BELGIUM: FC Testelt (± 1965-1978)

Terrein Hollestraat, Testelt (formerly FC Testelt)

Belgium, province: Flemish Brabant

March 2023 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1940 / Foundation of FC Sportkring (SK) Testelt, which joins Belgium's Football Association under matricule 2870. It is unknown where this club's pitch was situated - most probably at a location south of Nieuwstraat, Terrein De Weefberg - the future birthplace of FC Testelt (in 1950). 
• 1943 / Having taken part in just one season of Brabant's regional divisions, FC SK Testelt folds, ceasing all activities. Matricule 2870 is erased from the Belgian FA's official lists.
• 1950 / Foundation of a new football club in Testelt, FC Testelt, which joins Belgium's FA under matricule 5377. The club's first ground is situated to the south of Nieuwstraat, Terrein De Weefberg - possibly also the ground where FC SK Testelt played its football in the war years. The first decade of club history has been poorly documented, but it is clear FC Testelt played a modest role in Brabant's Provincial League 3 all through the 1950s - with the club even failing to field a first team in the 1952-53 season.
• ± 1960 / It is unclear in which year FC Testelt moved from its initial pitch near Café De Weefberg to a newly laid-out ground to the north of Nieuwstraat, but the move must have happened some time around 1960. The old ground is removed to make way for housing; one of the streets running across the old pitch is given the apt name 'Sportstraat'.
• 1964 / Winning the title in Brabant's Provincial League 3A, FC Testelt manages the first promotion in club history, acceding to Provincial League 2.
• ± 1965 / Again the exact year is unclear, but some time in the mid-1960s, FC Testelt must have moved away from Terrein Nieuwstraat to settle at a new pitch at Hollestraat. The pitch at Nieuwstraat remained in use by various recreational football teams, lastly FC Scouts Testelt, well into the 20th century before being taken over by a local horse farmer.
• 1974 / Having spent ten seasons in Provincial League 2, FC Testelt clinches the title in Provincial League 2B, thus acceding to Brabant's Provincial League 1 for the first time. 
• 1978 / Sensationally, FC Testelt wins the Provincial League 1 title, thus becoming a national league team for the first time. As the pitch at Hollestraat does not have the correct measurements for national league football, a solution has to be found quickly - and the club finds it by purchasing a plot of land from a noble family from Westerlo, De Merode. This new ground is also situated at Nieuwstraat, only several dozens of yards west of the initial Terrein Nieuwstraat which was abandoned in the 1960s. Much later, in 1996, it is renamed Paul Verdonckstadion. At Hollestraat, the clubhouse is preserved to be used as a function room until being superseded by Feestzaal De Zil on the other side of the same road.

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author