Voorburg inaugurated their new grass square on Saturday, taking on Hermes-DVS in a pre-season warm-up match and recording a narrow last-over victory to mark the occasion.

It was a useful workout for the players, although with several key figures missing from both sides it gave little guide to their prospects for the season. Pieter Seelaar top-scored with the bat for Hermes with 32, while for the home side Harold Vogelaar made 55 before retiring and Wilfried Diepeveen contributed a useful 41. The players' assessment was reportedly that the pitch was a pretty good one this early in the season.

Hermes-DVS were in action again the following day, registering a comfortable win against a HCC combination. Pieter Seelaar made another 33, but he was surpassed this time by brother Harro, who made a patient 37 and then went on to claim two for 8 as HCC fell well short of their target. Top-scorer for the Hagenaars was new skipper Bernard Loots with 32, having earlier taken three for 14 in the Hermes innings.

At the Loopveld West, ACC took on a Belgian side which could draw on only five of last season´s European Championship squad, and recorded a convincing 142-run victory.

ACC were in early trouble before they were partially rescued by a useful stand between Rehan Younis (27) and Rizwan Akram (24), but it was Ollie Lodder who enabled them to reach a challenging 202 for eight off 40 overs, making a solid not-out 46 which will have done no harm to his prospects of a regular first-team place.

The Belgians struggled in reply, only Sheraz Sheikh, Amir Iqbal (who had earlier claimed two wickets) and Sonik Haveri reaching double figures, while Mohsin Ghaznavi took three for 16 for ACC, and Wajdan Alim and South African exchange player Michael Rippon two for 8 apiece.

On the other side of Amstelveen, VRA Amsterdam could only manage 134 against HBS Den Haag, the bulk of the runs coming from Atse Buurman (48) and coach Tim Muir (31). Ferdi Vink claimed three for 2 for the visitors.

But then they, too, found batting difficult, and they were bowled out for 81, with Sohail Bhatti taking three for 22 and Adeel Raja three for 10.

In other matches at the weekend, Rifaiz Bakas made a welcome return to the Excelsior ´20 side, top-scoring as his team registered a comfortable victory over Hoofdklasse opponents Bloemendaal, and Rood en Wit tied a match against Ajax Oegstgeest. In Spain, meanwhile, a VOC team lost to the Spanish national side.