The schedules for the 2010 Topklasse and Hoofdklasse competitions, published by the KNCB last week, contain at least one major surprise, in the form of a ‘half-competition’ after the end of the regular round robin series.

The reduction of the top divisions of the Dutch domestic competition from ten teams to eight has created additional space in the programme, since a normal home-and-away schedule comprises 14 playing dates rather than 18.

So the Bond, after intensive discussion with the clubs, has met the criticism that this means less cricket for players outside the increasingly-busy national squad, by coming up with an ingenious solution: after the last round of home-and-way matches – which will be played as early as 25 July in the Topklasse and a week earlier in the Hoofdklasse! – the teams in each division will be split into two groups, who will meet each other over three weeks in August.

In the Topklasse, the top four will be competing for the rankings which will determine the shape of the championship play-offs, while the lower four will meet to decide which club finishes bottom of the table and goes into a best-of-three series against the champions of the Hoofdklasse. The same system will apply in the Hoofdlasse, with the top and bottom sides after the second phase going into promotion and relegation play-offs.

Teams will carry forward into this competition the points they have gained against the other three sides in their pool during the first phase.

This means that no club will play more than one match fewer than they did during the regular season in 2009.

The programmes themselves serve to emphasise just how competitive the new-look divisions are likely to be, and also how successfully the Dutch participation in the ECB Pro40 competition has been planned to minimise the consequences for the clubs.

Only two, or perhaps, three dates during the first phase involve clashes with the international programme: 16 May, when the national side will be playing Middlesex at Lord’s; 29 May, the day before a Pro40 match at Derby (although the clubs will no doubt want their players to be released, travelling late on the Saturday); and 4 July, in the middle of the World Cricket League Division 1 tournament. More seriously disrupted, perhaps, will be the second phase fixtures on 15 August, when the national side will be in Ireland.

Clubs do, however, have the right to reorganise matches when more than two team members are absent on national duty, and all things considered, the interweaving of the two programmes could scarcely have been more harmonious.

Promoted side Rood en Wit Haarlem open their season on 2 May with a home match against defending champions Excelsior ’20 Schiedam, while last year’s defeated finalists VRA Amsterdam will be at home to Quick Haag, who they met in a semi-final last season. In the remaining first-round games, HCC are at home to ACC and Hermes-DVS Schiedam will entertain VOC Rotterdam.

Unusually, the return matches will not be played in the same sequence as the first round, which means that the traditional Schiedam derbies, always a high point of the season for the clubs involved, will both take place in mid-season, and within three weeks of each other: at Hermes’ Sportpark Harga complex on 29 May and at Thurlede, Excelsior’s home ground with its new turf square, on 20 June.

Other matches on those days pit Quick Haag against HCC, ACC against Rood en Wit, and VRA against VOC, another of the most lively rivalries of recent years.

In the Hoofdklasse, two of the clubs relegated from last year’s top flight face tricky away fixtures on 2 May: VVV Amsterdam travel to Cappelle aan den IJssel to take on Sparta 1888, while Voorburg face Dosti in Amsterdam. HBS Den Haag, the third club to go down, are at home to Bloemendaal, and Kampong Utrecht entertain HCC 2.

Excelsior’s new turf square is likely to host its first Topklasse match on 9 May, when the opposition will be VOC, while the first Hoofdklasse game to take place on Voorburg’s new square at Westvliet is scheduled for 13 May, the Ascension Day holiday, with HCC 2 providing the opposition.