Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: RKSV Prinses Irene (1964-) / FC Ewab (1968-2002)

Sportpark De Schellen, Nistelrode (RKSV Prinses Irene, formerly FC Ewab)

Netherlands, province: North Brabant = Noord-Brabant

22 IX 2024 / RKSV Prinses Irene - EGS '20 2-1 / District South II, Sunday League 3G (= NL level 8)

Timeline

1939 / Foundation of a football club in Nistelrode, North Brabant, which takes on the name RKSV (Rooms-Katholieke Sportvereniging) Prinses Irene. In fact, the founding fathers, led by a local schoolmaster, Mr Van de Zanden, had awaited the day of the birth of the second child of the Netherlands’ Queen Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernhard, in order to be able to name their club after the new royal child – Princess Irene – on that exact day, August 5th, 1939. A pitch is laid out for the club at the crossroads of Kromstraat and Tramstraat. Instead of joining the official Netherlands’ Football Association (KNVB), RKSV Prinses Irene sticks to playing friendly matches against teams from surrounding villages as well as makeshift teams of mobilised soldiers of the Netherlands’ armed forces, who were in the process of fortifying the Peel-Raam Line, a defence line built in the southeastern part of the Netherlands in 1939 in view of the mounting threat of a German attack on the country.
1940 / After the German conquest of the Netherlands in May 1940, RKSV Prinses Irene ceases its fledgling activities.
1944 / In October 1944, one month after the liberation of the southern part of the Netherlands, a meeting is organised in Nistelrode, at which 26 club members show up to re-found RKSV Prinses Irene. In November 1944, the club plays its first match at Kromstraat, being soundly defeated by a team of British soldiers (0-7).
1945 / In November 1945, RKSV Prinses Irene joins the KNVB, taking its place in the Brabantse Voetbalbond (BVB), the federation of clubs in North Brabant and the southwestern reaches of Guelders playing their football below the level of KNVB Sunday and Saturday League 4. In those years, RKSV Prinses Irene plays on various different pitches laid out on pastures in the vicinity of Nistelrode successively.
± 1949 / RKSV Prinses Irene moves to a pitch laid out for the club on a pasture referred to locally as Het Kantje. Later, moving away from Terrein Het Kantje, the club settles on Terrein Zwarte Molenweg.
1950 / RKSV Prinses Irene wins its first title in BVB Sunday Division 2, but the club fails to make it through the promotion play-offs. In the following years, the club is on the brink of folding due to a dwindling membership – a development only stopped after a group of Moluccan immigrants were settled in Nistelrode in the late 1950s.
1958 / Winning the title in BVB Sunday Division 2-214, RKSV Prinses Irene accedes to Division 1 of the ‘Brabantse Bond’ for the first time.
1964 / Winning the title in BVB Sunday Division 1, RKSV Prinses Irene accedes to KNVB Sunday League 4 for the first time. Also in 1964, moving away from Terrein Zwarte Molenweg, RKSV Prinses Irene settles at the newly laid-out Sportpark De Schellen. The inaugural ceremony is performed by Mrs Kortman-Fleskens, the wife of the Governor of North Brabant, on September 1st, 1964. The covered stand on the northern side of the main pitch was part of the original set-up of the ground (cp. picture 18 below, showing the situation in 1964).
1965 / In its first season at League 4 level, RKSV Prinses Irene finishes in second place in District South I’s Sunday League 4A, only 2 points behind champions RKSV Juliana.
1966 / RKSV Prinses Irene finishes as runners-up in District South I’s Sunday League 4A for the second year running, this time finishing 4 points behind champions RKSV Margriet.
1968 / A breakaway club is founded by Nistelrode’s Moluccan community, FC Ewab. From now on, FC Ewab shares Sportpark De Schellen with RKSV Prinses Irene.
1974 / Finishing in joint first place in District South I’s Sunday League 4A with GVV ’57, RKSV Prinses Irene meets the club from Grave in a tie-break match at SV TOP’s Sportpark Hescheweg, going on to lose that match and thereby missing out on promotion to Sunday League 3.
1977 / A netball branch is founded at RKSV Prinses Irene.
1978 / Finishing bottom of the table in District South I’s Sunday League 4A, only 1 point away from vv Herpinia, the club finishing in second-last position, which stayed up, RKSV Prinses Irene drops back into BVB Division 1 after fourteen consecutive seasons at League 4 level.
1988 / Having played ten consecutive seasons in BVB Division 1, RKSV Prinses Irene now wins promotion back to Sunday League 4.
1989 / Finishing bottom of the table in District South I’s Sunday League 4A, RKSV Prinses Irene drops back into BVB Division 1 after just one season, along with the club finishing second from bottom, GVV ’57.
1994 / RKSV Prinses Irene manages a return to Sunday League 4 after five years in BVB Division 1.
1998 / Finishing in last place in District South I’s Sunday League 4G, RKSV Prinses Irene descends into Sunday League 5 – the successor of BVB Division 1 – along with the club finishing second from bottom, RKVV Toxandria.
2000 / Champions in District South I’s Sunday League 5G, 1 point ahead of runners-up vv SIOL, RKSV Prinses Irene wins promotion to Sunday League 4.
2002 / 34 years after its foundation, in which the club’s first team never reached a level higher than BVB Division 1 – and not having fielded a first team in the last two years of its existence – FC Ewab folds, ceasing all activities.
2008 / Champions in District South II’s Sunday League 4H, 1 point ahead of runners-up SV Vitesse ’08, RKSV Prinses Irene accedes to Sunday League 3 for the first time in club history. Also in 2008, a new set of dressing rooms is inaugurated at Sportpark De Schellen.
2009 / The new clubhouse at Sportpark De Schellen is inaugurated by Erica Terpstra, a board member of the Netherlands’ Olympic Committee.
2010 / Finishing in fourth place in District South II’s Sunday League 3D, RKSV Prinses Irene qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by its near-namesake Sportclub Irene (3-3 aggr. & penalty shoot-out).
2011 / In spite of finishing as runners-up in District South II’s Sunday League 3D, in joint second place with RKSV Mierlo-Hout, 2 points behind champions vv Heeswijk, RKSV Prinses Irene misses out on the promotion play-offs.
2012 / Runners-up in District South II’s Sunday League 3D, 13 points behind champions RKVV DESO, RKSV Prinses Irene qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Successively defeating RKOSV Achates (7-3 aggr.) and MMC Weert (4-2 aggr.), the club accedes to Sunday League 2 for the first time ever. Also in 2012, the main pitch of Sportpark De Schellen is equipped with a synthetic surface; simultaneously, the covered stand is renovated.
2016 / Runners-up in Sunday League 2H, 5 points behind champions RKVV Volharding, RKSV Prinses Irene qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by RKVV Venlosche Boys (3-1 aggr.).
2018 / Runners-up in Sunday League 2H, 9 points behind champions RKSV Rhode, RKSV Prinses Irene qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Successively defeating vv Caesar (3-1) and RKWSV Wilhelmina ’08 (1-2), the club achieves an unprecedented promotion to Sunday League 1.
2019 / Finishing bottom of the table in its first season in Sunday League 1C, RKSV Prinses Irene drops back into League 2 along with vv Oirschot Vooruit and FC Tilburg.
2024 / Finishing in tenth place in Sunday League 2E, RKSV Prinses Irene has to play a set of promotion-relegation play-offs to avoid the drop. In those play-offs, the club knocks out vv Eijsden in R1 (4-1), only to be eliminated by vv Bruheze in R2 (3-0). As such, RKSV Prinses Irene finds itself in Sunday League 3 for the first time in twelve years.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-4 = non-matchday visit, July 2021 / pictures 5-18 = match visit, September 2024.