Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: vv Hoogezand

Sportpark De Kalkwijck - veld 5, Hoogezand (vv Hoogezand)

Netherlands, province: Groningen

5 XI 2022 / vv Hoogezand - vv Winsum 1-0 / Saturday League 1F (= NL level 6)

Timeline

±1915 / Foundation of a football club in Hoogezand, Vitesse. The club's activities are purely recreational, as Vitesse refrains from joining the Netherlands' Football Association (NVB).
1918 / A football ground is laid out at Instituut Hommes, a boarding school in Sappemeer, shortly to the east of Hoogezand, for the benefit of football club - and NVB members - HSC. The smaller Vitesse are allowed to make use of the facilities on Saturday mornings.
1920 / Vitesse wants to join the Netherlands' FA, but is refused - membership are only allowed to take part in league football under the flag of HSC. As most of Vitesse's members now decide to join HSC, the recreational club is disbanded.
1922 / Refoundation of Vitesse under a new name - Voetbalvereniging (vv) Hoogezand. Upon filing a new request to join the Netherlands' FA, membership is accepted on the condition of a name change - given that the name 'Vitesse' has already been taken by the future professional league club from Arnhem. vv Hoogezand's first chairman is J. de Jonge. The club finds a pitch at Guitpad in Martenshoek, a hamlet to the west of Hoogezand.
1923 / Abandoning their first pitch at Guitpad, vv Hoogezand settles at a Terrein 'Blaikveld', situated at the back of Café Van Alteren. Here, the club manages its first title - finishing first in (Sunday) League 4 without conceding a single defeat, resulting in a promotion to League 3.
1925 / vv Hoogezand moves grounds yet again, with a local alderman, Mr Buurma, finding the club a plot of land at Van Royenstraat.
1926 / Guided by their two managers, the brothers Adam & Frans Kroeze, vv Hoogezand accede to League 2 by winning the title in League 3D - once more without a single defeat.
1927 / For a third time in the club's young history, vv Hoogezand moves grounds - settling at Terrein Hommes, which, from 1918 to 1926, had been home to HSC. When HSC left in 1926, the pitch was taken by SVA, a club which had broken away from HSC in 1922. Probably under pressure from local authorities, vv Hoogezand and SVA swap grounds, with the latter settling at Van Royenstraat. For vv Hoogezand, the move to Terrein Hommes is beneficial, henceforth having at its disposal a ground with a stand as well as fully-fledged dressing rooms. The club's youth academy is reinforced by boys from the adjacent boarding school.
1930 / vv Hoogezand absorbs SVA without changing its name as a result. All activities move to Terrein Hommes, with SVA's pitch at Van Royenstraat being abandoned.
1935 / Clinching the title in League 2B with head-coach Willem de Wolf, vv Hoogezand wins promotion to League 1 North for the first time in club history.
1936 / Terrein Hommes is given an upgrade - much needed, given the high level at which vv Hoogezands now plays, with larger numbers of spectators flocking to the ground for home matches. Still, makeshift solutions are required now and then, as bundles of straw are lined along the pitch to allow as many supporters as possible to follow their favourites' achievements on the pitch.
1938 / After three seasons in League 1 North, vv Hoogezand suffers relegation to L2 after losing the relegation play-offs against FVC (Leeuwarden) and GRC (Groningen). In the following three decades, the club is a regular at League 2 level.
1947 / vv Hoogezand obtains the title in L2, but fails to win the ensuing promotion play-offs against winners in other L2 groups.
1952 / For a second time in five years, vv Hoogezand wins 'its' League 2 group, with BNC from Finsterwolde being crushed 8-3 in the deciding match. Again, promotion eludes the club though, as future professional league club Heracles (Almelo) wins the play-offs. That same year, first plans are made by Hoogezand's authorities to create a municipal omnisports park, including a state-of-the-art football ground for vv Hoogezand, to the south of Nieuweweg - in what would eventually become Sportpark De Kalkwijck.
1959 / For the third time since World War II, vv Hoogezand wins its League 2 without reaping the fruits due to the club losing the promotion play-offs against DOS '19 (Denekamp) and eventual winners VDZ (Arnhem). That summer, Ab Baas, vv Hoogezand's goalkeeper, signs a contract with professional league side vv Veendam.
1962 / After a three-year spell at vv Veendam, Ab Baas returns to vv Hoogezand. In the 1960s, under the auspices of club president, Mr Boomsma, a host of former players of professional league sides vv Veendam and GVAV are successfully invited to join vv Hoogezand, including the likes of Derk Snijders, Roly Groninger, and Matheus Korte - raising the suspicion that Boomsma, an estate agent by profession, paid those players for their services, which was not allowed under the strict rules for amateur league football in the Netherlands in those days. In spite of the reinforcement of these so-called 'Boomsma Boys', vv Hoogezand does not manage any tangible successes on the pitch in the 1960s.
1962 / After years of preparation, construction works at the future Sportpark De Kalkwijck in Hoogezand get underway.
1964 / Abandoning Terrein Hommes in Sappemeer after 37 years, vv Hoogezand settles at the newly inaugurated Sportpark De Kalkwijck.
1967 / The main stand, projected in the plans for Sportpark De Kalkwijck in the early 1950s, is finally constructed, with covered seats for some 500 spectators. Some months later, the new clubhouse is inaugurated.
1969 / Suffering relegation from Sunday League 2 after a continued presence of 31 seasons, vv Hoogezand are placed at League 3 level for the first time in 43 years. The stay at that lowly level lasts for one season only, though, with a league title in Sunday League 3D and promotion back to L2 being attained straightaway in 1970.
1974 / Winning the promotion play-offs, vv Hoogezand manages a return to (Sunday) League 1 after an absence of 36 years at that level. In the following 33 seasons, the club alternates spells in Sunday Leagues 1 and 2.
1988 / A Saturday League club is founded in Hoogezand, HS (Hoogezand-Sappemeer) '88. This club is given its own ground at Sportpark De Kalkwijck. Nowadays (2022), three football clubs are home at De Kalkwijck: apart from HS '88 and vv Hoogezand, there is vv Kwiek - all three of them disposing of their own pitches. It is not clear in which year vv Kwiek moved to Sportpark De Kalkwijck from their old ground at Julianastraat.
2000 / New changing rooms are constructed at the back of vv Hoogezand's main stand. The foundation stone is laid by the club's honorary president J. Lambeck.
± 2001 / A third club moves into Sportpark De Kalkwijck. With vv Hoogezand and HS '88 each disposing of their own pitches, vv Kwiek now also settles at its own corner of the park. This Sunday league club, founded in 1930, previously played its football at Hotel Beerenboom (1930-±1933), Hotel Struve in Sappemeer (± 1933-1937), Café Berg at Burgemeester Van Rooyenstraat (1937-±1960), Sportpark Noord at Van Heemskerckstraat (±1960-±1973), and Julianastraat (±1973-±2001). In the current lay-out of Sportpark De Kalkwijck, vv Hoogezand's main pitch is referred to as 'terrein/veld (pitch) 5'.
2008 / Following back-to-back relegations, vv Hoogezand finds itself in Sunday League 4 - the nadir in club history.
2010 / Climbing up the league ladder as quickly as it had tumbled down in the preceding seasons, vv Hoogezand is back at League 2 level. Whereas the first, in 2009, was reached by winning the title in Sunday League 4F, the club had to go through the promotion play-offs one year later after losing the title in a head-to-head confrontation with vv ASVB, played at a neutral venue; vv Veendam 1894's Sportpark De Langeleegte Noord.
2015 / After an absence of 17 seasons, vv Hoogezand manage a return to Sunday League 1 by winning the promotion play-offs. The stay at this level does not last longer than one year, though, with relegation following in 2016.
2019 / Once more winning the promotion play-offs in Sunday League 2, vv Hoogezand accedes to Sunday League 1 for the second time in four years.
2022 / Winning the title in Sunday League 1F, vv Hoogezand earns the right to accede to National Division 4 Sunday, the fifth step of the Netherlands' league pyramid, for the first time in club history. However, with the Netherlands' FA rules allowing a 'horizontal' switch from the Sunday to the Saturday League pyramid for the first time, vv Hoogezand prefers moving its first team to Saturday League 1F (= NL level 6) instead - ceding its place in D4 Sunday to runners-up vv VKW.
2024 / Finishing in eleventh place in the combined Saturday & Sunday Leagues 1J, vv Hoogezand has to play a set of relegation play-offs. Drawing a bye in R1, the club defeats RKSV De Tukkers in R2 (0-3) and FC Surhústerfean in R3 (2-0) to qualify for the final, in which the club is condemned to relegation to Saturday League 2 by SC Stiens (3-1).