AVCC and SC Ajax Exchange
“The Dutch Tour” or What goes on tour …
The History
Back in 1959 there was a sporting exchange between Oxford and Leiden, as part of the twinning arrangements between the two Cities.
This included cricket. The idea was that the Leiden players would be accommodated with local people in Oxford but because of a lack of volunteers, they needed to look further afield. At the time George and Audrey Staines, who were involved in the Oxford twinning, were also active members of The Ox CC in Abingdon. They managed to help arrange accommodation with The Ox CC members. The Leiden team were so appreciative they invited The Ox CC to a reciprocal tour to Ajax CC in Leiden a year later, in 1960. So the tour was born and on the first tour to Leiden, games were arranged against VOC, Quick and Ajax, clubs that will be familiar to all AVCC tourists to The Netherlands.
Later in 1960 The Ox became North Abingdon CC, which later merged with (basically took over!) Abingdon CC to form AVCC as it is today. The Dutch Tour survived and continues today, with the tour following much the same format as in the early years, with a few updates to keep up with the times. Players are still being accommodated by the host clubs members and friends! This has resulted in some lifelong friendships between members of both clubs with many out of season visits both ways.
After the 1960 tour it was evident that touring every year created too many issues, so it was agreed to hold the tour every two years, The format has continued until today, with one exception, when covid forced a year’s postponement.
On the early tours to Leiden, travel was by ferry from Harwich to The Hook of Holland. It took 6 to 7 hours and as long as the North Sea was like a mill pond, the crossings were quite enjoyable. There were restaurants and bars to pass the time on the crossing. You always hoped to be on the Dutch ferry because the food and drink was Dutch and so much better than on the English boat!
These days the tourists fly into Schiphol airport and take the train from there to Leiden to meet up with their hosts. About a third of the previous journey time.
The Cricket
The tour to The Netherlands usually consists of four matches including the main game against Ajax. This is the game the Dutch are always desperate to win, whether home or away! It took them many years to achieve the first tour victory against AVCC but these days the results tend to go either way often favouring the home side.
The Dutch are not above using scurrilous tactics to win the main event. Visitors to Leiden will all recall being kept out late partying by the Ajax second team whilst the first X1 were all tucked up in bed early in preparation for the “Big game” on the following day!
The standard of cricket varies but games are usually arranged to ensure a sensible match with the Dutch teams often made up of players from first, second and third X1s and played in the right spirit. The social side after the games is usually excellent with the opponents often putting on some food and plenty of drink. NB new tourists – pace the drinking as there are always plenty of “free” drinks coming round!
Most matches are played on artificial pitches but over recent years there are more grass pitches being installed and we have been lucky enough to play on several of these over the years. In the early years the pitches were almost all hockey pitches with the outfields about 4 inches long which meant you needed to develop a different style of batting to get any large scores. 100 was a good total. In addition, the pitches were coconut matting and that could be very interesting when facing quick bowlers! That has mostly changed now because hockey is played on self-contained astroturf enclosed pitches which do not accommodate cricket.
In Holland most teams engage a professional coach. These are from the main cricketing nations, and they also play for the teams they coach. Consequently, we have played against ex-Test players from Australia and New Zealand, West Indian Island players and Sri Lankan, South African, Pakistan and Indian professionals. Also, the occasional ex-county player. So you can see a real mix of international cricketing talent as well as a lot of variable home grown Dutch cricketers.
The Social
Leiden is a well-known, old University town and so has a lot of interesting history and places to visit, most notably the fish and flower markets and the Aussie bar! Like the rest of The Netherlands, Leiden has many waterways and nearby lakes, most of which we have travelled over the years with some interesting bridges for adventurous tourists to clamber over and back on to the canal boats! (No serious injuries to date). Other tourists have experienced some of the local Kaagwater (local lake) first hand, usually with a helping hand from their canal boat companions!
There are many rituals associated with the tours some of which go in and out of fashiondepending on the makeup of the touring party. However, there is always a fines master and always a tour dinner where the visitors pay for their hosts and the Dutch pay for the drinks (Similarly in the UK the Dutch pay for the meal and AVCC pay for the drinks!)
For any aspiring tour virgins, you need to know one thing and that is that it is traditional to wear your most outrageous Hawaiian shirt to the tour meal in Leiden.
Another tour ritual is that there is always an evening trip to see the interesting sights in Amsterdam, particularly around the famous De Wallen district. Believe me there are many interesting sights and old ruins to see there.
There is lots more to say about the tour and each one has its own identity. The best way to find out about it is to go. I can personally recommend this to everyone, and you should speak to any former tourist if you want to know more or are undecided about joining it.
This is meant to give a flavour of the tour but I can’t divulge too much more because, in the words of an infamous 1970 ish rugby tour – “What goes on tour stays on tour”.
Many thanks to Robin Newman for his contributions towards the ‘AVCC & Ajax CC Exchange’ section.