Bloemendaal back in Hoofdklasse after one season

Winning against Were Di was goal one this Sunday afternoon. That mission succeeded (3-1). But that did not clinch the championship. Only if runner-up Nijmegen lost by points, which played against Leiden, Bloemendaal could not be caught up.

'Our match was over earlier. We stood in a circle, waiting a bit nervously. We tried to call Leiden's coach Jorge Nolte, but he didn't answer. Then the speaker called out that Nijmegen had played a draw,' Bloemendaal captain Ankelein Baardemans says with a big smile.

What followed was a huge discharge. 'We looked at each other, jumped really hard, cheered and danced. Because even though our championship was bound to happen, once it does, it gives such a liberating feeling. This is exactly what we stayed together for after last season. Getting relegated together and getting promoted together. I'm so incredibly proud of the girls.'

Indeed, the contrast with last year could not have been greater. Back then, everything was against us for Bloemendaal. Injuries, loss of form, the vicious ghost of relegation that presented itself early in the year. And certainly not least the sudden brain haemorrhage of coach Jeroen Visser, who is still recovering from it. The relegation from the Tulp Hoofdklasse was a sledgehammer blow for a team whose aim was precisely to establish itself structurally at the highest level.

Bloemendaal won its last seven matches in the Promotieklasse and remained unbeaten for eight matches in a row after the winter break. In that form, the team proved elusive to the competition. Penalty corner specialist Demi Hilterman (thirteen), Baardemans (eleven) and Rosalie Rosman (eleven) are the Mussen's most prolific players this season.