Time was, back when league cricket was still a spectator sport in the Netherlands, that significant crowds would gather twice every summer for the Schiedam Derby, the much-anticipated meetings between Hermes-DVS and Excelsior ’20.
Distinctly the senior of the two clubs, Hermes-DVS was formed in 1919 by a merger of Hermes Schiedam, originally established in 1884, and DVS; Hermes had first played in cricket’s Eerste Klas in 1910, and in the aftermath of World War I joined forces with football club DVS.
The following year Excelsior was established as a football and cricket club for the Roman Catholic community, and still carries the initials ‘RKSV’ in its name.
That Schiedam should have two teams with such a prominent place in Dutch cricket history is in itself remarkable: now a town with 80,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Rotterdam, in 1920 it had half that number.
Granted its charter as a city in 1275, Schiedam was the capital of Dutch gin (jenever) distilling in the eighteenth century with an estimated 400 distilleries, and one surviving indication of that thriving industry is the series of windmills which still dot the old town centre.
Ironically, it was the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II which led to the first Schiedam cricket derby: Excelsior did not reach the top flight during the 1930s, but travel restrictions during the War split the Eerste Klas into two sections, and Excelsior joined Hermes-DVS in the southern section.
So the first competitive Derby took place on 2 June 1940 and was won by Hermes, who proceeded to win the next eight as well; not until 20 August 1944 did Excelsior register their first victory.
It has not been every season that the competition has seen the series continued, since the vagaries of promotion and relegation have meant that in 22 of the intervening seasons the two sides were playing in different divisions.
But in addition to the 45 years in which they have met in the top flight, there were a further 15 when both were playing in the second division.
That means that when they meet again at Hermes’ Loopuyt Oval this Saturday it will be the 111th edition of the Schiedam Derby, not counting any matches they have played in the T20 competition or the now-defunct Knockout Cup.
Of the 87 games they have played in the top flight, Hermes have won 38 and Excelsior 36, with three draws and two ties, in 1997 and 2009; if we add matches in the second division the tally is reversed, with Excelsior ahead 50-49, with eight draws and three ties.
All of which illustrates just how close the rivalry is, and just how much will be at stake on Saturday, and again on 12 July, when the reverse fixture is scheduled to take place at Excelsior’s Thurlede ground.
One of the most notable occasions in the series came on 1 September 1997, when the two sides, having finished level on points at the top of the table, met in a championship play-off at the old VOC ground in Rotterdam: the match was, however, an anti-climax, Excelsior posting 211 for nine and then bowling Hermes out for 70 to claim their fifth national title in seven years.
In the years since the introduction of overseas professionals at the end of 1970s, many foreign stars have graced the Derby: Hermes have fielded such luminaries as New Zealand Test player Mike Shrimpton and his countryman Roger Bradley, the Barbadian Nolan Clarke (both of the latter going on to play for the Netherlands as well), and India’s Pankaj Joshi.
The Excelsior list, reflecting the club’s more prominent position over the past four decades, includes the West Indians Collis King, Emmerson Trotman and Lorenzo Ingram (who moved to Kampong Utrecht at the start of the current season after eleven years at Thurlede), Zimbabwean international Murray Goodwin, and a string of West Australians, including Tim Zoehrer and Wayne Andrews.
Of local players, Nick Statham, who will likely play for Hermes on Saturday, has taken part in the most top-flight Derbies, appearing 57 times already and making 1091 runs.
He is one of only two players to have made more than 1000 runs in the series: the other, former Dutch national captain Luuk van Troost, made 1492 runs at 32.43 in his 56 matches, and took 61 wickets at 19.64 into the bargain.
Last year, when Hermes returned to the Topklasse after a six-year absence, they won by four wickets at home, a result which was instrumental in ensuring that they reached the championship play-offs, while Excelsior were consigned to the bottom four, successfully avoiding relegation.
The reconstruction of the competition this season means that with a straightforward double-round robin we are guaranteed, the Dutch weather permitting, two editions of the Derby in the town which likes to call itself the Netherlands’ ‘Cricket City’.
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