De Waard and Walker voted best players of the season

In recent weeks, hockey fans could cast their votes for the best player of the season through the online channels of the Tulp Hoofdklasse. In doing so, the names of De Waard and Walker were chosen most often. They are the successors to Jip Dicke (SCHC) and Floris Middendorp (Amsterdam), who captured the award last season.

De Waard on a roll
Last month, on 16 May to be precise, Xan de Waard's club career came to an end. The second semi-final match against Amsterdam in the battle for the national title marked her very last club match at the highest level. SCHC's 1-0 win did defuse the 3-2 defeat in the outward match against Amsterdam, but then the team lost the shoot-outs and the title dream fell apart.

De Waard started her career in the Hoofdklasse at Kampong and moved to SCHC in Bilthoven in 2015 after three Utrecht seasons. There, the technically gifted midfielder grew into one of the best players of her generation, was a jewel for the Hoofdklasse and formed an indispensable link in the Orange game.

For much of last season, De Waard carried with her the honorary title World Player of the Year, an FIH award she won twice in her career. In midfield at SCHC, her four goals, six assists and countless intelligent runs and precision passes contributed greatly to the top season of the team from Bilthoven, which finished the regular league as number 1 without losing a single game.

Record season for Walker
Struan Walker's first season as striker of Oranje-Rood was one not soon to be forgotten. The likeable Scottish striker quickly found his feet in Eindhoven and quickly shot his way to the lead on the Hoofdklasse's top scorer's list via penalty corners and field goals. Walker eventually finished the season with 26 goals. With that, he fell short of the top scorer title that eventually went to Timo Boers (Den Bosch). But Walker was good for improving the club record of former club icon Mink van der Weerden. The latter had made 24 for the Eindhoven side in the 2017-2018 season, a number that remained untouched for eight years.

Walker made three hat-tricks (at least three goals in a game) in his debut season in the Hoofdklasse: he scored three times visiting Bloemendaal (3-4), four times in the away game with Kampong (2-4) and three times away against Pinoké (1-6). The performance against Kampong was extra special: he became the first player in Hoofdklasse history to manage to score four times in an away game against the Utrecht powerhouse.

Partly due to Walker's scoring drive, Oranje-Rood had a sterling season, in which it did not lose a game in the regular competition. In the semi-finals of the play-offs for the national title, coach Ageeth Boomgaardt's team was eliminated by Amsterdam (2-2, 1-4).