BELGIUM: USH Limontoise (1969-2013) / USH Limontoise (B) (2013-)

Rue de Hesbaye I, Limont (Donceel) (USH Limontoise - B ground, formerly A ground)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

29 II 2024 / USH Limontoise - RCS Jalhaytois 2-2, Jalhay won penalty shoot-out (3-4) / Liège, Provincial Cup for P3-P4 teams - last 16

Timeline

• 1969 / Foundation of a football club in Limont, Hesbaye, which takes on the name Union Sportive Hesbignonne (USH) Limontoise. The club, which acquires membership of Belgium’s Football Association under registration number 7453, settles on a pitch at Rue de Hesbaye. The club takes part in official league championships from 1970 onwards.
• 2010 / The first forty-odd years of club history not having been documented well – with the first team alternating spells in Liège’s Provincial Leagues 4, 3, and 2 –, USH Limontoise finds itself in Provincial League 3 in the 2010-11 season.
• 2013 / A second pitch is added to the set-up at Limont’s ground, Rue de Hesbaye, to the west of the old pitch. This second pitch, although officially still referred to as ‘terrain 2’, has been the ground’s main pitch ever since, hosting first team football.
• 2015 / Under the guidance of trainer Roland Morias, USH Limontoise wins the title in Provincial League 3A with an advantage of 7 points over closest followers RES Templiers Nandrin. As a result, the club accedes to Provincial League 2 for the first time since its foundation.
• 2016 / With just RFC Vyle-Tharoul finishing below them, USH Limontoise finds itself in second-last position in the final ranking in Liège’s Provincial League 2A; as such, the club has to play a set of relegation play-offs against the second-last teams in P2B and P2C, R Star Fléron FC and RFC Wallonia Waimes. With just Waimes saving its skin, Limont descends into P3 along with Fléron.
• 2018 / Finishing in 3rd place in P3A, USH Limontoise qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Booking an impressive four wins in a row (against RFC Ouffet-Warzée, Huccorgne Sports, FC Trois Frontières, and RUS Ferrières), the club finds its way back to P2 after two years.
• 2019 / Rock bottom in P2A with just 7 points at the end of the season, USH Limontoise drops back into P3 after just one season, taking with it the club finishing second-last, R Oreye Union.
• 2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short in March 2020 due to the COVID lockdown, USH Limontoise picks up just 3 points in 24 matches in P3A, as a result of which the club is retrograded to P4 for the new season.
• 2022 / USH Limontoise finishes runners-up in P4B, 5 points behind champions Jeunesses Oleyennes Réunies. In the promotion play-offs, the club defeats RFC Tilleur B in R1 only to be eliminated in R2 by derby rivals RSC Haneffe.
• 2023 / Finishing in 3rd place in P4A, USH Limontoise qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Seeing off RFC Jehaytois B in R1 (2-0), the club is knocked out by Etoile de Faimes B in R2 (5-3).
• 2024 (projected) / USH Limontoise will merge with RSC Haneffe, with Limont’s ground at Rue de Hesbaye being scheduled to undergo a thorough renovation to become the new merger club’s main ground.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-3 = non-matchday visit, November 2021 / pictures 4-21 = match visit, February 2024.

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

BELGIUM: RCS Brainois (B) (±1981-2023) / RCS Brainois (2023-)

Complexe Gaston Reiff - terrain 2, Braine-l'Alleud = Eigenbrakel (RCS Brainois - formerly B pitch, hosting first team football since the start of the 2023-24 season)

Belgium, province: Walloon Brabant = Waals Brabant

25 II 2024 / RCS Brainois - CS Pays Vert Ostiches-Ath 2-0 / ACFF Amateur Division 3A (= BE level 5)

Timeline

• 1913 / Foundation of a football club in Braine-l’Alleud, which is given the name Cercle Sportif (CS) Brainois - and acquires registration number 75 upon the introduction by the Belgian FA of a club register in 1926. The new club’s first ground is Terrain Ferme de la Haie Sainte. It is unclear for how long the club played here exactly.
• 1938 / Celebrating its 25th anniversary, CS Brainois obtains the royal epithet, officially adapting its name to become Royal Cercle Sportif (RCS) Brainois. Also, while the club started its life at Terrain Ferme de la Haie Sainte in 1913, it is clear that by 1938, there was a new ground, Terrain de Saint-Sébastien at Avenue Alphonse Allard. It is unclear when the club moved to this new ground; and also there is unclarity as to the question if there had been more ground moves than one before the club moved to this ground.
• ± 1954 / Sometime between 1950 and 1957, RCS Brainois must have moved away from Terrain de Saint-Sébastien, settling at a new ground near the local train station, the so-called Terrain de la Gare.
• 1972 / A start is made on the construction of a new ground for RCS Brainois at Rue Ernest Laurent, on the location of the former amusement park Belgique Miniature. Inaugurated in 1959, this park featured a 1 : 10,000 version of the map of Belgium in concrete, featuring the main sights in the country’s landscape and architecture in a miniature version. Due to a lack of interest from the Belgian public, though, the park had closed down in 1963. In the building works on the new stadium, only the café of the park is preserved – turned into RCS Brainois’ projected clubhouse (still existing today).
• 1973 / RCS Brainois moves into the new sports park at Rue Ernest Laurent, consisting of two pitches and an athletics track around the main pitch. The ground is named Stade Gaston Reiff in honour of Braine-l’Alleud’s living sports legend Gaston Reiff (1911-1992), who won the Olympic 5k race in Helsinki (1948) ahead of Emil Zátopek from Czechoslovakia; in honour of Mr Reiff, a small monument was erected on the hillside between the clubhouse and the main pitch of the new ground. Terrain de la Gare, RCS Brainois' old ground, is abandoned.
• ± 1981 / The karting track situated to the south of the main pitch – a relic of the times of Belgique Miniature, when it had been one of the attractions of the park – was removed to make way for two new side-pitches, bringing the total of pitches of the ground to four.
• 2011 / Pitch 2 of Complexe Gaston Reiff – the pitch directly to the south of the main pitch – is equipped with a synthetic surface as well as a utility building including dressing and storage rooms, and also including a small open terrace.
• 2023 / Oddly, RCS Brainois moves its first team football to the synthetic B pitch of Complexe Gaston Reiff, while the home matches of the B team, playing in Brabant’s Provincial League 2, are moved to the main pitch. Prior to this, the synthetic pitch had been used for first team football only incidentally, when the main pitch was unavailable due to the pitch being waterlogged or in use for an athletics or school event.

Note - In photos 7 & 18 below, the so-called Lion's Mound can be seen in the background, a conical artificial hill constructed as a memorial of the Battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo in 1815.

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

NETHERLANDS: SV Batavia '90

Sportpark De Doggersbank, Lelystad (SV Batavia '90)

Netherlands, province: Flevoland

24 II 2024 / SV Batavia '90 - HSV De Zuidvogels 1-3 / District West I, League 1B (= NL level 6)

Timeline

• 1978 / Foundation of a football club in Lelystad, which takes on the name vv Stator. The Sunday club plays its home matches at Sportcomplex De Beukenhof. 
• 1982 / A group of disaffected members of SV Lelystad ’67, who feel not enough priority is given to Sunday football in their club, break away and form a Sunday club of their own, vv Zuiderzeevogels. vv Zuiderzeevogels settles at Sportpark De Doggersbank, groundsharing with a rugby club which bears the same name as the newly founded football club.
• 1990 / After existences of twelve and eight years respectively, in which neither club ever reached the Sunday League 4 level, vv Stator and vv Zuiderzeevogels conclude a merger, thus forming SV Batavia ’90. The reason behind the merger is the wish of Lelystad’s municipal authorities to replace Stator’s ground with housing. In the first year after the merger, however, the new club plays its first team at Sportcomplex De Beukenhof, while Sportpark De Doggersbank is used for lower team football and training sessions.
• 1991 / With Sportcomplex De Beukenhof being given up, SV Batavia ’90 moves all its activities to Sportpark De Doggersbank. At that time, the main pitch of this park is situated at its southwestern end. 
• 1992 / For the first time in the young history of SV Batavia ’90 – as well as its two predecessors – the club reaches District West I’s Sunday League 4.
• 1996 / Finishing in third place in District West I’s Sunday League 4G, 6 points behind champions VVZA, SV Batavia ’90 goes on to win a set of promotion play-offs, thus breaking down the door to Sunday League 3.
• 1997 / Having been placed in Sunday League 3D of the newly created – and short-lived – District Centre (District Midden), SV Batavia ’90 finishes in second-last place, thus dropping back into Sunday League 4 along with avv HVC and bottom club VVZA.
• 1998 / Finishing last in District Centre’s Sunday League 4G, SV Batavia ’90 withdraws its first team from regular league football.
• 2000 / Having made a restart in District Centre’s Sunday League 6A, SV Batavia ’90 finishes in third place, 6 points behind champions SV Hertha, going on to win promotion via the backdoor of the end-of-season play-offs.
• 2009 / Finishing in fourth place in District West I’s Sunday League 5G, 8 points behind champions Magreb ’90, SV Batavia ’90 qualifies for the play-offs, in which it secures promotion to Sunday League 4. The stay at that level is short-lived, though, with relegation following after just one season.
• ± 2010 / With a new clubhouse being built at the northern side of the pitch which had hitherto hosted first team football at Sportpark De Doggersbank, a new main pitch is laid out at the northern end of the park – the pitch formerly used by rugby club Zuiderzeevogels. The former main pitch is renamed Pitch 2. 
• 2014 / Finishing in third place in District West I’s Sunday League 5D, 15 points behind champions SV Faja Lobi KDS, SV Batavia ’90 manages to win promotion to Sunday League 4 by qualifying after a set of matches against SC De Eland, VSC, and vv Nederhorst.
• 2015 / While retaining its first team in Sunday League 4, SV Batavia ’90 creates a second first team which is placed in District East’s Saturday League 4C.
• 2016 / In its first season, SV Batavia ‘90’s Saturday team finishes in joint-first place in District East’s Saturday League 4C with ASV Swift ’64; in a tie-break match, played at Elburger SC’s Burgemeester Bode Sportpark, Batavia defeats the side from Swifterbant (4-3), thus winning direct promotion to Saturday League 3. Meanwhile, Batavia’s Sunday team finishes dead-last in District West I’s Sunday League 4G with only 5 points picked up in the entire season; with the priority now firmly being on first team football in the Saturday divisions, the club’s board goes on to withdraw its Sunday team from regular league football – although a regular Sunday team was formed again three years later.
• 2018 / Finishing in sixth place in District East’s Saturday League 3B, SV Batavia ’90 qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which it is eliminated in R1 in an away match at former professional league side AGOVV (2-1). In the summer of 2018, Michel van Oostrum – former professional league player at AFC Ajax, Telstar, PEC Zwolle ’82, BSC Old Boys, BVO Emmen, Cambuur-Leeuwarden, and BV De Graafschap – takes over the post of trainer-coach at SV Batavia ’90, staying on in that capacity for the following six years.
• 2019 / Runners-up in District East’s Saturday League 3B, with an equal number of points as champions ASC Nieuwland, but with an inferior goal difference (+58 / +66), SV Batavia ’90 has to try to break down the door to League 2 via the play-offs. Edging past OVC ’85 in R1 (3-1) and VVOP in R2 (2-1), the club goes on to win promotion by defeating CSV VIOS Vaassen in the final, played at vv OWIOS’ Sportpark Bovenmolen in Oldebroek (3-0, goals by Joy Schoonhoven, Steffan Vlietstra, and Youssef Tokhi). 
• 2020 / The main pitch of Sportpark De Doggersbank is equipped with a synthetic surface.
• 2022 / Runners-up in Saturday League 2G, 3 points behind champions ASV Dronten, SV Batavia ’90 qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Defeating CVV Sparta Enschede in R1 (4-2) and SV Veensche Boys in R2 (1-0), the club eventually misses out on the League 1 ticket due to losing the final against vv Hulzense Boys, played at vv OWIOS’ Sportpark Bovenmolen in Oldebroek (2-1). Also in 2022, Sportpark De Doggersbank hosts the play-off final for a ticket in National Sunday Division 4 between vv AGB and vv Heino (2-4).
• 2023 / Champions in Saturday League 2I, 7 points ahead of closest followers vv Hierden, SV Batavia ’90 accedes to Saturday League 1 for the first time in club history.
• 2024 (projected) / The most successful trainer in club history, Michel van Oostrum, leaves SV Batavia ’90 at the end of the 2023-24 season after six seasons and two promotions.

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