Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: SK Elewijt (1962-1971) / VV Elewijt (1971-1991) / Crossing Elewijt (1983-1991) / KCVV Elewijt (1991-2022, 2023-)

Complex 'Den Reggel' / Terwilgenstadion, Elewijt - veld 1 (K Crossing VV Elewijt, formerly SK Elewijt / VV Elewijt / Crossing Elewijt)

Belgium, province: Flemish Brabant = Vlaams Brabant

1 IV 2012 / KCVV Elewijt - VK Berg-Op 1-0 / Brabant, Provincial League 4G (= BE level 8)

Timeline

1909 / Foundation of a first football club in Elewijt. The club never applied for membership of Belgium's Football Association. Leaving few traces - not even the memory of a club name -, this first football team in Elewijt disappeared in the wake of the outbreak of World War I.
±1920 / Some time World War I (the year given is no more than a wild guess), a new club is founded, Léopold Elewyt. In the ten years of its existence, Léopold played at three different grounds: De Koffer, Achter de Koffer, and lastly at Voetbalstraat (the current Sweynbeerstraat).
1927 / Nine years after its foundation, Léopold joins the Belgian FA as VC (Voetbalclub) Léopold Elewyt, receiving matricule 1037. After just one season in Brabant's Provincial League 4, however, the club folds, ceasing all activities.
1936 / The year 1936 sees the foundation not of one, but two clubs in Elewijt, each joining the Belgian Football Association straightaway: SK (Sportkring) Elewijt (matricule 2415) and FC (Football Club) Elewijt (matricule 2416). While SK Elewijt moves into Léopold's old ground at Voetbalstraat, FC Elewijt plays its football at a ground known as 't Zwijnbeer.
1937 / FC Elewijt temporarily moves away from 't Zwijnbeer, settling at a makeshift ground at Vekestraat.
1939 / In 1939 or possibly in 1941, FC Elewijt's activities are moved back to 't Zwijnbeer.
1946 / FC Elewijt yet again moves grounds, this time settling at a new ground created at Kastanjedreef.
1962 / SK Elewijt leaves its ground at Voetbalstraat to settle at a newly created ground at Driesstraat, referred to as Terwilgenstadion.
1971 / After 35 years as independent clubs, in which FC Elewijt and SK Elewijt never managed to climb higher up the ladder than Provincial League 2, both clubs conclude a merger, forming VV (Voetbalvereniging) Elewijt, retaining SK's matricule 2415. First team football is played at SK's Terwilgenstadion, while FC Elewijt's ground at Kastanjelaan remains in use for lower team football and training purposes.
1983 / No longer satisfied with an anonymous role for his club in the lower echelons of Brabant's Provincial Leagues, VV Elewijt's ambitious president, Maurice De Laet, makes a striking move by buying matricule 55 of former top flight club R Crossing Club Schaerbeek. In the 1982-83 season, Crossing Schaerbeek finished last in National Division 4 with just four points - meaning a relegation to Brabant's Provincial League 1; a humiliation for the once-proud Brussels' club, but a level which no club in Elewijt had ever attained. Renamed R Crossing Elewijt, the club moves from Brussels' Josaphatpark to Elewijt's Terwilgenstadion, groundsharing with VV Elewijt. In the following years, VV Elewijt is reduced to little more than Crossing's satellite outfit.
1988 / R Crossing Elewijt wins Brabant's Provincial Cup.
±1988 / A second pitch is added to the ground at Driesstraat (later equipped with a synthetic surface).
1991 / After a relatively stable existence in Provincial League 1 (alternated with two seasons in P2 in 1984-86), R Crossing Elewijt is condemned to relegation to Provincial League 2. After the 1990-91 season, the club merges with VV Elewijt, resulting in the foundation of Koninklijke Crossing Voetbalvereniging (KCVV) Elewijt, often referred to as Crossing VV Elewijt or simply Crossing Elewijt. The club retains matricule 55.
1992 / Thorough renovation of the club's Terwilgenstadion, involving the construction of a cycling track around the main pich. Upon its inauguration, the track is given the name Den Reggel - a reference to the nickname of Corneel De Coster (1912-1985), a successful cyclist from Elewijt who also played football for FC Elewijt prior to World War II. In a nice coincidence, De Coster also lived in an emergency house at Driesstraat - close to or even on the exact location of the stadium - for a short time following World War I. In the years following the construction of the cycling track, the name Den Reggel is gradually adopted to refer to the sports park as a whole - condemning the old title Terwilgenstadion to the realms of history.
±1997 / FC Elewijt's former ground at Kastanjelaan, which remained in use for training sessions and lower team football after the merger in 1971, is abandoned, as all club activities now move to Complex Den Reggel once and for all.
2022 / After promotions from Provincial League 4 to Provincial League 3 (2012 / photos 1-17 below were taken at the match in which 'Crossing' obtained this title), and from Provincial League 3 to Provincial League 2 (2019), KCVV Elewijt accedes to Flemish Brabant's Provincial League 1 for the first time since its foundation as a merger club in 1991.
2022 / In the fall of 2022, Den Reggel's cycling track is demolished. While construction works on a new - synthetic - main pitch take place, all of KCVV Elewijt's teams play their football at Den Reggel's second pitch.
2023 / With the new Pitch 1 at Den Reggel being inaugurated, the club moves its first team football to this pitch, which is almost exactly in the same place as it had been prior to the renovation works.

Note 1 - Thanks to KCVV Elewijt's club historian Martijn Van den Berg for providing me with the bulk of the information given above.

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of three different visits: pictures 1-17 = match visit, April 2012 / pictures 18-22 = non-matchday visit, August 2022 / picture 23 = non-matchday visit, September 2024.