History

De mannen van het eerste uur RCDH-Alkmaar 7 december 1975

V.l.n.r. Boven:  Theo van Wees   Gerard v.d. Woude   Joop v. Beek   Lex v.d. Breggen   Henk Schipdam  Tom Jetses  Hans v. Diepen

Frank Bot   Willem Kooistra

Onder:  Martin van Kralingen  Andre Berendsen Henk  Oderkerk  Bill Leaning  Rob Dieben  Cees Sluiter  Leen Taal

Koos  Overbeke

Pub De Postbrug, place of establishment

THE  ESTABLISHMENT  ON 28 NOVEMBER 1975

The idea to start with Rugby in Den Helder, arose within a circle of friends and acquaintances in the nightlife.  There it was where the planns were made to introduce a real sport in Den Helder. In the same circle of friends were some of the pionieers that started a baseball team“De Vikingen”

Especially the enthusiastic, inspiring and bold behavior of regulars of Café “De Pottenwinkel” played an important role.

Rugby was already played in Den Helder. They played in the competition with a combined team of Naval Officers and Cadets named OARC, based at the Royal Institute Navy ( KIM). But the new pioneers thought it was about time the civilians could join the sport in  Den Helder.

On 28 november 1975  there was placed an advert in the ”Helderse Courant” to come and join in pub  “De Postbrug” the  inaugural meeting. There were about 25 people that day.

During this meeting, that was presented by Rob Dieben en Henk Oderkerk, it was explained what Rugby meant. It was arranged that training could take place on the Tuesday evenening on the pitch of the “Vikingen”  and Sunday mornings on the beach.

On Thursday evenings the team could use a gym that belonged to the girls vocational school  “De Vijfsprong”, this was were  Henk Oderkerk worked as a teacher. At home games the third half could be enjoyed at the pub “De Pottenwinkel”  owned by Frans van Loon.

after answering a few questions the attendends were given the opportunity to sign in as a member of  “de rugby Club “. Almost all who were pressent made use of this opportunity.

Later that night was the ellection of the first board : Chairman Rob Dieben, secretarry Henk Schipdam,  member of the board  Kees Sluiter, Treasures was already  miss  J. Timmer.  As trainer  Henk Oderkerk was appointed.

The creation of the Rugby Club was a fact. And it was named Rugby Club Den Helder;

The first training already took place before the creation on  2 November 1975. there were 10 enthousiastic new rugby players on the pitch, ready to learn the fine touch of this English sport.  Henk Oderkerk handed out a paper with the rules of the game. Then it was followed by mainly fitness training under the encouraging guidance of  Bill Leaning.

There was no own accomodation pressent. There were agreements with Wally Wallé and Hugo van der Laan, boardmembers of the “Vikingen”, about co-use of the dressingrooms that belonged to the baseball club, so the players could take a shower after training. The presence of some baseballers at the creation made the negotiatons a lot easier.

That winter there was a lot of hard training on Sundays and Thursdays. There were also some practice matches against Hoorn, Alkmaar and Castricum. (Rush and Waterland didn’t excisted that time.)

In the Summer of 1976 the team registred for the first time in the competition 1976-1977. Registration was under the name of  RCDH that also became registered in the Statutes. It is said that the name came of the father of  Tom Jetses, player since the first start.

In the summer of 1976 there were talks with the board of the “Vikingen” to arrange the possibility to use the Clubhouse of the Vikingen after training. This did not go easy. There it was were the board and the Technical comitee had their meetings.

There were talks with  Sport en Jeugdzaken of the council, with dhr Brinkman about common businesses and with  dhr  Van der Reep about the pitch.

Founding an own clubhouse and pitch lighting weren’t possible yet couse of the financial situation. Headlights on the car of members sometimes were used to enlight trainings.

The choice of clothing was already made at the meeing before on date 30 oktober 1975 : an red/yellow horizontal striped jersey, red pants and also red/yellow socks with horizontal stripes.

The Club was founded, the strictly necessary rugbyknowledge was gained, the minimal aquired accomodations where available: let the games begin.  Not to  forget about the third half: the drinking of beer was already practised in other occasions, the vocal training of Rugby lyrics aquired some attention.