Trip Report
On Thursday 24th March 25 players and 14 adults left Kingdoms Yard at 4am heading for the Euro Tunnel via the services at Clacket Lane. People who had not traveled on the tunnel before were excited but surprise by the speed of crossing to France. The group then proceeded to the Van Der Valk Hotel Gilze in Holland . Nearly everybody went swimming before a lovely 3 course meal. A lovely hotel enjoyed by every one. Before heading North to our Center Parcs the boys played Football Golf on the Hotels course. Arrive at Center Parcs and settle in with everybody seeming happy about the apartments apart from driver Russell Kingdom who is not happy at sharing with me and 14 boys. Off to the Amsterdam Arena for Holland v France plenty of atmosphere as French fans arrive singing and with blue flares. Excellent seats right at the front, national anthems, 14th minute game stops for a minute silence for Johan Cruff and the match ends 1-1 with both goals at our end. 50k people but boys safely back on bus. Saturday morning off to Aalsmeer for first tournament, going passed all four sides of the Schipol airport, before arriving with the help of Judy Zoutman our dutch friend. Older team come first with younger team 3rd. Friendly club with lovely club house and numerous pitches. Back to Center Parcs for carvery and the evenings entertainment. Results for 1st day below for older team. Goalscorers were Samuel Cottrell 8, James Baker 2, Tobias Jefferson and Aidan Hudd. On Sunday we traveled to the Walibi theme park which was not far from our base. The weather was like the previous days sunny with a cold breeze. The boys love this theme park and with not many people there could do their favourite ride loads. Left as it closed at 6pm. Back to base for caevery and the entertainment. Monday saw us travel to Purmerend for our next tournament. The games here were harder but again the facilities were excellent. Both teams finished 3rd. Older team results below as before. Goalscorers were Samuel Cottrell 2 and Aidan Hudd. Tuesday was drivers day off so the boys had a lay in before making full use of the Center Parcs facilites. Carvery, with a great selection yet again, was our evening meal. We traveled through the Dutch buld fields on Wednesday to get to Den Haag. Here we had an excellent tour of ADO stadium including going on latest astro pitch it was like a carpet and is used for Dutch Premier League matches. Before leaving some of their players were introduced to us and some photos taken. On to Katwijk where we played Quick Boys who play at the highest level of Dutch football. The mens team are top of Division three and were Dirk Kuyt's home club. His three sons and daughter play here. They beat us 8-1 with Sam Cottrell scoring our consolation. Dirk Kuyt suddenly arrived and agreed to meet us and photos were taken. Back to Center Parcs. We chose a different eating place were we could make our own pizza's. The boys loved it. Thursday morning was spent at Center Parcs before crossing to the other side of our lake to play Spakenburg for our last match of the tour. We won 12-0 with Thomas Head 5, Samuel Cottrell 4, Tobias Jefferson, James Baker and Ben Fitton scoring. Match played in a lovely atmosphere. Again great facilities with about 5 astro's. Then back to Center Parcs and a request to make their own pizza's again. Boy does Robert Appleby like cheese on his Pizza. Friday morning we loaded our cases and headed for Germany. First stop was Gelsenkirchen for a tour of Schalke 04 stadium. This was an excellent stadium and tour. After this we traveled to Leverkuson to stay at the Hotel Lindner which is part of the Bay Arena stadium. Home of Bayer Leverkesen. After settling into our rooms we attend their match against Wolfsburg which they won 3-0 and this was a good match and atmosphere. After a good night's sleep and a good breakfast we were off back to Holland. First though we went to the to Borussia Park stadium home of Borussia Moenchengladbach. The tour of the stadium was again excellent but not so atmospheric as others. Our hotel for this night was again a Van Der Valk in Ridderkirk just south of Rotterdam. This hotel like all our accomodation was top notch. In the night we headed via McDonalds to the De Kuip stadium home of Feyenoord. They played Excelsior and won in a great atmosphere 3-0 with Dirk Kuyt celebrating his goal the way he said he would in front of us. Meeting an Excelsior player in the hotel seemed to make Luke Shere's night or was it the beer. We left Rotterdam for the Haag and a return to ADO stadium for a match versus Groningen. The Kyocera stadium held a full house, good atmosphere, and their astro was well watered. Groningen stole a 1-0 win in a poor match. After the match we headed south to Belgium. We stopped at Ghent right next to the Ghelamco stadium. It looked good, brand new, home of Ghent. Next morning we headed for the tunnel and home. Everybody on the trip were a credit to the club and themselves. Adults on trip were Russell Kingdom, driver, Mandy Bressington, Paul Greenslade, Andy Bressington, Vicky Phillips, Lorraine Kelly, Luke Shere, Alex Bressington, Steve Kelly, Anne Greenslade, Lily Bedingham, Nick Sandiford, Paul A'Lee and Jane Sandiford. Players behaving superbly were Pacey-Joe Mulholland, Aidan Kerslake, James Baker, Aidan Hudd, Logan Lockyer, Thomas Head, Samuel Cottrell, Jamie Crang, Jacob Patchett, Ben Fitton, George Marchington, Szymon Niemirowicz, Tobias Jefferson, Jakub Wotjowicz, Sam Newsome, Jack Kelly, Freddie Verrier, Robert Appleby, Jack Kelly, Tyler Shere, Dillon Phillips, Connor Clapp, Dawid Czosnek, Thomas Skinner, Callum Findlay and Rory Egan. Thanks to all for making it a great trip.
Results
31st March 2016
| TIME |
|
SCORE |
|
| 18:30 |
Spakenberg Holland |
0-12 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 18:00 |
Spakenberg Holland |
6-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
30th March 2016
| TIME |
|
SCORE |
|
| 18:30 |
Quick Boys Holland |
8-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 18:00 |
Quick Boys Holland |
8-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
28th March 2016
| TIME |
|
SCORE |
|
| 14:00 |
Purmerend Holland |
0-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 14:00 |
AFC Holland |
2-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 14:00 |
Brederodes Holland |
1-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 14:00 |
VV Uno Holland |
1-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 14:00 |
JVC Holland |
0-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Forza Almere Holland |
0-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Purmerend Holland |
0-2 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Purmerend Holland |
1-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Waterwijk Holland |
0-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
26th March 2016
| TIME |
|
SCORE |
|
| 10:00 |
De Vecht Holland |
2-2 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Kon HFC Holland |
6-0 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Forza Almere Holland |
4-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
DIOS Holland |
0-3 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Aalsmeer Holland |
0-4 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Zwaluwen, Holland |
0-5 |
Twyford Spartans |
| 10:00 |
Aalsmeer Holland |
6-1 |
Twyford Spartans |
Gallery
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