An intrepid group of 14 OCs girls and their parents set off at an ungodly hour on 3rd May for a tour which had previously defeated the mighty OCs Masters – to play both De Dommel and Den Bosch in Holland. Sadly, given impending GCSEs for the Year 11 girls, the tourists were exclusively Year 10s, but we travelled feeling reasonably confident, given we had a decent proportion of the A team squad that had been so successful over the normal season.
The various travel logistics worked seamlessly and, in almost no time, the whole tour party (causing interested glances from all who passed us given the grey hoody collective) was gathered outside the Burger King next to Den Bosch train station with the majority fuelling themselves on the tasty, highly nutritious fare. A few rogue elements did take themselves off to get the sort of food that all seasoned hockey tourists understand should be avoided unless absolutely necessary – fruit, water, salad etc. Note was taken of these early mutineers!
Having narrowly avoided being persuaded to hire a ruinously expensive coach/minivan, we gave a local, public bus driver what must have been his biggest ever single fare – 28 returns to De Dommel! Shortly after arriving and post the traditional pre-match exchange of signed shirts, we were joined (much to the girls’ delight) by Miguel Ralha and one of his Portuguese teammates to spread a bit of international class. Spurred on by their presence, following an expected high class warm-up led by Mark Preston and a line-up walk onto the pitch led by Amelie R (think Scotland behind David Sole in Murrayfield in 1990), the girls turned in a strong performance against their De Dommel opposition. Suspect they had been lulled into a false sense of what to expect from touring OCs teams when they saw Jon East (previous visitor) was one of the coaches. A 6-2 win, with some very well taken goals by a number of girls, Saskia S scoring 4! The win is OCs first ever at De Dommel, with the Masters having previously only managed draws and losses.
The rest of the day would have been far more familiar to previous OCs touring teams – warm sunshine, warmer hospitality, tonnes of food and the odd glass of rose or pint for the accompanying adults. The girls and parents then spent a fairly boisterous evening at the local youth club pub (T’Pumpke) accompanied by most of the opposition team and a number of their parents and coaches. Some of the dancing – initiated by the more enthusiastic (inebriated?) parents – astounded the locals who came in expecting to see a slightly younger, trendier crowd. Bedtime was a slightly later than anticipated 1:30-2am, classic tour behaviour, but perhaps not the best preparation for playing a GU16s team at Den Bosch the next day which included a handful of their A team!!
Day 2 of the tour was one any good hockey tourist would recognise – slow walks into breakfast, obvious signs of fatigue and lots of fluids being taken on board (particularly by the parents)! Still, another public bus trip to Den Bosch (via an unexpected find of a small beach and some swings) saw the girls arrive at what must be one of the most impressive club set-ups anywhere in the world. A full 6 astros, a very impressive first team pitch and a bar that was very willing to serve up bottles of Lucozade in a final attempt to prepare the girls for their 2nd match on tour.
A number of the De Dommel girls we had played against on the previous day came along to support us, which was brilliant to see. Less pleasing was seeing the oppo warm up; clearly none of them had been at T’Pumpke the night before and they were clearly up for the match! Good character building stuff for the girls who battled really hard (Saskia leading from the front after her goal-scoring spree the day before) to half time, at which point the match remained in the balance, but our legs had obviously gone at that point and the 3rd quarter saw Den Bosch stretch into the lead. The OCs girls continued to fight and created a good number of chances but ran/ walked/ crawled off 2-6 losers. There was then at least the opportunity to re-fuel with food and drink as well as to watch the Den Bosch Ladies 1s demolish their opposition in a 1st vs 12th place league match.
A return to the hotel, a few hours to recharge and then, after an emotionally charged 2 minutes silence for Liberation Day, out for what the adults thought was an excellent meal, but the girls seemed to think was a starter before a sly trip to the Golden Arches.
An exhausting, but really fun few days in Holland with a great group of girls and parents. Building on the already great relationship the club already has with De Dommel, revisiting a few haunts from previous Masters tours and generally trying our hardest to perpetuate the OCs reputation as strong hockey tourists. Our next mission is to get the De Dommel girls and Masters back to Fortress TD…they seemed keen. Thank you to everyone who was involved in organising, leading, and supporting the tour.
Tourists:- Izzy A, Lucie C, Jess E, Alethea J, Lulu M, Rosie P, Roz R, Amelie R, Nancy S, Elle S, Saskia S, Freya S, Amelie T-S and Jess W. (Coaches – Eastie & Mark P. Guest appearance – Miguel).