Achilles ’29 (Holland)

Achilles ’29 are a professional football club from the football active town of Groesbeek in the Gelderland province in the east of The Netherlands, close to the city of Nijmegen. The club were formed on June 1st 1929 by thirteen boys around the age of twenty, as a team for Catholics.

Land was donated at the Heikant by Gerrit Derks in the north east of Groesbeek. By 1933 Achilles had won promotion to the top level of Nijmegen district football. The club were crowned as champions in 1935-36, which led to Ben Ostendorp writing the club anthem; "Samen togen wij ten strijd".- Together We Went to War.

Mr Ostendorp’s words were somewhat prophetic as three years later football was abandoned because of the outbreak of World War Two, with Groesbeek located on the front line close to the German border and the village at the time being evacuated.

As peace was restored the members of Achilles returned to find Sportpark De Heikant with craters and the buildings raised to the ground, but the club pulled together and were soon back in action. A second Nijmegen championship arrived in 1953-54, which led to ‘De Heikanters’ progressing to KNVB competitions.

By 1964 two further title wins led to the club reaching Tweede (second) Klasse football. After having a long spell known as RKSV Groesbeek to reflect the religious orientation of the club and the fact that the amateur association NVB had several Achilles teams registered.

In 1969 the club successfully appealed to get their name back and added the ’29 suffix while five years later saw Frans van Bernebeek, the club president of forty years, stand down from his position.

The Tweede Klasse 2A Sunday division was won in 1973-74 as Achilles rose to the top level of amateur football of the day under coach Theo Derks. After two runners-up places in 1975-76 and 1976-77 the title was won in 1977-78 to elevate the club to the newly formed Hoofdklasse, as they were placed in Zondag (Sunday) B.

Relegation was only just averted in 1989-90 under the leadership of Jan van Deinsen, with several other struggles over the following seasons. In 1993-94 Achilles were relegated for the first time in their history.

Their spell in Eerste Divisie lasted six seasons before regaining their Hoofdklasse position in 1999-00. Unfortunately, they were relegated just twelve months later, before regaining their status at the first attempt in 2001-02.

With the popular head coach Eric Meijers at the helm the club continued to progress, going on to win Hoofdklasse C ahead of big local rivals De Treffers in 2005-06. This act was repeated in 2007-08 when a packed De Heikant celebrated a win against De Treffers to clinch the title to add to a triumph in the Districtsbeker Oost, East District Cup.

The 2008-09 campaign saw Achilles achieve publicity through their KNVB Beker, Cup, exploits with wins against FC Lisse, RKC Waalwijk through two Thijs Hendriks goals before the team went out at 3-0 in the fourth round to a Louis van Gaal led AZ.

The 2009-10 season was played with places in the newly formed semi-professional Topklasse for the following campaign at stake. Achilles finished fourth and made the step up to play their highest ever grade of Sunday football.

2010-11 saw another fine run to the Round of 16 of the KNVB Beker following notable wins against FC Oss and then Heracles Almelo in a remarkable 5-3 win which saw Tim Verhoeven net twice from the spot before RKC Waalwijk gained their revenge with a win on penalties at Sportpark de Heikant.

Achilles finished as runners-up in their first Topklasse campaign, with consolation coming when a second Districtsbeker Oost found its way to the clubs trophy cabinet. The 2011-12 campaign was one of great success as Achilles lifted the Super Cup for amateurs with a 2-1 victory over VV IJsselmeervogels.

The unprecedented 2011-12 season saw a third Round of 16 KNVB Beker appearance came following wins against Telstar and then MVV Maastrict before going down 3-0 at De Goffert in the local derby to NEC.

The team also went on to retain their Topklasse Zondag title to win a promotion place to the second tier Eerste Divisie before missing out on being crowned overall champions after losing the play-off Saturday title winners v.v. Katwijk 3-0 on aggregate.

Jan van Deinsen returned to the club in June 2012 to replace successful head coach Meijers who departed to take up the reigns at Helmond Sport. Both Achilles and Katwijk had stated that they were not interested in taking up promotion to Eerste Divisie, but the KNVB had a problem as AGOVV and BV Veendam had withdrawn, leaving them with just sixteen teams.

They solved this by relaxing the licensing necessities. Katwijk didn’t take up the offer but De Heikanters did as François Gesthuizen took over team affairs. Achilles continued to build the club infrastructure during this stellar period.

The 2013-14 season saw them field eleven other senior teams, one women’s team and thirteen youth sides. Plans were announced to move from the current main pitch and to build around the artificial surface instead.

Unsurprisingly, Achilles struggled playing in the second tier of Dutch football, finishing bottom of Eerste Divisie in their debut season before improving by a couple of places in 2014-15. Meijers returned to take his side to fifteenth, their highest ever league position in 2015-16.

However, the following season saw a last place for a second time, but on this occasion the team was relegated to the Tweede Divisie with Arno Arts taking over as coach. Once again, the side finished bottom in 2017-18 and were relegated to Derde Divisie Zaterdagafdeling.

Johan van Osch led his side in the traumatic 2018-19 campaign as over 100 goals were shed, and points were deducted for financial irregularities. Stefan Muller took over as coach in the summer of 2019 as the club prepared for life in Zaterdag Hoofdklasse A.

A dispute between the club directors and the Derk family owners of Sportpark De Heikant led to the club being evicted from the ground in December 2019 which led to an agreement with neighbours VV Germania to become tenants at their Sportpark Noord home.

Achilles were offered some rest bite from their plummet when the COVID-19 ended the 2019-20 campaign with the team again bottom of the table but without any relegations taking place.

Achilles ’29 will play in Hoofdklasse A Zaterdag in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Monday 20^th January 2014

I was in the small town of Groesbeek on a cold dull winter’s day in search of visiting some of the six football clubs that represented it. Five were amateur, but Achilles had joined the professional ranks. 

After calling in at Sportpark Noord I undertook a thirty minute walk before finding myself on Cranenburgsestraat and outside De Linde bar and restaurant. The ntrance to the ground was just past it.

To be honest there were no real signs of a second tier club being just behind the building. Beyond a decent sized car park I entered Sportpark Heikant in the corner of the main ground. The near goal was a few steps of open terracing backed by adverts and an electric scoreboard. 

The terracing continued round the far touchline and right down the side with a cover in the middle third of the pitch called The Egg Side, as patron Gerrit Derks kept his chicken coops on that side. Opposite were the club offices before a seated stand straddling the half way line. The changing rooms then continued around the far corner. Open terracing took up the space behind the far end.

It was a neat ground, but one that would struggle to reach Conference standards in the UK, although in fairness that reflects the silly sanctions imposed by our FA. It had been adapted with the relevant segregation barriers in position.

I left to go on another twenty minute walk to the home of rivals of De Treffers in the south of the town.