ACC again went clear at the top of the Topklasse by beating Quick Haag at Nieuw Hanenburg on Sunday, since Hermes-DVS just failed to take a hard-fought Schiedam derby as Excelsior ’20 hung on to win at Thurlede.

Bowled out for 161 after Pieter Seelaar elected to bat first, Hermes struck back quickly when their hosts replied, Greg Todd and Sebastiaan Braat removing the openers by the time 13 was on the board.

Brett Hampton made a crucial 55, however, taking the leading role in a half-century stand with Daan van Bunge (21), and once they were gone, Rudi Hillermann shepherded the tail towards victory.

Renzo Borrani took three for 24 as wickets continued to fall and Braat claimed the ninth with seven runs still needed. But Haider Khan gave Hillermann the support he needed to see the side home, and the South African allrounder finished on 41 not out as Excelsior won with more than six overs to spare.

Earlier, Stephan Myburgh had taken his first five-wicket haul in the Topklasse, claiming five for 31 after Hermes had reached a promising 123 for three. Todd was the top scorer with 44 before he was run out by Hillermann, and there were useful contributions from Harro Seelaar, Nick Statham and Pieter Seelaar.

ACC, hampered by the fact that Mudassar Bukhari was unable to bowl, gave the new ball to left-arm spinner Maninder Kamboj, and he responded with figures of two for 30 in a tidy ten-over spell. Put in to bat, Quick found runs hard to come by, but the innings was held together by another fighting knock from skipper Henk-Jan Mol, whose 58 came from 112 deliveries and included two sixes and a solitary four.

There were, indeed, as many sixes as fours in the Quick innings, two of them coming from Edgar Schiferli, whose 16-ball 25 towards the end helped his side towards a moderately respectable total, and Jeroen Brand chipped in with a 14-ball 21 not out.

Zulfiqar Ahmed contributed another extremely economical spell, conceding just 23 runs from his ten overs and claiming the wicket of Tim Clarke, and his second-wicket partnership of 70 – the highest of the match – put ACC on the road to victory.

After Zulfiqar and Bukhari departed, for 31 and 38 respectively, Ollie Lodder and François Le Clus took over the chase, and after Lodder was bowled by Schiferli for 30, soon followed by Graeme van Buuren, a great deal hinged on Le Clus. Henk Mol claimed the sixth wicket with 24 still needed, and Quick were facing a trio of fifteen-year-old Zulfiqars.

The first of them, Sikander, promptly hit Jeroen Brand back over his head for six, and by the time Schiferli removed him only five were required. Brother Saqib joined Le Clus, and these two knocked off the remaining runs to see ACC home by three wickets.

The clash of the top-four contenders VRA Amsterdam and HCC at Amstelveen was a high-scoring affair, with Tom de Grooth hitting 113 – his sixth century in the top flight – and sharing a big second-wicket partnership with Cameron Borgas (52).

Berend Westdijk hit back for the champions, however, with five for 57, and HCC collapsed to 228 all out.

Wesley Barresi got the home side off to a good start with a punishing 59, and with contributions of 48 from Peter Borren, 57 from Matthijs Luten and 38 from Barry Rhodes, VRA reached their target for the loss of six wickets with nine overs to spare.

The highest-scoring match of the day, however, was at Sportpark Drieburg, where Dosti Amsterdam maintained their push for a play-off spot with a comfortable 7-wicket victory over bottom side VOC Rotterdam, who were without player-coach Wade Townsend.

That they were chasing a total of 238 for eight was due to a notable recovery by the Rotterdammers, who were on 23 for three after Amit Uniyal and Vimal Tewarie had removed the top order, and whose fightback was led by former international Bas Zuiderent with 66.

Zuiderent was supported by skipper Maarten van Ierschot (31), Belgium’s Jamie Farmiloe, marking his Topklasse debut with 32, and Dirk van Baren (35), with Zuiderent, Van Baren and Timm van der Gugten all contributing to a flurry in the last ten overs, which produced 78 runs.

Dosti’s reply, by contrast, was given a great start by Mohammad Wasim (60) and Ehtesham Choudhry Mohammed (64), who put on 139 for the first wicket. They departed within one run of each other, and then Van der Gugten claimed the valuable wicket of David Wiese for 22.

But that was to be VOC’s last success, as Uniyal (48) and Mohammad Hafeez (20) knocked off the remaining 73 runs in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand.