Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: Rapid Buvingen (1976-1994) / RDK Gravelo (1994-)

Truilingenstraat, Buvingen (RDK Gravelo, formerly Rapid Buvingen)

Belgium, province: Limburg

19 VIII 2023 / RDK Gravelo - KVV Zepperen-Brustem B 3-0 / Pre-season friendly

Timeline

1938 / Foundation of a football club in Buvingen, which is given the name Zwaluwen Voetbalvereniging (ZVV) Buvingen. The club, which joins Belgium’s FA under registration number 2688, starts its life in Limburg’s Regional League 2 (2e Gewestelijke). Although no documentation is available, ZVV Buvingen allegedly was one of two pre-war clubs in Buvingen, but no name of the second club has been preserved until the present day.
1946 / ZVV Buvingen’s registration number is erased from the Belgian FA’s official lists following 4 years of inactivity.
1974 / Foundation of a new football club in Buvingen, Rapid Buvingen, with Maurice Beys being elected as its first chairman. Rapid Buvingen joins a recreational league known officiously as ‘Prenationale’, which includes clubs from Limburg and the Flemish part of Brabant. The club plays its football on a makeshift pitch owned by a local farmer, Mr Onckelinx, situated at Truilingenstraat.
1976 / Making the leap from Prenationale to the official Belgian FA, Rapid Buvingen is allotted registration number 8452. For its first season, the club is placed in Limburg’s Provincial League 4E. Simultaneously, the club moves away from Terrein Onckelinx, settling at the current ground, also situated at Truilingenstraat, where club volunteers erect a small canteen, which will see various extensions being added in the following decades.
1985 / Having spent its first 9 seasons in the bottom division of Limburg’s provincial league system, Rapid Buvingen now finishes runners-up in P4E, winning promotion to Provincial League 3 for the first time – probably after winning a round of play-offs.
1989 / After 4 seasons in P3, Rapid Buvingen now finishes dead-last in P3A, thus dropping back into P3.
1992 / A precursor to a definitive merger, Rapid Buvingen merges its youth academy with DK Mielen from nearby Mielen-boven-Aalst.
1994 / Rapid Buvingen concludes a merger with DK Mielen, resulting in the foundation of Rapid Dappere Kampers (RDK) Gravelo, with Mielen’s registration number 6711 being retained. 'Gravelo' is a reference to the name of a plot of land halfway between Mielen-boven-Aalst and Buvingen, which used to be part of the estates of the Counts (= Graven in Dutch) of Loon before Napoleon conquered the Low Countries, destroying the Ancient Régime. RDK Gravelo’s first chairman is Benny Janssens, who also was the last chairman of DK Mielen prior to the merger. Following the merger, first team football moves to Buvingen’s ground at Truilingenstraat, while the two pitches of Terrein Diepe Steeg in Mielen are retained for lower team football and training sessions. The new club’s first team starts its life in Limburg’s Provincial League 3, the level at which DK Mielen played in its last season as an independent club.
± 1998 / A small covered stand is added to the set-up at Terrein Truilingenstraat.
1999 / Finishing second-last in Provincial League 3A, RDK Gravelo descends into Provincial League 4.
2005 / 8 points ahead of KV Heur VV, RDK Gravelo clinches the title in Provincial League 4D, thus managing a return to P3 after 6 years.
2008 / Having managed a respectable 5th place the previous season, RDK Gravelo now finishes second-last in P3C, thus sinking back to the lowest level of Limburg’s Provincial League pyramid along with bottom club BJK Sint-Truiden.
2010 / Runners-up in P4C, finishing 2 points behind champions K Heers VV, RDK Gravelo qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Successively defeating Ven VV Maaseik (6-0 aggregate score) and KFC Verbroedering Lommel (4-1 aggr.), the club wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
2011 / Unable to hold its own in P3, RDK Gravelo finishes 14th in Provincial League 3C, resulting in relegation to Provincial League 4 along with Velm VV, Amandina VC, K Bolderberg FC, and Hoger Op Heide Hasselt.
2012 / RDK Gravelo finishes runners-up in Provincial League 4E, 10 points behind champions - and local rivals - Eendracht Mechelen-Bovelingen-Opheers (EMBO). Qualifying for the promotion play-offs, the club successively has the better of K Niel SK (6-0), Union FC Rutten (2-0), FC Halveweg Zonhoven (2-1), the club reaches the final, in which it is defeated by K Hechtel FC (3-2 aggregate score). In a lucky loser final, RDK Gravelo is defeated by SK Munsterbilzen (6-4 aggr.). Thus, the season ends without a return to P3.
2013 / Champions in P4C, 7 points ahead of ESJ Alken, RDK Gravelo wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
2014 / Winning back-to-back titles, RDK Gravelo crowns itself champions in P3C, 3 points ahead of closest followers Sporting Spalbeek, thus managing its second promotion in a row and acceding to Provincial League 2 for the first time in the history of Rapid Buvingen, DK Mielen, and RDK Gravelo combined.
2015 / Finishing second-last in P2B, RDK Gravelo drops back into P3 along with bottom club KSK Thor Hasselt.
2017 / Managing a 4th place in P3C, RDK Gravelo qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Defeating Sporting Wijchmaal in R1 (4-2 aggr.), the club edges past KFC Sparta Kolmont in R2 (4-4 aggr. & penalty shoot-out)… only to face KFC Sparta Kolmont (as best losing team in R2) again in the final. This time, KFC Sparta Kolmont wins the tie emphatically (7-1 aggr.). In a lucky loser final, held because of an extra promotion place being available, RDK Gravelo defeats AC Tervant (6-1) to win the last ticket to Provincial League 2.
2018 / In the club’s best season ever, RDK Gravelo manages a 12th place in P2B, thus staying up at that level.
2019 / Finishing 14th in P2B, with an equal number of points as no. 13 K Zutendaal VV but with an inferior goal difference, RDK Gravelo descends into P3 after 2 seasons, along with K Heers VV and Eendracht Mechelen-Bovelingen-Opheers (EMBO).
2020 / In the 2019-20 season, broken off in March 2020 due to the COVID lockdown, RDK Gravelo is declared champions in P3C in a ranking based on 25 of 30 matches, in which it finishes 6 points ahead of Membruggen V&V. As such, the club is placed in Provincial League 2 for the following season.
2022 / Finishing second-last in P2B – 2 points short of safety – RDK Gravelo drops back into P3 along with K Eendracht Henis.
2024 / Runners-up in P3A, 8 points behind champions K Velm VV, RDK Gravelo qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Successively defeating K Kaulille FC in R1 (1-1 & penalty shoot-out), Unico Tongeren in R2 (3-0), and KFC De Zwaluw Wiemismeer in R3 (final: 2-1), the club manages a return to Provincial League 2 after an absence of two seasons.

Note - Important parts of the information above were provided by Omer Cartuyvels, co-founder of Rapid Buvingen as well as chairman of Rapid Buvingen (c. 1984-94) and RDK Gravelo (2015-present); and by Hugo Vanbrabant, former official at DK Mielen who joined RDK Gravelo following the merger with Rapid Buvingen in 1994.