NETHERLANDS: vv Luctor '88 (1988-2017) / Luctor Heinkenszand (C) (2017-)

Sportpark Heinkenszand veld 3 - Dorpsstraat, Heinkenszand (C pitch of Luctor Heinkenszand, formerly vv Luctor '88)

Netherlands, province: Zealand = Zeeland

April 2023 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1936 / Foundation of a first football club in Heinkenszand, which is given the name Luctor (Latin for "I struggle") - an abbreviation of the long-time motto of the Province of Zealand: "Luctor et emergo", or, in English: "I struggle and overcome". It is unclear which ground Luctor used for its home matches in the first 26 years of its existence.
• 1939 / Having spent its first three years in another league, Luctor now joins the official Netherlands' FA (KNVB), starting its life as a Sunday league club in the so-called Zeeuwsche Voetbalbond (ZVB), an association organising the local leagues in Zealand below KNVB League 4 - with ZVB mostly being referred to simply as KNVB Afdeling Zeeland in the post-war years.
• 1953 / Winning the title in ZVB Division 1, Luctor accedes to District South I's Sunday League 4 for the first time.
• 1956 / A second football team in Heinkenszand is formed, vv Heinkenszand, which has a firmly evangelical signature, joining the ranks of KNVB as a Saturday league club. vv Heinkenszand plays its football at Terrein Boerendijk.
• 1962 / Having each played on their own pitch until 1962, Luctor and vv Heinkenszand now move into a shared municipal sports park situated at Dorpsstraat, Sportpark Heinkenszand. The two clubs share the same main pitch.
• 1979 / A merger is concluded between Luctor and vv Heinkenszand, resulting in the foundation of Sportvereniging (SV) Heinkenszand. The newly formed club fields first teams in Sunday as well as Saturday league football, thus accommodating the Roman-Catholic as well as the evangelical part of Heinkenszand's sport-minded population.
• 1988 / Amidst ongoing discussions about saving costs, former vv Heinkenszand members manage to persuade the club's board to do away with one of the two first teams - with a vote being held among the membership about which one would be maintained. With most votes being cast for Saturday league football, the Sunday branch decides to break away and found vv Luctor '88, choosing its own board, led by Piet Vermeulen, building itself a new clubhouse west of SV Heinkenszand's premises, and joining the Sunday league pyramid in ZVB Division 1. The new club, in fact a refoundation of the old Luctor, inaugurates its own main pitch, known nowadays as pitch 3 of Sportpark Heinkenszand. It is unclear in which year this pitch had been added to Sportpark Heinkenszand.
• 1989 / In its first season as an independent club, vv Luctor '88 clinches the title in ZVB Division 1, thus acceding to KNVB Sunday League 4.
• 1991 / Winning the title in District South I's Sunday League 4G following a 1-0 win over vv RSV - with the decisive goal being scored two minutes before the end of the match -, vv Luctor '88 manages a second promotion in two years, acceding to Sunday League 3.
• 1992 / vv Luctor '88 finishes in 9th place in Sunday League 3D, the best result in its history as an independent club.
• 1993 / Having played two seasons of L3 football, vv Luctor '88 finishes 11th in Sunday League 3D, thus being retrograded to League 4.
• 2001 / After 8 seasons of L4 football, vv Luctor '88 now finishes in 12th place in Sunday League 4A, thus suffering relegation to Sunday League 5, the new level below L4 introduced after the dissolution of ZVB in 1996.
• 2004 / Having just missed out on promotion in the two previous seasons, vv Luctor '88 now manages a return to Sunday League 4 after winning the promotion play-offs following a 2nd place finish in L5B.
• 2007 / A rapprochement is made with SV Heinkenszand with a first combined youth team being fielded. In the following years, a gradual merger of the respective clubs' youth academies is brought about.
• 2013 / Finishing in 4th place in District South I's Sunday League 4A, vv Luctor '88 qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which it sees off RKVV Nieuw-Borgvliet and SV Oostburg to qualify for the final, played at vv Hansweertse Boys' Sportpark Zijpe. At this neutral venue, the club defeats FC Bergen after a penalty shoot-out (4-2 following a 2-2 draw A.E.T.) to return to Sunday League 3 following a 20-year absence. The stay at this level is short-lived, though, with relegation following in 2014.
• 2015 / Again qualifying for the promotion play-offs in L4, vv Luctor '88 sees off Zeelandic Flanders' sides vv Biervliet and vv Philippine to reclaim its status of L3 club. Again, though, the stay at this level does not last longer than just one season.
• 2017 / In its last season as an independent club, vv Luctor '88 clinches the title in District South I's Sunday League 4A, with the decisive points being obtained in a 1-0 home win over vv Clinge. That summer, a merger - or rather, a re-merger - is concluded with SV Heinkenszand, resulting in the foundation of Luctor Heinkenszand. In spite of vv Luctor '88 having the more successful flagship team, the merger club sticks to just one first team, starting its life in Saturday League 4. The merger process proved very laborious, with the decision being taken to use neither of the two former clubs' main pitches for first team football, with home matches being played on pitch 2 of Sportpark Heinkenszand for the time being - pitch 2 being situated halfway between the two former main pitches. In the meantime, a budget is being made available to give SV Heinkenszand's pitch, adorned with a stand since the late 1990s, a thorough renovation.
• 2019 / First team football is moved to SV Heinkenszand's former main pitch - this being the original main pitch of Sportpark Heinkenszand since the park's construction in the early 1960s. Following this, the clubhouse is moved from vv Luctor '88's premises to SV Heinkenszand's canteen as well.

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