Over the entrance of De Eendracht, the DOS ’46 sports hall, is a small notice with flames to welcome visitors. We have been guests in the village, and the hall, for eight days, and so far it has been anything but ‘The Hell Of Nijeveen’: in fact, totally the opposite. For OVVO, however, hanging on to a place in the Korfball League that DOS ‘46 has bitterly regretted losing for the last three seasons, Nijeveen needed to become hell.
Arriving at the hall, mostly on bikes with our host families, and all dressed in DOS ’46 club shirts, we were there to help 1000 other people turn De Eendracht into a venue of pain for the OVVO players, who had brought a small contingent of their own supporters to try to counter the effect.
Excitement levels were high, and emotion was pumping through the hall. From at least 45 minutes before the start, bodies were packed tight around the galleries and all the seats were full. Chants, flags and banners met the players as they went through their carefully structured warm up routines on court. A TV crew, including our guide and mentor Nico as comments man, roved around, and selfies were shot from every angle.
Eventually the lights went out and a spotlight played on the players as they were introduced, though in so much noise, the introductions were impossible to hear.
As the match began, the players had the difficult task of channelling all the emotion, both their own and that of their supporters, into success on the court. Although the home team made a positive start to score the first two goals, OVVO were not going to lie down and sacrifice their Korfball League status easily. They quickly fought back and led for most of the first half. Scoring was difficult at each end of the court, and on more than one occasion, the referee had to stop the game as players spilled on the floor..
Such was the level of tension and emotion that the game was more of an event than a technical spectacle, albeit one enacted by highly accomplished practitioners. As they had done the previous week, DOS ’46 had the better of the game in the second half, and managed to stifle the play of their visitors, this time without needing to go to overtime. With around three minutes to go it became clear that there was no way back for OVVO and the home team was able to play out the game in relative comfort, knowing that they had achieved their goal of the last three long years of hurt, and the farmers, as they are sometimes unkindly referred to by others in Dutch korfball, were back to the Korfball League.
The referee’s whistle blew, the tension turned to joy and the hall erupted, with streamers, confetti and champagne raining in all directions.
Although we wanted to stay behind and help our new found DOS ’46 family celebrate its amazing moment, with our first play off, against China, less than 12 hours away, sleep was more important, so reluctantly we left the joyful ‘hell’ of De Eendracht and returned to our Nijeveen homes. Jared later said that this night had been “the highlight of the trip so far” and “the atmosphere in the hall was crazy”. The whole team spent the entire evening wide-eyed, trying to comprehend how all of this was for Korfball when we are more used to explaining what the sport actually is to most people we meet!
Since the game we have been told and seen a number of interesting facts about it. #DOS’46 was the top trending Twitter hashtag for the 15 minutes after the game ended yesterday; and the club’s supporters drank dry all the beer in the club’s cantina before the end of the evening.
Tot morgen,
Rob and Beeeeeeeevan
Arriving at the hall, mostly on bikes with our host families, and all dressed in DOS ’46 club shirts, we were there to help 1000 other people turn De Eendracht into a venue of pain for the OVVO players, who had brought a small contingent of their own supporters to try to counter the effect.
Excitement levels were high, and emotion was pumping through the hall. From at least 45 minutes before the start, bodies were packed tight around the galleries and all the seats were full. Chants, flags and banners met the players as they went through their carefully structured warm up routines on court. A TV crew, including our guide and mentor Nico as comments man, roved around, and selfies were shot from every angle.
Eventually the lights went out and a spotlight played on the players as they were introduced, though in so much noise, the introductions were impossible to hear.
As the match began, the players had the difficult task of channelling all the emotion, both their own and that of their supporters, into success on the court. Although the home team made a positive start to score the first two goals, OVVO were not going to lie down and sacrifice their Korfball League status easily. They quickly fought back and led for most of the first half. Scoring was difficult at each end of the court, and on more than one occasion, the referee had to stop the game as players spilled on the floor..
Such was the level of tension and emotion that the game was more of an event than a technical spectacle, albeit one enacted by highly accomplished practitioners. As they had done the previous week, DOS ’46 had the better of the game in the second half, and managed to stifle the play of their visitors, this time without needing to go to overtime. With around three minutes to go it became clear that there was no way back for OVVO and the home team was able to play out the game in relative comfort, knowing that they had achieved their goal of the last three long years of hurt, and the farmers, as they are sometimes unkindly referred to by others in Dutch korfball, were back to the Korfball League.
The referee’s whistle blew, the tension turned to joy and the hall erupted, with streamers, confetti and champagne raining in all directions.
Although we wanted to stay behind and help our new found DOS ’46 family celebrate its amazing moment, with our first play off, against China, less than 12 hours away, sleep was more important, so reluctantly we left the joyful ‘hell’ of De Eendracht and returned to our Nijeveen homes. Jared later said that this night had been “the highlight of the trip so far” and “the atmosphere in the hall was crazy”. The whole team spent the entire evening wide-eyed, trying to comprehend how all of this was for Korfball when we are more used to explaining what the sport actually is to most people we meet!
Since the game we have been told and seen a number of interesting facts about it. #DOS’46 was the top trending Twitter hashtag for the 15 minutes after the game ended yesterday; and the club’s supporters drank dry all the beer in the club’s cantina before the end of the evening.
Tot morgen,
Rob and Beeeeeeeevan