Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: vv Dochteren (±1939-1944) / vv Klein Dochteren (1961-1982, 1984-)

Thursday 6 October 2022

NETHERLANDS: vv Dochteren (±1939-1944) / vv Klein Dochteren (1961-1982, 1984-)

Sportpark 't Schooldert, Klein Dochteren (vv Klein Dochteren)

Netherlands, province: Guelders = Gelderland

October 2022 / no match visited

Timeline

1930 / Foundation of a first football club in Klein Dochteren, christened Voetbalvereniging (vv) Dochteren. The club's pitch is referred to as Terrein Zweverink, a piece of moorland situated at Dwarsweg.
1932 / vv Dochteren joins the Gelderse Voetbalbond (GVB), the league organising football below (Sunday) League 4 level in the province of Guelders. That same year, the club abandons Terrein Zweverink, switching to a pitch created at the back of De Vlijt, a farmhouse at Zutphenseweg.
± 1939 / vv Dochteren moves a second time, settling on a pitch created behind Café De Groot, situated at Rijksweg Lochem-Zutphen. Although conditions are markedly better than at the two previous grounds, there is no running water available; the home side's players' changing room is the attic of the café, while the aways find shelter in a former chicken coop.
1944 / As World War II progresses, vv Dochteren finds it harder and harder to field a first team, with some players being sent to Germany to perform forced labour, while others went into hiding to avoid the same fate. In the end, also due to rumours about the Dutch Football Association planning to drastically reduce its membership in rural areas, the club decides to find itself a merger partner. As relations with its closest neighbour, the rather posh LVV Lochem (better known as 'Blauw-Wit'), were chilly at best, vv Dochteren gets in touch with Koolhazen, another club from Lochem; finally in 1944, those talks result in the foundation of KDC (Koolhazen Dochteren Combinatie). All activities are moved to Koolhazen's Sportpark De Enk - situated at Barchemseweg, Lochem (behind Café Vonkerman). Klein Dochteren's ground is abandoned. Later on, in 1962, KDC merged with town rivals LVV Lochem (better known as Blauw-Wit), forming vv Sportclub Lochem.
1958 / A.J. Rigter, teacher at Klein Dochteren's primary school, purchases a football, allowing his pupils to play on the former pitch of vv Dochteren. Meanwhile taken over by other owners, Café De Groot has been renamed Café De Zonnebloem - the village school being next door to this café.
1960 / The pupils' enthusiasm for the ball game gave locals in Klein Dochteren the idea to refound their football club. Thus, in a meeting set up at Café De Zonnebloem on September 24th, 1960, Voetbalvereniging (vv) Klein Dochteren saw the daylight.
1961 / The refounded vv Klein Dochteren are admitted as new members of the Netherlands' Football Association in May 1961, allowing the club to enter a team in the lowest tier of Gelderse Voetbalbond (GVB). Home games are played on the aforementioned pitch at the back of Café De Zonnebloem - later renamed Sportpark 't Schooldert.
1974 / vv Klein Dochteren's original changing rooms - the chicken coop taken in use back in the days of vv Dochteren - are replaced by a container with showering facilities.
1978 / Klein Dochteren's elementary school closes its doors. In the following years, the building is turned into the hamlet's community centre, 'De Schole'. The part of the building situated on the roadside is rebuilt to serve as vv Klein Dochteren's new clubhouse and changing rooms.
1982 / A reorganisation of Sportpark 't Schooldert sees a second pitch being added to the park. In the process, the main pitch is replaced to give it its current position. With vv Klein Dochteren being unable to use the park while works are underway, the club groundshares with vv Sportclub Lochem and SVBV (Barchem).
1983 / Having its best season so far, vv Klein Dochteren finishes fourth in GVB's League 1A.
1984 / After two years of playing its football elsewhere - and renovation works having been completed -, vv Klein Dochteren can finally return to its home ground.
1990 / Sportpark 't Schooldert is further extended, with a third pitch, exclusively used for training sessions, being created at the back of 'De Schole'.
1996 / As Gelderse Voetbalbond's two divisions are reorganised as Sunday Leagues 5 and 6 - until that time, teams relegated from Sunday League 4 dropped into GVB's League 1 -, vv Klein Dochteren's first team is placed in District East's Sunday League 6.
1999 / The football club's pitches are purchased by the owners of Café De Zonnebloem.
2006 / Winning the title in Sunday League 6D, vv Klein Dochteren accedes to Sunday League 5 for the first time - but the adventure lasts no longer than one season, with relegation following in 2007.
2008 / The club's first team manages a new promotion to Sunday League 5, this time holding its own for the following three seasons.
2013 / With Sunday League 6 being abolished due to the dwindling number of football clubs in the region, vv Klein Dochteren accedes to Sunday League 5 without winning promotion on the pitch.
2018 / Due to a lack of players, vv Klein Dochteren withdraws its first team from the regular leagues in April 2018 - unable even to finish the 2017-18 season. Since, the club has only fielded teams in reserves' divisions.