After three months, seventeen rounds of fixtures and 76 matches, almost all the key decisions in the 2007 Hoofdklasse competition will hinge on what happens this Sunday.

It’s already certain that VRA Amsterdam and VOC Rotterdam will top the table and therefore have home advantage in next week’s semi-finals, but which of these two finishes in first place is dependent on the outcome of Sunday’s matches.

Leaders VRA are at home to Excelsior ’20, and need to win to be certain of the top slot, while VOC go into their game against HCC in Den Haag knowing that if they should win and VRA lose, then they would take over the leadership. With the final being played on a neutral ground there is no immediate benefit from topping the table, but if the final were to be rained off then the leaders going into the play-offs would be declared champions.

VRA faltered again last Sunday, the batting failing to perform when chasing a fairly modest Quick Haag total, but their formidable record at home suggests they may be more than a match for an Excelsior side which still relies very heavily on the all-round talents of Mark Cleary.

Excelsior, though, still have an outside chance of making the play-offs themselves, and will have every incentive to pull off an extraordinary recovery after a poor start to the season. Rashid Amin has proved an effective partner for Cleary since joining the seam attack, but their batting continued to perform well below its capabilities, as their dismissal for 103 by ACC last week clearly illustrates.

VRA clearly miss Eric Szwarczynski in the batting, but the availability of Joost Leemhuis last week strengthened the seam attack, while a batting line-up led by Tjade Groot and Ryan Maron, with Garth Brown promoted to three and followed by Darrin Murray, Peter Borren and Wesley Barresi ought to be able to make enough runs to ensure a win.

VOC missed their opportunity to move into the top spot last Sunday by losing comprehensively to Hermes-DVS, and they will therefore have to pick themselves up for their match at De Diepput if they are to have another chance of taking pole position for the play-offs.

HCC had their own easy win over HBS, but VOC are, of course, a completely different proposition. The Hagenaars cannot finish higher than fifth, but after such a miserably inconsistent second half of the season they would obviously love to end up on a winning note.

The contest between Australian coaches Xavier Doherty (VOC) and Shane Deitz (HCC) will be one of the features of this match, with Doherty the leading wicket-taker in the competition and Deitz the leading run-scorer. But with plenty of current and former internationals present in both sides, this is a game which might well have been repeated in the play-offs had HCC been able to find steadier form since June.

For Excelsior to have any prospect of reaching the semi-finals Quick Haag would need to lose to relegation-threatened VVV Amsterdam in Amstelveen. This match therefore has double significance, affecting both the major battles.

History is on VVV’s side, since Quick have never beaten them on their own ground since their return to the Hoofdklasse, but despite the doubts about their batting it seems likely that the Den Haag side will have too many guns for their hosts.

Defeat for VVV would mean that their fate would be dependent on the outcome of the nearby match between ACC and HBS: should ACC win that, VVV would go down. There will be plenty of keen listeners to the shouts from both grounds, which are literally within earshot of each other.

The other two matches are likewise absolutely vital for both teams concerned.

Voorburg travel to Schiedam to take on Hermes-DVS knowing that the winner is guaranteed a place in the semi-finals, while the loser will be eliminated. With their attack continuing to cause problems for even the best sides in the competition, Nicky Statham still making runs consistently, and coach Pankaj Joshi at last running into the form which eluded him for much of the season, Hermes have unobtrusively staked their claim to a play-off spot, but there’s no denying the fact that they have registered comprehensive wins over both VRA and VOC.

Voorburg’s rise has been equally steady, and with Tim de Leede evidently liberated by giving up the captaincy to John Sist, they have evolved into an effective unit. Here, too, there are questions about the batting where de Leede, Ryan Le Loux and Mohammad Rafi continue to play a crucial role, but the two sides are well matched for what is in effect a quarter-final.

At the lower end of the table, ACC go into their home game against HBS Den Haag facing a simple fact: defeat means a rapid return to the Eerste Klasse. A win, on the other hand, would put them above HBS, and would bring safety, with either their opponents or VVV going down, depending on the result further along the Kalfjeslaan.

Boosted by the return from injury of Bas van der Heijde, ACC will be hoping that they can put together one of their more convincing performances with the bat, but HBS’s seam attack is well equipped to exploit the favourable conditions for bowling which ACC’s ground usually provides.

It is probably better not to consider the multiple possibilities which would follow from a tie anywhere in this week’s programme, or one or more matches being rained off: the situation is already complicated enough without adding more variables into the equation. Everyone will be hoping that the issues are settled on the field, one way or the other.

With so much at stake, this week’s games are even more difficult to pick than usual. But for it’s worth: Quick Haag, VRA, VOC, Hermes-DVS, HBS.