It was a weekend of contrasts in the Topklasse, with the postponed game between HCC and VRA Amsterdam providing a runfest on the most splendid day of the summer so far, and intermittent rain forming a disruptive backdrop to Sunday’s full round of matches.

The shock of the day came in Amstelveen, where HCC’s batting collapsed against ACC, while the other matches, while not without their twists and turns, finished more or less according to form: Excelsior ’20 were given a scare by Rood en Wit Haarlem but eventually retained their unbeaten record, VOC Rotterdam squeezed home to a narrow victory over Hermes-DVS Schiedam, and VRA returned to winning ways by beating a hapless Quick Haag.

At De Diepput on Saturday, Bernard Loots won the toss and elected to bat, and was rewarded by a magnificent 157-run partnership for the third wicket between player-coach Johan Myburgh and exchange player Imran Nackerdien. The limitations of VRA’s attack were ruthlessly exposed, especially by Myburgh, who cut loose so effectively in the latter stages that 105 runs came from the last ten overs as HCC reached a massive 319 for four.

He was eventually caught on the boundary by teenage debutant Leon Turmaine, but not before he had made a superb 140, while the left-hander Nackerdien contributed a fine 81. Adeel Raja again bowled well, as did Tom Cooper.

The VRA batsmen came out with all guns blazing, coach Tim Muir, who had sustained a leg injury in the field, promoted to an opening slot and – with Peter Borren as a runner – belting a rapid 54 as he and Eric Szwarczynski putting on 97 for the first wicket.

But then Loots removed Muir, adding Borren and Wesley Barresi in quick succession, and despite a battling 80 from Szwarczynski the VRA chase faltered. Reinder Lubbers, also making his Topklasse debut, contributed a defiant 33, but although the Amsterdam side reached 252 – their highest total of the season – they were well short of their target. Loots finished with four for 64.

With rain hanging in the air, Rood en Wit managed a modest 154 without captain Jarrod Englefield and player-coach Enoch Nkwe against Excelsior at Thurlede on Sunday. Wicketkeeper Jason Atkinson made 50, while Andrew Bailey, standing in as captain, held the latter stages of the innings together before he was last out for 34. Tom Heggelman was again the pick of the Excelsior bowlers with five for 31, his best figures in the top flight.

But Rood en Wit fought back hard, and by the time rain intervened 17 overs into the Excelsior innings the home side were in serious trouble at 39 for four, with Heggelman, Ed Cowan, Daan van Bunge and Usman Malik all gone and Bailey and Vishi Sankarasubramanian having picked up a brace of wickets each.

Only Rifaiz Bakas held firm, and when he was joined by Marcel Schewe on 64 for five these two proceeded to turn the game around, Schewe hitting a brisk 51 and Bakas continuing to anchor the innings until the end, finishing on 54 not out as the champions reached their target with eleven balls to spare.

That was the only match to escape without a reduction in overs. Around the Ring at Hazelaarweg, the last of a series of interruptions to the Hermes-DVS reply to VOC’s 195 led to two overs coming off, and the winning target being reduced from 196 to 191.

The VOC innings had been a somewhat stuttering affair, with Michael Dighton being dropped twice early on before making 72. Once he was gone, lashing out at Nils Lenstra’s first delivery, it was left to Ben Goedegebuur to contribute a valuable 30, while for Hermes Harro Seelaar picked up four for 45.

Without injured skipper Nick Statham, Hermes found runs hard to come by when the match resumed after the first of the showers ensured a prolonged lunch interval, Reinout van Ierschot and Ahsan Malik keeping it tight and maintaining the pressure well. They were behind the Duckworth/Lewis schedule by the time Derek de Boorder was stumped off Bobby Hanif’s bowling to make it 47 for two, and when Bart Schilperood followed after another rain break, VOC were well on top.

Pieter van der Hammen now joined coach Shanan Stewart, and the pair gradually accelerated the scoring rate, eventually getting Hermes’ collective nose in front as the clouds continued to loom. The turning point came when Van der Hammen, who had batted with increasing freedom, was run out for 41 in a terrible mix-up which left the batsmen staring at each other in the same crease, and with captain Maarten van Ierschot switching his bowlers effectively and Dighton taking three for 46, Stewart was unable to cut loose.

14 were still needed as Goedegebuur began his final over, and the Hermes batsmen could only manage eight, Stewart finishing on 79 not out.

The match in Amstelveen between ACC and HCC survived longest without interruption as the rain spread northwards, and by the time it arrived HCC were clearly on the ropes. Chasing ACC’s 191 for six, in which Ryan Maron was again top-scorer with 43, the Hagenaars had subsided to 149 for eight off 37 overs, with brothers Farukh and Mudassar Bukhari the most effective of the home side’s bowlers with three wickets apiece. Even that represented a recovery of sorts, since HCC had been on 71 for six at one stage before they were partially rescued by a partnership between Mark Jonkman (38) and Jacob-Jan Esmeijer (39).

It seemed as if that might be the end of it, with ACC winning on a Duckworth/Lewis calculation, but then the weather cleared sufficiently for two more overs to be bowled. Messrs. Duckworth and Lewis determined that that left HCC with a revised target of 179, or 30 off twelve deliveries, and that, unsurprisingly, proved beyond them.

They managed to reach 156 before they were all out off the penultimate ball, and ACC deservedly claimed two much-needed points.

It was quite a different story in Den Haag, where Quick, put in to bat by Peter Borren, had reached 141 for five before the players were forced from the field. A long delay meant that seven overs were sliced from their innings, and in the five remaining to them the old stagers Henk-Jan Mol and Alex Pototsky got their total up to 180. That was adjusted upwards to 199 by the D/L calculation, so VRA were set 200 to win in 43 overs.

Muir was unable to reproduce his heroics of the previous day, removed first ball by his opposite number Jono Boult, but Wesley Barresi hit a valuable 54 and then Borren and Atse Buurman (30) added 51 to keep their side in the hunt. Borren finished with 47 not out, but it was 17-year-old Emile van den Burg, who had earlier picked up two wickets, who smashed a 14-ball, not-out 24 to get his side home with eleven balls to spare.

Scotland’s visit on Intercontinental Cup business means that there are no Topklasse fixtures next week, but the competition will resume in a fortnight’s time with the table still very delicately poised.