Quick Haag, VRA Amsterdam and Hermes-DVS Schiedam all registered decisive victories as the Hoofdklasse got under way on Thursday, with HCC also booking a win and promoted side Sparta 1888 causing the first real upset of the season with a win over HBS Den Haag in a severely rain-affected match.

The performance of the day was in Rotterdam, where Quick brushed aside home side VOC by nine wickets.

After winning the toss and batting, the Rotterdammers got away to a fair start, openers Maarten van Ierschot and Toni Barca putting on 44 before Quick’s new coach, Australian Wes Thomas, stepped in and removed both of them.

VOC captain Bas Zuiderent anchored the middle part of his side’s innings with a solid 46, but only the young exchange player Sam Hoggett gave him any real support as the home side battled their way to 125 for six with less than ten overs left.

Zuiderent was the seventh to go, with the total on 149, but some enterprising hitting from Jelte Schoonheim, with a not-out 23 off 14 balls, enabled VOC to reach 186 for nine.

On his Hoofdklasse debut Thomas became the first player this season to bag a five-wicket haul, taking five for 27 with his medium pace, while young spinner Thijs van Schelven picked up two for 33.

Darron Reekers (pictured) set off at a tremendous pace when Quick replied, hitting 75 off 53 balls, with 13 fours and a six, before he was bowled by Maninder Singh.

The total was already 112 at this point, with less than twenty overs gone, and then Geert Maarten Mol, promoted to open the batting with Reekers, carried on with the job in partnership with Thomas. Mol finished on 63 not out, and Thomas completed a fine day’s work with 34 not out as Quick secured the win in the 35th over.

Thomas’s opposite number, New Zealander Ben Williams, who was a late signing and only flew in on Tuesday, had a rough welcome to the Hoofdklasse, making three and then conceding 66 runs off eight overs.

It was a tale of two partnerships in the Amsterdamse Bos, where Excelsior ’20 Schiedam reached 203 for nine after being put in by VRA Amsterdam skipper Peter Borren.

First, Rifaiz Bakas and Luuk van Troost added 106 in 28 overs for the second wicket for Excelsior after the early loss of captain-coach Mark Cleary, Van Troost contributing a steady 90-ball innings of 54.

But the VRA attack stuck to their task well, and maintained the pressure well, Eric Szwarczynski the most successful with three for 33. It was he who accounted for Cleary, and he later claimed the prize wicket of Daan van Bunge, who managed only 15, and then Bakas, whose patient 67 came off 142 balls.

When Bakas went in the 46th over it was 168 for five, and it took some good cricket from Malik Hussain and Zafar Ahmad to get the total past 200.

Borren, debutant Daniel Nielsen and Mangesh Panchal all contributed good spells in a steady VRA bowling effort.

If Excelsior had failed to capitalise on a solid start, their bowlers soon had the home side in real trouble, as Hussain removed both openers and Van Troost then got rid of Szwarczynski to reduce VRA to 40 for three.

But that brought coach Ryan Maron in to join Borren, and these two set about making the game safe for the Amsterdam club.

Despite some hostile fast bowling from Cleary, who was the pick of the Excelsior attack, they weathered the storm, and then began to accelerate the tempo as they approached their target.

Their unbroken stand of 164 was a club record for the fourth wicket, Borren finishing with 89, made from exactly 100 balls with seven fours and a six, and Maron on 77, made off 88 balls with eight fours and two sixes, as VRA reached their target after 38 overs with seven wickets in hand.

At Sportpark Harga in Schiedam, Hermes-DVS registered the highest score of the day with 236 for six, and then dismissed VVV Amsterdam for 103 to claim a substantial 133-run victory.

Nicky Statham got them under way with 30, Bart Schilperoord made 45 in the middle part of the innings, and then Ruud Nijman hit a lusty not-out 67 in the closing stages to set the visitors an imposing target.

Aqeel Awan was the most effective of the VVV bowlers with three for 39.

But the Amsterdammers had no answer to the Hermes attack, collapsing to 103 in just 37 overs, with only coach Mohammad Hafeez making a significant contribution with 36.

Rain interrupted both matches playing in the Den Haag area, though with very different consequences.

At Westvliet, home side Voorburg had reached 92 for five in the 29th over when the players were forced from the field, HCC seamer Bernard Loots having completed a fine ten-over spell for three for 34.

After a delay of more than two hours Voorburg were able to resume their innings, and went on to 169 for nine, with Johan Claesens top-scoring with 41 on his Hoofdklasse debut. Jacob-Jan Esmeijer took three for 27 for HCC.

HCC then battled their way towards this relatively modest target, and while they always seemed to have overs in hand, the game was delicately poised when they were 136 for five with thirteen overs left.

Brothers Johannes and Stephanus Myburgh each made 35 in the top order, but it was captain Feiko Kloppenburg whose not-out 30 made the game safe for HCC as they won by four wickets with 3.2 overs to spare.

The break for rain lasted longer at Klein Zwitserland, where Sparta had made 58 for three off 21.5 overs when the interruption came.

A wet pitch delayed the restart here after it had stopped raining, and the umpires decided that there was no time for Sparta to resume their innings. HBS Den Haag therefore received 21 overs, and the Duckworth/Lewis calculation determined that they needed to make 90 to win.

This task proved beyond them, however, as they collapsed to 66 all out off 19.2 overs, giving Sparta their first Hoofdklasse points as they returned to the top flight after a gap of thirteen years.