This piece evolved after I read a brief paragraph in an online newspaper archive about a tour of the north of England, in 1909, by a group of footballers from the Netherlands. It appealed to me to look into in more detail...
In the early years of the 20th Century, English football had an almost missionary zeal to spread the game across the world. Many clubs, especially those in the amateur field, embarked on tours of mainland Europe and some combination teams even ventured to North and South America in their quest to show the natives how to play the game.
However, at this time, it was very unusual for a continental team to make a visit to these shores. The novelty of a tour by the Dutch team, Haagsche Voetball Vereeniging Quick, in September 1909, was widely reported in the newspapers at the time. That the team was called, “Quick” only added to the newspapers interest in the story. As the Sheffield Daily Telegraph’s correspondent, “Looker On” suggested, “Can anyone fancy a more appropriate title for a football club than Quick? There are some clubs I know with whom the name would be a complete misnomer.” Equally, it was noted that, “rather than run the risk of spluttering over their full title, Britishers will prefer to speak of the Holland amateur eleven as the Quick team.”
Educating English fans of the game, the newspapers reported that, “Dutch football has made giant strides of late years. Their best clubs are equal to any of the best amateur clubs in England. They play hard but perfectly fair using their weight well. Their goalkeepers are good. Their backs also. Their halves back up their forwards well, and are all dangerous shots. Their forwards, whose shooting is a feature, pass excellently, and give the opposing men little chance to get near them. Their weakness is in their heading, which is quite poor, and their tendency to get offside.”
HVV Quick came to England with a very good reputation. They were champions of the Dutch First Class Western League, the strongest league in Holland in 1907/08, when they also won the Beerschot Cup in Antwerp. In the season 1908/09 the club had won the Silver Ball Football tournament at Rotterdam and the Holdert Cup (the Dutch F.A. Cup) at Dordrecht. Their full record of all matches in that season was: Played 27, won 17, drew 3, lost 7, goal aggregate 75-36.
The Dutch team arrived at Hull by the steamer from Rotterdam on Wednesday morning. On arrival, the party of 21 players and officials were conveyed in a char-a-banc, from which small flags of red, white, and orange, the national colours of Holland, and others of blue and white, the club colours, floated gaily, to the Grosvenor Hotel, the headquarters of the Hull City team. After settling in to their hotel, the "Quicks" accepted an invitation of the Hull City club to practice on the Tigers ground.
The squad consisted of the following players; Goal, G. Pop, H. J. G. Ferzenaar: backs L. Otten, C. W. Klicks, Ch. Blankert; half backs, H. A. E. Kollmann, R. Stempels, D. Crok, L. Bosschart; forwards, H. L. Visser, W. R. Groskamp, H. Muller, E. Snethlage, J. H. Welcker, C Dagevos, R.C. Mees, H. A. E. Kollmann. J.J. Akkersdijk
The squad was accompanied by their trainer, the well-known English international, Edgar Chadwick. In addition to Chadwick, Arthur Blackburn, an old Blackburn Rovers and Southampton player, and Fred Coles, a former centre half with Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Grimsby, were coaches to the side, teaching the finer arts of Soccer.
Edgar Wallace Chadwick had enjoyed a long career in English football, playing more than 460 games and scoring nearly 150 goals. He played for Everton, Burnley, Southampton, Liverpool, Blackpool and Glossop North End, and appeared for England on 7 occasions. After hanging up his boots, he became a coach in Germany and the Netherlands and was engaged as the official trainer to the Dutch national side.
In a short interview after landing with the tourists, Chadwick explained that he thought very highly of Dutch football. He considered that the standard of play had been improved beyond recognition, and that there was no game in Holland which could be compared with Soccer. He considered that the players he was accompanying would play the average Second League team a really good game.
Chadwick noted that amateurism prevailed throughout Holland and there was no such thing as professional football there. The game was played for the love of sport, and everywhere the true sporting spirit abounded. He explained that the "Quicks," were all students, and were most enthusiastic. Their average age was only 21, and no player was more than 22 years. During the sea passage to Hull they had played football on deck. Three footballs had been requisitioned to allow training, although one of them had been headed into the sea! The students adhered religiously to football fitness, and lacked nothing in the way of physique. They turned out for practice under Chadwick’s tuition every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday during the season. Practically all the matches in Holland were played on Sunday afternoons, with the season running from August to May inclusive.
The touring squad contained many of the most prominent Dutch players of the time and several players who had gained international honours.
Louis "Lou" Otten was a physician, who played as a defender for Quick. He had initially started as a goalkeeper but soon became the regular left full-back. He had a long association with Quick, playing regularly between 1902 and 1923, when he was 39 years old. Between 1907 and 1911 Lou played twelve times for the Netherlands national team, captaining the side on four occasions. He represented the Netherlands at the 1908 Summer Olympics, when they won the bronze medal.
Jan Herman "Caius" Welcker played as a forward for Quick. He played seventeen times for the national team, scoring five goals. He also represented the Netherlands at the 1908 Summer Olympics. He later settled as a lawyer in The Hague.
Everardus "Edu" Snethlage was born in the Dutch East Indies and played his football with Quick in The Hague. He began as a right half, but was moved into the forwards, initially at centre forward, and then to his more accustomed role at inside right, partnering Caius Welker as a feared right wing attack. His brother Bram also played for Quick. Snethlage was the captain of the touring party. He was offered terms to become a professional footballer with Hull City in 1908 but chose, instead, to pursue his medical studies. In late 1909, Bolton Wanderers also tried to persuade him to play a couple of games over the Christmas period, but this was also declined. During season 1909/10 he suffered a severe injury to his knee, which, effectively, ended his football career, aged just 24. He later became a Doctor and surgeon in Surabaya. In all, Edu played eleven times for the Netherlands national team between 1907 and 1909, scoring ten goals. In his final international match, he captained the side against England. He was another who represented the Netherlands at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Leonard "Leo" François Gerard Bosschart was another player from the Dutch East Indies. The midfielder earned a total of 19 caps for his country, scoring 1 goal. He captained the Netherlands national side at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. Bosschart studied engineering in Delft and became chief engineer at Burgenhout in Rotterdam and director of the Conrad shipyard. From 1938 until his death in 1951, Bosschart was director of the John Cockerill shipyard in Hoboken, Belgium.
Henk Muller represented the national side on two occasions, scoring 1 goal.
Reiner Noud Stempels, the centre half, represented the national side on three occasions in 1908.
Wim Groskamp was selected for the national side on one occasion, against Sweden, in 1908. He was reserve forward of the All-Holland team at the 1908 Olympic Games in London.
Jan Akkersdijk played his club football as a forward for Velocitas in Breda. He earned a total of 2 caps for the Netherlands, scoring one goal.
On the Thursday morning, September 23rd 1909, the Quicks left Hull by train for Sheffield, where they played their first match, that afternoon against the Sheffield A.F.C., at the Sheffield United Ground, Bramall Lane. Mr. H. B. Willey, the honorary secretary of the Sheffield Club, had brought together strong eleven to oppose the tourists.
Sheffield: Goal, W. Micklethwait (Rotherham Town); backs - W. Boswell (captain), T. Marsland; half-backs, F. H. Milnes. W. Stapley, and J. T. Campbell (all of Glossop); forwards, R. C. Maples (Oxford University), Dr. J. Brown-Sim (Queen’s Park), L. W. Bramall (Doncaster Rovers), V. S. Simpson, and H. Stapley (Glossop).
Quick: Goal, G. Pop; backs - L. Otten, C. W. Klicks; half-backs, H. A. E. Kollmann, R. Stempels, D. Crok; forwards, H. Visser, W. R. Groskamp, H. Muller, E. Snethlage, J. H. Welcker
The reporter for the Sheffield Star was impressed by the display. “Let it be said they are as quick by nature as they are by name, and the display they gave on Thursday afternoon at Bramall Lane, against a Sheffield Club eleven, was by no means the worst seen on that noted enclosure. The Dutchmen, finely-built fellows in nearly every instance, were a bit of a revelation, and only failure to suit their play to the conditions of the ground prevented them beating the Club by a good deal more than 3 goals to 1. Perhaps the home men, several of whom were playing out their places, thought they had what the Americans call a “cinch” on. If they did, they found out their mistake before the finish, for Queen Wilhelmina’s eleven subjects, good and true, were out for scalps - and got them.”
“H. Visser and J. H. Welcker played really fine wing games, both showing the greatest aptitude for finding the goal. The former scored twice, and E. Snethlage, a finely-built youth, once. G. Pop gave a clinking [sic] display in goal, and the crowd enjoyed his work more than anything else. When things livened up towards the close it was Pop who stood out above the rest. He was good with either foot or fist, and gave nothing away.”
The following day, the Dutchmen renewed their acquaintance with the Manchester University team, at The Firs in Fallowfield. The University had previously played a couple of interesting matches against the Dutch side in Holland, drawing one-all in The Haugue on Good Friday and losing 2 – 1 in Antwerp on the Easter Monday, in a game which occupied no less than 160 minutes!
The Dutch amateurs recorded their second victory when they defeated the University by 2 goals to nil. The early stages of the game were very even with neither goalkeeper having much work to do and half time was reached with no score. After the restart the Quick right wing partnership worked an opening and Edu Snethlage scored. Visser added a second with a good shot.
On Saturday September 25th, the Quicks travelled north to Carlisle, where they met the Carlisle United’s North Eastern League eleven at Brunton Park. This was the only professional opposition they met on the tour.
In an even first half, Edu Snethlage put the Dutch side ahead with a shot from 20 yards. However, in the second half the fitness of the professionals (and probably some tired legs amongst the Dutchmen) began to tell and the home side scored two goals to win by 2 goals to 1.
The Quick team was G. Pop, C.W. Klicks, L. Otten, R.C. Mees, R. Stempels, H.A.E. Kollmann, J.H. Welcker, E. Snethlage, H. Muller, W.R. Groskamp, H.L. Visser
After a well-earned day of rest on the Sunday, the side was entertained by Liverpool Balmoral at Everton’s Goodison Park ground on Monday September 27th, 1909. Despite heavy rain the Dutch side surprised the spectators, “with their fleetness of foot and ability to take a forward or square pass while on the run. Their forward work was an object lesson to our League men who persistently require to trap the ball when receiving it and ere they part with it. They are not afraid to give a heavy charge – shoulder to shoulder – and quite fair.”
“The goalkeeper was something of a novelty. He is a half back generally. Hence the strange devices used for fielding the ball, which he handled only three times in the game. He simply would not catch the ball: he kicked out at it every time – a mode of defence which, at one time, was very frequently adopted in our league football. Once he missed fire and a goal accrued, but he is very safe taken all through. The crowd enjoyed the fun and the honest endeavour of the men, and at the finish, joined in the hurrahs which were raised by the teams.”
Goals from Bosschart, Snethlage and Kollmann matched the three scored by the home side.
The Quick team was G. Pop, C. Blankert, L. Otten, D. Crok, L. Bosschart, H.A.E. Kollmann, J.H. Welcker, E. Snethlage, H. Muller, W.R. Groskamp, H.L. Visser
The following day the Quicks arrived in Stoke at 1 15 pm, and, after lunch, were conducted on a visit to a local pottery factory. The final match of the short, but intense tour, against the North Staffordshire Nomads at Stoke City’s Victoria ground kicked off at five o’clock. The presence of the Sunderland goalkeeper, Leigh Roose, in the Nomads goal was a great attraction to local spectators, as he had been a big crowd favourite during his playing days with Stoke City. The Nomads had also strengthened their side with a number of other, well-known local amateur players.
Before the visitors could settle down to their game the Nomads scored an early goal. A second goal followed midway through the half and one might have expected the Dutch men, playing their fifth match within a period of six days, to begin to suffer. However they quickly rallied and their splendid exhibition was, therefore, all the more praiseworthy. Welcker—who had shown great speed—got away on his wing and centred while on the run. It was a delightful movement and received a fitting finish when Mees, with a first time shot, banged the ball out of the reach of Roose into the home goal. Just before half time, more smart work on the Dutch right flank produced an equalising goal. This time Welker left the Nomads' rearguard standing while he dropped the ball in to Snethlage, whose shot grazed the post before entering the goal.
Through much of the second half the play was confined to midfield, with the defenders on either side backing up splendidly. Play continued to be of an even nature to the end, and there was no further scoring, so that the match was drawn, with four goals shared.
The Quick team was G. Pop, L. Otten, C.W. Clicks, H.A.E. Kollmann, L. Bosschart, R. Stempels, J.H. Welcker, E. Snethlage, Mees, W.R. Groskamp, H.L. Visser
After the game the tourists spent the night in Manchester before they travelled over to Hull on the Wednesday for the steamer back to Rotterdam.
With a record of won 2, drawn 2 and lost 1, the tour was considered a great success and it was clear that the team of Dutch footballers, boasting the name “Quick”, had lived up to their suggestive title.
As one of the English the newspapers noted, “Association football has taken great hold in Holland, and it may not be very long before we have to take International matches with them seriously.”
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