJC at Terrein Lageweg – not the same park as the pre-war SJC ground which had been demolished by German occupation forces, but two newly laid-out pitches elsewhere on that same road.
1946 / Moving away from Terrein Lageweg after one season, vv Noordwijk settles at the newly laid-out Terrein Duinweg – formerly a plot of farmland. The new pitch is inaugurated on October 19th, 1946, with the encounter between vv Noordwijk and PTT (The Hague) (2-2). As the sole pitch of the new park is insufficient to allow all other senior and youth teams to play their matches, vv Noordwijk additionally rents a pitch from KRV, a club in nearby Katwijk aan den Rijn.
1947 / Missing out on qualification for the newly formed Saturday League 3, vv Noordwijk finishes as runners-up in District West II’s Saturday League 4A, 2 points behind champions SV ARC.
1948 / Champions in District West II’s Saturday League 4A, 4 points ahead of runner-up CNV, vv Noordwijk qualifies for the championship play-offs against the title winners in the other Saturday League 4 branches in this district, DOTO ’33 and vv Groote Lindt, as well as the club finishing in second-last place in Saturday League 3, VVGZ. As vv Noordwijk goes on to top the group of four – with the decisive points being clinched in a 2-1 away win against its last remaining rival vv Groote Lindt – the club wins promotion to Saturday League 3, the highest level of Saturday football at that time.
1949 / vv Noordwijk wins the so-called LVB Beker, a local cup competition.
1950 / Moving away from Terrein Duinweg after four years, vv Noordwijk moves to a newly laid-out pitch at Van Panhuysstraat, of which the entrance was later moved to the southern side, at Duinwetering – as a result of which the park was later renamed Sportpark Duinwetering. A second pitch, used for lower team football and training sessions, is part of the set-up as well. With the facilities being rather basic at the outset – without dressing rooms in situ – the new ground is inaugurated on September 2nd, 1950, with a gala match between Sunday League 1 clubs HFC EDO and TSV LONGA (2-0), with 1,500 spectators attending. Two weeks later, on September 16th, vv Noordwijk receives SV Die Haghe for its first regular home match at the new ground (2-0).
1953 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in District West II’s Saturday League 3A, 9 points behind champions KVV Quick Boys. That same year, new dressing rooms are inaugurated at Terrein Van Panhuysstraat.
1954 / Finishing bottom of the table in District West II’s Saturday League 3A, vv Noordwijk drops back into Saturday League 4 after six years.
1955 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in District West II’s Saturday League 4A, 4 points behind champions vv Koudekerk.
1957 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in District West II’s Saturday League 4A – meanwhile the third level of the Saturday pyramid following the introduction of a Saturday League 2 – 1 point behind champions ZSV Sportlust ’46. Also in 1957, 18-year-old midfielder Piet van der Lippe becomes the first-ever vv Noordwijk player to move to a professional league club, signing a deal with RCH. Following five years away at RCH and another small pro club, UVS, Van der Lippe returns to vv Noordwijk in 1962, only to embark on a second professional league adventure four years later with ARA La Gantoise, and later RRC Wetteren, in Belgium. Van der Lippe would eventually hang up his boots in 1971.
1958 / Champions in District West II’s Saturday League 4A, 3 points ahead of closest rivals RVV Semper Altius, vv Noordwijk manages a return to Saturday League 3 after an absence of four years. The decisive points are clinched in a home win over vv Koudekerk.
1960 / A covered grandstand is added to the set-up at Sportpark Duinwetering.
1961 / Champions in District West II’s Saturday League 3A, 7 points ahead of closest followers SV ARC, vv Noordwijk accedes to Saturday League 2, the top tier of the Saturday pyramid at that time – destined to remain part of the elite of Saturday football for the following 49 years.
1962 / Finishing in joint first place in District West II’s Saturday League 2 with KVV Quick Boys, vv Noordwijk goes on to suffer a 1-0 defeat against the club from Katwijk in a tie-break match for the title, played at Sportpark Middelmors in Rijnsburg in front of a crowd of some 6,000 spectators – although another source mentions an attendance of 8,200.
1963 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions in Saturday League 2A, 5 points ahead of closest followers SV NDSM. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to League 2B winners SV Spakenburg.
1964 / 21-year-old vv Noordwijk winger Map Marijt embarks on a professional league adventure at Telstar. Marijt goes on to have a spell at another pro club, ZFC, before returning to vv Noordwijk in the summer of 1969.
1966 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in Saturday League 2A, 5 points behind champions vv IJsselmeervogels.
1968 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions in Saturday League 2B, finishing 7 points ahead of closest rivals SV Kozakken Boys. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to SV Huizen.
1969 / Two covered stands with boards, offering an uncovered standing place to several hundreds of extra spectators, are added to the set-up at Sportpark Duinwetering, flanking the main stand at the western touchline of the main pitch.
1970 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions of Saturday League 2B for the second year running, finishing 2 points ahead of closest rivals CVV Zwart-Wit ’28. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv SHO. For the 1970-71 season, vv Noordwijk is placed in the newly created Saturday League 1, the new top division of the Saturday non-league pyramid.
1972 / vv Noordwijk defender Ton Marijt, the younger brother of Maup Marijt, signs a deal with professional league club HFC Haarlem. Ton Marijt goes on to have further spells at BV De Graafschap, Sparta Rotterdam, and Roda JC before hanging up his boots in 1981.
1973 / vv Noordwijk clinches the title in Saturday League 1A, 2 points ahead of closest rivals vv SHO. Subsequently, the club also wins the nationwide Saturday title, defeating vv IJsselmeervogels (0-0 draw at home, 1-2 win away) thanks to a goal in the dying seconds by Duindam at Sportpark De Westmaat Noord (att. 5,000). vv Noordwijk also goes on to clinch the nationwide non-league title by defeating Sunday champions RBC (3-2 home win / 3-1 away defeat / tie-break match in Noordwijk: 2-1 win with goals by Bogers & Bröring, att. 5,000). The successful coach is John Eelman. In the summer of 1973, vv Noordwijk gets to celebrate its historic season with a gala match against AFC Ajax at Sportpark Duinwetering in front of a record crowd of 9,000. Ajax wins the match 2-1, with Johan Cruijff – about to leave Ajax for FC Barcelona – scoring the decisive goal.
1975 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in Saturday League 1A, 3 points behind champions vv Spijkenisse.
1976 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions of Saturday League 1A, finishing 2 points ahead of closest rivals KVV Quick Boys. The successful coach is John Eelman. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv IJsselmeervogels.
1978 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions of Saturday League 1A, finishing 2 points ahead of closest rivals KVV Quick Boys. The successful coach is John Eelman. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv IJsselmeervogels. In the 1978-79 nationwide cup (KNVB-Beker) vv Noordwijk knocks out two professional league sides, FC Vlaardingen ’74 and HFC Haarlem, before being eliminated by FC Volendam in the round of 16.
1980 / / vv Noordwijk clinches the title in Saturday League 1A, 5 points ahead of closest rivals vv OWIOS. Subsequently, the club also wins the nationwide Saturday title, defeating ACV (3-0 away defeat / 2-1 home win / tie-break match at Sportpark De Strokel in Harderwijk: 1-0, goal by Hans Westgeert, att. 2,500). Lastly, vv Noordwijk also goes on to clinch the nationwide non-league title by defeating Sunday champions RVV Xerxes (2-3 away win / 1-2 home defeat defeat / tie-break match at Sportpark Nieuw Zuid in Katwijk: 3-2 win, with goals by Jan Willem Bogers, Sjoerd Boot, and Johan van Dijk; att. 3,500). The successful coach is John Eelman.
1981 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions of Saturday League 1A, finishing 2 points ahead of closest rivals KVV Quick Boys. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv DOS Kampen.
1983 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself champions of Saturday League 1A, finishing 4 points ahead of closest rivals KVV Quick Boys. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv IJsselmeervogels.
1984 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in Saturday League 1A, 8 points behind champions vv Rijnsburgse Boys.
1985 / vv Noordwijk finishes as runner-up in Saturday League 1A, 2 points behind champions SV Kozakken Boys.
1987 / vv Noordwijk striker Klaas Vink, who had made his debut in the club’s first team at the age of sixteen in 1981, leaves the club for a professional league contract at RV&AV Excelsior. Vink goes on to have further spells at SBV Excelsior, FC Wageningen – scoring that club’s last-ever professional league goal in a 2-1 win over NAC before its going bankrupt – BV De Graafschap, and SC Heracles ’74, eventually withdrawing into non-league with vv Bennekom in 1997.
1989 / vv Noordwijk defender Cees Marbus, 20 years old, leaves the club to sign a professional league deal with Go Ahead Eagles. Subsequently, Marbus would have a spell at FC Volendam before returning to Go Ahead Eagles, where he ended his footballing career in 2000.
1991 / vv Noordwijk wins District West II’s Regional Cup (Districtsbeker) for the first time in the club’s history, defeating Sparta Rotterdam Reserves in the final (2-0). Also in 1991, former vv Noordwijk goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who had joined the club at the age of 17 from vv Foreholte in 1988, only to leave for the reserves’ team of AFC Ajax one year later, makes his professional league debut at AFC Ajax. Van der Sar would go on to have spells at Juventus FC, Fulham FC, and Manchester United FC, where he ended his career at the age of 40 in 2011; moreover, he also won 130 caps for the Netherlands between 1995 and 2008, taking part in no fewer than seven international tournaments (World Cup in 1994, 1996, 2004 / European Championships in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008).
1992 / No fewer than three vv Noordwijk players embark on a professional league adventure. Strikers Leonard van Utrecht and Bram Marbus – the younger brother of Cees Marbus – both make the move to SBV Excelsior. Van Utrecht would go on to have spells at Calcio Padova, Cambuur-Leeuwarden, ADO Den Haag, ultimately returning to vv Noordwijk in 2002 for three more years in non-league. Marbus, on the other hand, saw further spells at Cambuur-Leeuwarden, Go Ahead Eagles, and Sparta Rotterdam, ending his professional league career in 2005 for two more years with vv Noordwijk in non-league. The third player to leave vv Noordwijk in the summer of 1992 for a professional league club is goalkeeper Rob van Dijk, who – like his training mate Edwin van der Sar – had settled at Sportpark Duinwetering from vv Foreholte, in his case in 1991. Van Dijk signed a deal with Feyenoord Rotterdam, going on to have further spells at RKC Waalwijk, PSV, BV De Graafschap, SC Heerenveen, and FC Utrecht, hanging up his boots at the age of 43 in 2012.
1993 / vv Noordwijk win the so-called Leids Dagblad Cup, a local cup competition.
1994 / Confirming their status as a breeding place for talented goalkeepers, vv Noordwijk sees its 21-year-old goalie Arjan van Heusden leave to sign a deal with Port Vale FC. Van Heusden went on to have a colourful career in the lower reaches of English professional league football with spells at Oxford United FC, Cambridge United FC, Exeter City FC, Mansfield Town FC, and Torquay United FC. Van Heusden ultimately returned to the Netherlands in 2005, where he enjoyed five more years in non-league with FC Lisse and SV ARC. Whereas Van Heusden left the club in 1994, vv Noordwijk was joined in the summer of 1994 by former FC Groningen and vv Oosterparkers midfielder Arnold Reinders, who would stay with the club for no fewer than ten seasons.
1996 / Finishing in fifth place in Saturday League 1A, vv Noordwijk qualifies for Zaterdag Hoofdklasse, the newly created top tier of the Saturday non-league pyramid.
1998 / 24-year-old vv Noordwijk midfielder André de Ridder leaves the club to sign a professional league contract with Telstar. De Ridder went on to have further spells at FC Zwolle and Stormvogels Telstar, hanging up his boots in 2007.
1999 / vv Noordwijk crowns itself as champions in Zaterdag Hoofdklasse A, finishing 5 points ahead of closest followers SVV Scheveningen. The successful coach is Ruud Bröring. Subsequently, in the nationwide Saturday title play-offs, the club has to leave the honours to vv IJsselmeervogels.
2000 / vv Noordwijk finishes in joint second place in Zaterdag Hoofdklasse A with vv Rijnsburgse Boys, 5 points behind champions vv Katwijk.
2003 / 23-year old goalkeeper Joost Terol, who had joined vv Noordwijk from town rivals vv SJC two years previously, signs a professional league contract with FC Utrecht. Terol would go on to have spells with Sparta Rotterdam, PAE Veroia, AEP Paphos FC, AGOVV Apeldoorn, BV De Graafschap, and R Antwerp FC, ultimately hanging up his boots in 2014.
2006 / vv Noordwijk reaches the final of District West II’s Regional Cup, in which the club has to leave the honours to vv Rijnsburgse Boys.
2007 / Goalkeeper Wesley de Ruiter, who had been lured away by FC Utrecht’s youth academy from vv Noordwijk several years previously, makes his full professional debut at FC Utrecht. De Ruiter would go on to have further spells at FC Den Bosch, SBV Excelsior, RKC Waalwijk, and FC Emmen, before withdrawing into non-league in 2015 with ZSV Sportlust ’46 and – later – FC Rijnvogels.
2010 / After the bankruptcy of professional league club HFC Haarlem in the early stages of 2010, one of the players in the squad of that club, defender Marcel Akerboom, joins vv Noordwijk. Akerboom, who had previously had spells at Fortuna Sittard and FC Zwolle, had moved away from vv Noordwijk at the age of thirteen to join the youth academy of AFC Ajax all the way back in 1994. In spite of being reinforced by all the experience of Akerboom in the latter stages of the season, vv Noordwijk only finishes in seventh place in Zondag Hoofdklasse A, thus missing out on qualification for Zaterdag Topklasse, the newly created top tier of the Saturday pyramid. As such, an uninterrupted spell of 49 years at the top of the Saturday non-league pyramid comes to an end for vv Noordwijk.
2011 / In an excellent season, vv Noordwijk reaches the quarterfinal of the Netherlands’ Cup following defeats of FC Lienden, Voorschoten ’97, SV De Treffers, and vv Sparta Nijkerk. In the last 8, the club is knocked out by professional league side RKC Waalwijk (6-0). Following this, the club also wins the title in Zondag Hoofdklasse A following a tie-break match against KVV Quick Boys. With the tie being played at Sportpark Duinwetering, vv Noordwijk wins the encounter (A.E.T.) thanks to a solitary goal by Stefan Mertens. This results in the club gaining promotion to Zaterdag Topklasse. The successful coach is Robbert de Ruiter.
2012 / In view of the prospective renovation of Sportpark Duinwetering, the main pitch is given a quarter’s turn and laid out anew with a synthetic surface. The three old stands at the western touchline as well as the terracing opposite of it (all visible in the photos below) are removed completely. After playing the first two of its home matches on one of the side-pitches of the park, vv Noordwijk plays its first official match on the new main pitch, resulting in a 4-2 win over SV Spakenburg. Prior to this, the new 3G had been inaugurated by Noordwijk’s mayor, Mr Jan Pieter Lokker. As the works on the new clubhouse and main stand have yet to get underway, a truck trailer is put in place as a temporary covered stand.
2015 / After nearly two years of construction works, the new Sportpark Duinwetering II is officially inaugurated on August 29th, 2015.