Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: RVVH (2020-)

Saturday 11 March 2023

NETHERLANDS: RVVH (2020-)

Sportpark Ridderkerk II - Sportlaan, Ridderkerk (RVVH)

Netherlands, province: South Holland

11 III 2023 / RVVH - vv Nieuw-Lekkerland 0-2 / Saturday League 1C (= NL level 6)

Timeline

1918 / Foundation of vv Excelsior, a protestant-christian football club in Ridderkerk. Only a few days after the foundation of the club, a name change is undertaken, with vv Excelsior becoming vv Hercules (later commonly referred to as RVV Hercules, an acronym for Ridderkerksche Voetbalvereeniging Hercules). The club's first ground is situated on a pasture at Kievitsweg, owned by Mr Groenenboom, a local farmer. Not much later (c. 1920), the club switches to Terrein Krouwel at Lagendijk.
1920 / vv Hercules absorbs another local club, vv DOS (Door Oefening Sterk), which had probably been formed the previous year.
± 1928 / RVV Hercules abandons Terrein Krouwel, settling at one of the pitches of the so-called Watertoren-Terrein in Slikkerveer, which it shares with BVV OLIVIO.
1935 / After some seven years of groundsharing with OLIVIO at Terrein Watertoren, RVV Hercules settles at a pitch of its own, Terrein Molendijk.
1938 / RVV Hercules is ordered by KNVB authorities to change its name in order to avoid confusion with other clubs bearing the same name. In the end, the decision is taken to settle for RVVH - the acronym for RVV Hercules.
1962 / Abandoning Terrein Molendijk after 27 years, RVVH settles at a newly built municipal sports facility, the so-called Gemeentelijk Sportpark Ridderkerk (I). The park is shared by RVVH with SV Slikkerveer, with both clubs' first teams sharing the main pitch.
1979 / SV Slikkerveer moves away from Gemeentelijk Sportpark Ridderkerk (I), settling at the newly built Sportpark Reijerpark.
2020 / The main pitch of Gemeentelijk Sportpark Ridderkerk (I) has to make way for a new secondary school, Gemini College. RVVH moves its main pitch to the former netball pitch at the southern end of the park. Attempts to move the Elascon stand, erected in 1963, to the new pitch, fail, as a result of which the monumental construction - along with all boards around the old main pitch - is demolished in July 2020. A new stand is erected at the northern end of the new main pitch of the park, which also sports a small open terrace on the opposite side.

Note - The main source for the information given above is a book about RVVH's club history, published on the occasion of the club's 100th anniversary: "Ridderkerkse Voetbal Vereniging Hercules 1918-2018. Zie ze het veld betreden... goed getraind en eensgezind", by Cees den Hartog, Erik den Hartog, Theo Leenheer & Teun Rijsdijk (ed. RVVH: Ridderkerk 2020).