Annual Easter Sports Tour to Holland

Date: Wednesday 29 April 2009

On the last Wednesday of the Lent term 41 Junior School pupils travelled to Holland to represent the School in boys’ football and girls’ hockey against a number of Dutch club sides. Having left School at 8.00am, we caught the ferry to Calais and drove on to our Hostel in Valkenswaard in the south of the Netherlands.

To relax after the journey the following morning, the children enjoyed a morning of swimming and playing on the water slides at the local Center Parcs. Then, in the afternoon, we travelled with some trepidation to our first fixture. The boys and girls were both playing the same club, Heeze at Sportpark Het Lambrek. The girls found playing against the Dutch club system hard but put up a good fight, drawing one match and losing the other. The boys put in an exceptional performance and won both their matches. After socialising with members of the host club, we returned to the hostel for dinner and bed, wondering what the next day would bring.

Friday morning saw half the group enjoying a shopping trip to Eindhoven and the other half taking an informative and most enjoyable tour of the ground of PSV Eindhoven, the current Dutch Eredivisie football champions. The children saw all the important parts of the stadium including the VIP seating, the home and away changing rooms and - most impressive - the pitch itself. After lunch and some time to relax, the teams travelled to Waalre where we played our second fixture. The girls played really well against their opponents, DVS, losing by just 1 goal per team after hard-fought games. The boys played a club called Dommelen and once again came away victorious. As on the previous day, the sports clubs were great hosts and provided the children with drinks and food. Once we arrived back at the hostel we had a lovely hot meal and the children danced the evening away at the disco.

On Saturday morning a visit to a bowling alley proved to be another opportunity for St Edmund’s School pupils to show their competitive spirit and in the afternoon we arrived for our third and final fixtures against HC Geel Zwart and BlauwGeel. In the pouring rain and sleet the girls fought hard against the Dutch team and drew level only to lose in the dying moments of the game. The boys also froze on their pitch but succeeded in their clean sweep of 3 out of 3 wins…St Edmund’s footballers unbeaten in Europe!

Finally, on the last morning we left our hostel for the return to England, not forgetting to stop off at the Belgian chocolate factory on the way.

This was another highly successful annual Holland tour. The children had a great time and learnt many skills on and off the pitch. Our thanks to Mr Penn and Mrs Relf for organising the trip so comprehensively, and to Miss Cliff and Mr Hooley for helping them to make the running of the trip such a success.

Photographs: copyright Thomas Hooley 2009