As the Dutch gear up for their return to the English county scene on 15 May, it’s worth looking back to a time when matches between the Netherlands and the counties were a fairly regular occurrence and to reflect on how earlier generations of Dutch players did against English professionals.

We are, of course, talking about friendly matches: the Dutch did not take part in any English competition until 1995, when they were admitted to the NatWest Trophy. But between 1962 and that first NatWest Trophy game, against Northamptonshire (coincidentally, one of this season’s opponents) at Northampton, they had played a total of 24 games against twelve of the then 17 first-class counties.

If we exclude a handful of early games and a solitary visit by Kent in 1936, the first match between one of those counties and the Netherlands took place against Hampshire in Haarlem on 1 and 2 September 1962, and it ended in an honourable draw. It also produced the first, and until now one of only two, centuries for the Dutch against a first-class county: in the second innings, when the home side was batting to save the game, Piet Marseille made a defiant not-out 112.

We cannot swear to how seriously the Englishmen took the end-of-season encounter, but there is no doubt that it was a full Hampshire side. The top five of Roy Marshall, Jimmy Gray, Henry Horton, Danny Livingstone and Peter Sainsbury, who contributed the lion’s share of their side’s first-innings total of 308 for seven, had been the mainstay of the batting in the Championship, and the only real concession to a festival atmosphere was the guest appearance of the Kent and England wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans.

Marseille wasn’t the only Dutch player to distinguish himself: Henny Wijkhuizen took five for 62 in that first innings and seven wickets in the match, and Peter van Arkel gave valuable support in the rearguard action on the second day, making 52. It was a splendid recovery after the Netherlands had been dismissed for 112 in their first innings and set 349 to win following a second Hampshire declaration.

The following year it was Middlesex who visited at the beginning of September, and this time there was no escape for the Dutch against a side which again included the bulk of the team which had contested the County Championship.

In a low-scoring match, the left-hander Bob Gale made 66 in the first innings and Ron Hooker 64 in the second, while the only Dutch batsman to reach a half-century was Wally van Weelde with 55 as the side made 123 and 138 against Middlesex’s 199 and 167. It was the bowlers who dominated throughout, the Middlesex and England new-ball attack of Alan Moss and John Price collecting five wickets in the first Dutch innings and Wander Pierhagen and Ernst Vriens claiming five for 54 and four for 30 in the visitors’ two knocks.

There was a four-year gap until the next such visit, when Worcestershire provided the opposition and the Dutch again managed a draw. Leg-spinner Nico Spits took five for 26 as the tourists were bowled out for 125, and then Anton Bakker made 79, and despite figures of five for 46 for Basil D’Oliveira, the Netherlands declared 34 ahead. D’Oliveira made 53 and Don Kenyon 80 to help Worcestershire reach 250 for five, and there was time only for the Dutch to make 31 for two before the close.

The visits remained intermittent: Kent played two one-day games in 1972, current KNCB treasurer Peter van Wel taking five for 77 as the first was drawn, but an undefeated Brian Luckhurst knock of 88 made sure that Kent won the second. Then there was a drawn one-day match with Middlesex two years later, where the Dutch just held on to finish on 105 for nine chasing a total of 140 for nine declared.

A ten-year gap ensued, and by the time Derbyshire ventured across the North Sea in 1984, the limited-overs format had taken a firm hold. Happily so, as it proved, because this game at Sportpark Harga in Schiedam, on 25 August 1984, produced the first-ever Dutch victory against a full county side.

Batting first, Derbyshire saw captain Kim Barnett dismissed by Rob van Weelde in the very first over, and they could finally manage only 178 for nine, opener Iain Anderson making 46 and Bruce Roberts 42 not out. Van Weelde finished with three for 14 from seven overs, and Huib Visée three for 33.

It looked as if it might be enough when the Dutch were on 70 for four with Rob Lifmann, Cees Ruskamp, Steven Lubbers and Ronnie Elferink all back in the metaphorical pavilion, but then the 21-year-old Roland Lefebvre and Peter Entrop shared a crucial stand of 96 for the fifth wicket, and after Lefebvre departed for 68 Entrop and Visée saw their side through to their target with four balls to spare.

Fours later, the Dutch did it again, this time against Hampshire in Nijmegen: this was a period in which the KNCB was deliberately taking its international fixtures away from the traditional venues in order to try to spread the gospel, and visiting sides found themselves playing at such exotic locations as Wassenaar, Eindhoven – and Nijmegen, where Quick 1888 were celebrating the club’s centenary.

In the first of two matches, the Netherlands reached a fairly modest 149 for five in forty overs, recovering from 60 for five thanks to a fine stand between Reinier van Es (49 not out) and Steven Lubbers (56 not out), and despite a solid 56 from Robin Smith Hampshire could only manage 145 for eight in reply. Lefebvre conceded only 23 from his eight overs, while Floris Jansen was even meaner, with one for 10 from seven.

The visitors had their revenge the following day, however, winning the 50-over second game by seven wickets with a comfortable 44 deliveries to spare, but not before they had been reduced to 34 for three, chasing 173 to win, by Jansen and Bob Goldman. Mark Nicholas and Rob Turner swung the match, putting on 140 in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand.

It has to be acknowledged that these games were played in conditions which the Englishmen must have found pretty alien, on matting wickets with short boundaries and long grass in the outfield, but these were nevertheless historic victories by a Dutch side which in terms of sheer talent compares favourably with its modern counterpart.

Most of the time, though, they found the opposition too strong, and the same applied when, in 1991 and 1992 the Netherlands undertook tours of England and met the counties on their own turf. Here they were mostly outclassed, although there were some notable performances with the bat, notably Robert van Oosterom’s 87 against Essex in 1991 and Rupert Gomes’ 77 in a hard-fought game against Sussex the following season.

Dutch participation in the English knockout competition did not immediately bring an end to the end-of-season visits by county sides, Leicestershire in particular making a trip to Den Haag a frequent feature of their programme. Glamorgan, too, came in 1995, and despite being on the receiving end of a Peter Cantrell century achieved a four-wicket win.

But the mid-nineties saw two more Dutch victories, the first against Yorkshire at Scarborough in 1996 and the second when Leicestershire came to De Diepput the following year. Tim de Leede collected three wickets in each of those wins, while against Leicestershire it was a 70 from Klaas Jan van Noortwijk which was the foundation of what proved to be a winning total.

That proved to be the last of Leicestershire’s visits (apart from a festive Twenty20 in Amstelveen as part of Paul Nixon’s benefit a couple of years ago), and with money issues coming to dominate the counties’ thinking to an ever-greater degree and the fixture list steadily expanding, a pleasant tradition has died, despite the steady improvement in the playing facilities the Dutch can offer.

In recent years, the only matches between the Netherlands and county sides have, curiously, been played in South Africa when the paths of preparatory tours have crossed. The most recent of these, in March 2009, actually produced a sixth win - the fifth having been against Durham in the 1999 NatWest trophy!- for the Dutch, against Glamorgan in Cape Town; it nearly produced a third century as well, Eric Szwarczynski making 98 and Daan van Bunge 95 as the pair added 144 for the fourth wicket and laid the foundation for a rousing two-wicket victory.

It will doubtless be a different matter when the counties take on the Orange Lions in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League: with points and ultimately prize money at stake as well as professional pride, there can be no question that they will be going all out for victory. But the Dutch, too, have much to play for, and a good deal less to lose. A seventh win would certainly be the most significant of all.