Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: KVC Deerlijk Sport (B) (1975-2015) / Real Deerlijk (2015-)

Sunday, 9 October 2022

BELGIUM: KVC Deerlijk Sport (B) (1975-2015) / Real Deerlijk (2015-)

Oliebergstraat, Sint-Lodewijk (former B ground of KVC Deerlijk Sport)

Belgium, province: West Flanders

9 X 2022 / Real Deerlijk - FC Koppa Juniors 2-5 / VLVB Sunday Regional League - group A

Timeline

1973 / In Sint-Lodewijk, a hamlet belonging to the municipality of Deerlijk but in fact nearly 4 km away from the village centre, the decision is taken to open football facilities for the local youth players - the main reason being parental worries about the dangerous bikeride the boys have to make along Pladijsstraat to reach KVC Deerlijk Sport's A ground in Deerlijk proper. Under the leadership of youth trainer Eddy Ameye, the boys henceforth have their practice pitch in Sint-Lodewijk (or, in local dialect, 'Sellewie' - an corruption of the French Saint-Louis) on a small meadow put at the disposal of the club by the local Boy Scouts (Chiro).
1975 / In Sint-Lodewijk, a proper football pitch is put in place at Oliebergstraat, with a small clubhouse being built alongside it thanks to the efforts of Jacques Garremijn, Karel Vanassche, and Roger Delobelle. Delobelle also is the first groundsman of Deerlijk's "Campus B", later being succeeded by Etienne Dejonckere.
2008 / The 35th anniversary of youth football in Sint-Lodewijk is marked with festive events attended by Belgium's former national goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff.
2011 / A new set of dressing rooms is added to the ground.
2015 / KVC Deerlijk Sport abandons the premises at Oliebergstraat. Since the club's departure, the pitch has been in use exclusively by various local recreational teams - in the past, there were VK Torenhof and VK Sint-Lodewijk who shared it with Deerlijk Sport. In 2015, Real Deerlijk (formerly named Real Knok) settled down at Oliebergstraat after having been forced to move from Sparta Belgiek's ground in Deerlijk proper (Heulselaan) which was replaced by housing. At the time of my visit in 2022, Real Deerlijk shared the ground with Sparta Belgiek Deerlijk and FC Gavervrienden Deerlijk, two other VLVB teams.

Note 1: Part of the information above was provided by Caroline Buyck, Jean-Paul Verleye, Kurt Vandenberghe, Krist Demunck, and Peter Decleir - thanks to all of them for their help.

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1 & 3-17 = match visit, October 2022 / picture 2 = non-matchday visit, April 2022.