SCH (Holland)

SCH, or Sport Club Voorhees to give them their full moniker are an amateur football club from the city of Nijmegen in the Gelderland region of The Netherlands. The club were formed on the 23^rdJanuary 1921 as Nijmegen Voorhees Combination (NHC) in the village of Voorhees.

The club changed their title in December 1926 to SCH, beginning the season at their new ground Sportpark De Biezen on Rivierstraat in the north west of the city. In the 1930’s the club spent time in the second tier of amateur football before being promoted in 1934-35 following play off victories over Hengelo and Vitesse.

Following World War Two new housing was built in the nearby Waterkwartier district allowing the club membership to grow. However, ‘De Blauwe Jungskes’ gradually went down the divisions over the years.

Eventually a promotion was won from the Nijmegen regional league to the Derde Klasse (third class, and fifth tier of amateur football) in 1990-91 through the play offs. 1996-97 saw the Derde Klasse title delivered to SCH and they went one better by claiming the Tweede Klasse (second class) title in 1997-98, regaining their place in the first class for the first time in sixty three years.

However the joy was not to last for SCH as they suffered double relegation's in consecutive seasons. Worse was to follow as they went down all the way to the Vijfde fifth class. Promotion came at the first attempt but the end of the 2008-09 ended in another demotion back to Vijfrde Klasse following a 2-2 play off draw against Eendracht Arnhem.

Several mergers for SCH were mooted over the years without fruition, before Wim Wouters team won promotion back to the fourth Vierde Klasse in 2010-11 and then went up another level.

SCH will play in Derde Klasse Zontag Oost (Third Class Sunday – East) in the 2013-14 season.

My visit

Sunday 19^th January 2014

While I think my pre planning is pretty good before I head off to ventures new, it is natural that at times that a visit to a club can be a disappointment. On the other hand, a club can appear without previous knowledge, as with how I came across SCH.

I was Nijmegen primarily to go to the NEC game that lunchtime against ADO Den Haag, but after dropping off my bag at the De Prince B&B I decided to do some exploring on the way to help bring me around from the hangover I’d incurred the previous evening while socialising in Zwolle. The Joris Ivensplein bus stop at the bottom of the street displayed that the no.85 would take me near to my intended target; the home of SV Blauw Wit.

I was trying to concentrate on where we were when a decent looking venue caught my attention. I rang the bell hoping that the bus would stop soon, but it continued along Industrieweg, before stopping around half a mile further up at Sluis Weurt. Not to be deterred I headed back, using cycle tracks and then crossing a new road that didn’t even exist on my map app, just to confuse matters.

Eventually I found myself on Rivierstraat and at the entrance, where I first discovered SCH. A Sunday morning match was taking place on the second pitch at the other side of the car park. I went to have a look at the main arena.

De Biezen had a substantial cover down the far side, with the rest of the neat venue having hard standing around the pitch with grass beyond.

I was leaving when my presence had been noticed by a club official. I explained that I was from England visiting stadiums and then heading to the NEC match. He seemed delighted with this. I ventured on taking a look at the match going on I was walked. It reminded me of Sunday mornings on Olivers Mount Scarborough!