KINGSTON  LITTLE LEAGUE UNDER 13 TOUR OF HOLLAND 2007

14 boys from Kingston travelled to Naaldwijk on 5th April to take part in the Hekelingen football tournament.

Their trip was organised through Peter Hoogerwerf and the Westlandia Football Club. Parents of the club hosted the boys in their own homes.This was obviously a big committment, which the Dutch took on enthusiastically and with great generosity. Over the weekend the English boys struck up firm friendships with their Dutch counterparts.

The boys were skilfully coached by Eddie Brooks and Wayne Brown both of whom gave up huge amounts of time to prepare them for the football part of the tour. This began with a match against the Westlandia boys on Friday 6th April. The Kingston team started extremely strongly and for 15 minutes looked likely to win. However Kingston

did not capitalise on that pressure and conceded 2 goals before half time. Invigorated by Wayne’s advice they approached the second half with enthusiasm but now met  confident  opponents who passed the ball with skill using the full width of the large pitch. Kingstom conceded a third goal and wobbled for a moment before Ben Skea’s goal gave them hope of a recovery. In pushing for a second they left their defence exposed and  conceded again resulting in a 4-1 loss.

The result needs to be put into context in that Westlandia were used to playing as a team on the large pitch. They were an impressive team but Kingston were competitive.

 On the Saturday the boys relaxed by enjoying themselves hugely at a theme park,which included swimming pools with terrifying (for the adults) waterslides.

 The main tournament took place on Sunday 8th April. At that event the boys had the advantage of support from the many parents, who had travelled from Kingston, and many of their Dutch hosts.

The first part of the tounament was a group stage involving 3 matches against teams from England and Holland including FC Bergen and Potters Bar Crusaders. Kingston won all 3 games conceding no goals in the process. They then played a semi-final against the team that finished second in the other group. Kingston were clearly the better side and it was a shock when their opponents scored against the run of play. Kingston were the crowd’s favourites who cheered them on to an equalizer by Ben Skea. The pressure in the last few minutes was all from Kingston who were the only likely winners,however no further goals were scored. The match went to the dreaded penalties. It appeared that Kingston had won 4-3 but the referee controversially ruled that the opponents second penalty had crossed the line. As a result we went to sudden death ( which a number of the supporters nearly suffered) before Kingston ran out 6-5 winners.  The way in which the boys courageously stepped forward to take their penalties was impressive.

Kingston dominated the final and created at least 4 glorious goal scoring opportuntities but could not force the ball into the net. Their Dutch opponents broke away and would have scored but for a good save by Alfie Snow and Ben Dudsinski’s subsequent goal line clearance. The match finished 0-0. Kingston then lost the penalties 5-3.

Although it was disappointing to lose no one lost sight of the fact that the football was only part of the trip. The boys (and their supporters ) threw themselves into Dutch life with enthusiasm. We were extremely proud of the boys when we learnt that our hosts had laid on a Chinese meal to thank them for their company and behaviour. It was with extremely heavy hearts that we said goodbye to our hosts on Monday evening. All of the boys and their parnents found the weekend to be enriching and hugely enjoyable.

If any of you are ever fortunate enough to visit this excellent club and area you should take it,but you will find yourseves battling to go  with those of us who had such a great time!

It is always difficult to single out any one individual for praise but this report would not be complete with out the recognition of the Peter Hoogerwerf’s efforts in organising the weekend from start to finish. Further the weekend would not have happened without Eddie Brooks who organised the Kingston end of the operation. Thanks lads for your efforts.

There is a Dutch link to the trip,which has photographs ,which can be viewed by entering