HVV Tubantia (Netherlands)

HVV Tubantia

Ground: Sportpark De Bijenkorf

Capacity: 2,000

Club Founded: 1900

League: Zaterdag Vierde Klasse E - 9th Tier (current level)

HVV Tubantia of Hengelo in the northeast of the Netherlands is an amateur football club with several sides serving the community at its upgraded Sportpark De Bijenkorf home.

A Brief History of HVV Tubantia

The Early Years

Hengelose Voetbal Vereniging Tubantia, to give the club its full title, is an amateur football club that was initially called Wilhelmina. The club moved to a ground on Bornsestraat, midway between Hengelo and Borne, in 1905 after starting life playing in the Tweede Klasse. 

The team was successful, being crowned champions four times, which was rewarded with promotion. Tubantia were placed in Eerste Klasse Oost, one of the top-level divisions of Dutch football at the time, where they finished runners-up twice.

Partnership with FC Twente

After being relegated, Tubantia collected another couple of league titles, which saw the club return to the top tier. After another demotion, the team won the league at the beginning of the 1950s before the club entered a partnership with professional outfit FC Twente. 

They kept the Tubantia name, but competed in professional football. This came after the club had, for several years, become an important social outlet for the local population. Tubantia became members of the third-tier Tweede Divisie A at Stadion Veldwijk under trainer Julius Huber.

A New Home

The team consolidated as head coaches came and went throughout the 60s. Midway through the decade, the club reverted to Sunday amateur status from professional football. Starting back in the fourth amateur tier, Tunbantia soon won promotions before being relegated to Derde Klasse, where a couple of runners-up finishes ensued.

The club suffered a decline in membership levels over the years, although it could still boast nine junior sides at the lowest point in 1981. As a consequence, the club decided to relocate, opening a new base at Landmansweg in the north-east of the town in 1983. The move was celebrated when the league title was secured soon after. 

New Facilities

Tubantia played Eerste Klasse for a solitary season. The relocation also saw a spike in membership numbers. The side recovered to win the 2B title, but again the jump proved too much, ending in demotion twelve months later. Further relegations saw the team in the Vierde Klasse.

Two promotions were celebrated around the turn of the new millennium, reaching Erste Klasse before the end of the decade, and then dropping back down a level. A further promotion and relegation ensued before a new clubhouse and stand were opened by the honorary president, Peter Leferink, on Saturday, 25th January 2014.

Recent Years

The improvements helped Tubantia to settle as a sixth-tier Eerste Klasse club before the side was relegated in 2021-22. At this point, Tubantia changed and became a first-team Zaterdag, Saturday club, with Rutger Kats as trainer.

Tubantia were placed in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse, from where they were relegated in 2023-24. Jan Willem van Holland was appointed as trainer as the team went down another level twelve months later.

My visit

Saturday 18th January 2014

My final visit to a club in the Twente region came following a walk from ACT ’65 along and under the A1 motorway. I thought I’d worked out a shortcut, but the route around the rear of the cemetery was fenced off. Instead, it added a few hundred metres to my journey.

Signs at the corner of Sportpark De Bijenkorf displayed plans and images of the new development being completed at the venue. The entrance was found along Verlengde Polluxweg, with the car park leading to the changing rooms.

There were definite signs of work, as much of the surface was mud, and some areas where grass was meant to be. The new structure looked as though it would mean the main pitch moving in time. There certainly was one at the front of the building, though the works had rendered it unusable.

Indeed, new artificial surfaces would be laid in time on all three full-sized pitches, with the main one around the back of the new clubhouse, which had the seated stand built into it.

I went to take photos of the current main pitch. It was surrounded by hedges and trees on three sides, with hard standing being laid around it. A few benches were located along the roadside of the ground, with changing rooms behind the near goal.

With my task complete, I headed to the Klein Driene bus stop for the number 11 service back into the town centre, where I got out and had a walk around the market to buy a European plug adaptor and to collect my bag from the excellent Hampshire City Hotel before taking the train to Zwolle for entertainment for the rest of the day.