Round-up Tulp HK (D): relegation B’daal, Hurley dropped out

The curtain has fallen for the ladies of Bloemendaal. The 4-2 defeat against Amsterdam on Sunday on the twentieth matchday sealed the fate of the last team in the Tulp Hoofdklasse Dames. Hurley finally dropped out of the play-off battle two rounds before the end after the 2-1 loss at home against SCHC. Tilburg moved up to tenth place in the rankings at the expense of Rotterdam, which is now eleventh.

Due to the Tilburg points division earlier in the day, the sword of Damocles hung over the ladies of Bloemendaal. The assignment was clear to them: not to lose to Amsterdam. That mission seemed to fail when Sonja Zimmermann gave the Amsterdam team the lead after just nine minutes. Bloemendaal fought back into the game and seemed to postpone the verdict when the team turned the deficit into a lead through Fee Schreuder and Pien Molenaar. Amsterdam still won in the final phase, meaning Bloemendaal, active at the highest level since 2014-2015, will play in the Promotion Class next year.

Going into the winter break, Hurley was on track to reach the play-offs for the second season in a row. The seven-point lead over the competition disappeared like snow in the sun in the second half of the season. With two rounds to go, Hurley is definitively out of the race for a ticket to the play-offs. It was SCHC’s sixth consecutive victory in competition over Hurley. The Bilthoven team recorded its thirteenth victory in the last sixteen competition matches. Things are a lot more difficult for Hurley. Coach Robbert van de Peppel’s team has won only once in the last eight matches.

Unlike Hurley’s neighbors, Pinoké remains in the race for a place in the play-offs. In a match full of goals, HDM was defeated 4-3 in The Hague. Because Kampong was stuck at 1-1 against Tilburg, the Steekneuzen reduced the deficit to the Utrecht team, which is fourth, to four points. It was Pinoké’s fourth win in the last six competition matches. HDM already suffered its eighth defeat in eleven games.

In the three previous meetings, Kampong could not beat Tilburg and this time too the Utrecht team failed to retain three points in the mutual match. Due to the division of points, Kampong, which has been unbeaten for nine matches, saw competitor Pinoké come closer to a play-off ticket. The difference between the two teams is four points with two matches to go. Tilburg rose from eleventh to tenth place at the expense of Rotterdam. Tilburg is four points behind Oranje-Rood, which is in a safe ninth place.

The ladies of Oranje-Rood did good business in the battle for the play-outs. After the 2-2 against SCHC last week, rival Rotterdam was defeated 3-2 on Sunday. The winning goal came from Janneke van de Venne’s stick from a penalty corner. And that penalty corner has been a strong weapon for the Eindhoven team in recent weeks. Twelve of the last fourteen goals came from penalty corners. With the victory, the Oranje-Red is almost assured of a direct win. Rotterdam dropped to eleventh place in the rankings.

Leader Den Bosch has the EHL ticket up for grabs after the 4-1 win over HGC. The lead over pursuers Amsterdam and SCHC is four points. With the third win in a row, Den Bosch has now been undefeated for 39 competition matches, the third longest streak in club history. Moreover, the Den Bosch formation has gone twenty games at home without defeat. Despite the loss, HGC is definitively assured of another season of the Tulp Hoofdklasse.

Read below the highlights of the twentieth matchday in the Tulp Hoofdklasse Dames