BLOEMENDAAL ARE EHL CHAMPIONS from Peter Savage at the EuroHockey League Finals

This afternoon in Bloemendaal saw two finals, those of the EuroHockey League and the Women's Club Champions Cup, plus the third/fourth place match between Amsterdam and Rot-Weiss Koln.

The EHL Final had all the ingredients of a cracker from the start, with one of Europe's consistently best clubs taking on the pretenders from Belgium, KHC Dragons.  To add a bit of spice, the home side Bloemendaal, took the opportunity to say goodbye to a great servant of the club and three-time winner of the FIH Player of the Year Award, Teun De Nooijer. 

There had been some suspicion that this might be a bit of a turkey shoot, with Dragons fielding few player known outside of Belgium, and Bloemendaal packed full of internationals from The Netherlands and around the world.  But although there was little doubt which was the better side on the pitch, the Dragons never seemed in awe of their esteemed opponents and made a real match of it - not a classic for sure, but a game that certainly had its moments of excitement. 

Playing in front of a packed ground, it took the home side 21 minutes to crack Dragons' resolute defence, Rogier Hoffman being the scorer from open play.  With ten minutes left to play, when many might have predicted that the score might have run into double figures, Hoffman struck again to make it 2-0.  And that is how the match ended.

A lot of credit must go to KHC Dragons, a club who seem to have come from nowhere to become a real force in European hockey. And it will not have escaped the folks back in England that the two finalists were the sides that knocked Beeston and Reading out in the KO8 back at Easter.  Perhaps we can take a little bit of comfort from that.

Although it was a good result for Bloemendaal, and KHC Dragons were able to go home with their pride intact, the whole day was somehow about Bloemendaal's Tuen De Nooijer. Every time he came near the ball he was cheered to the rafters.  He will probably play in the Dutch play-offs and there is a testimonial arranged for him in the Summer, but after that we shall not see him again. He will be sadly missed by friend and foe alike.

The third/fourth place match between Rot-Weiss Koln and Amsterdam, which preceded the main event, seemed to suffer from some very tired legs. Goals from Casper Horn, Valentin Verga, Taeke Taekema, and two from captain Billy Bakker, gave Amsterdam a 5-3 victory.

The afternoon also saw the playing of the Women's Club Champions Cup, a sort of EuroHockey League Lite for women.  The two finalists were the same as last year, 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) and Laren. Last year Laren had managed to break Den Bosch's grip on the Cup, which went back over a decade, but Den Bosch set their stall out very early with a goal from Sabine Mol in less than a minute. Two goals before half time, the first from Laren's Kim Lammers, and the second from Mol, gave Den Bosch a 2-1 lead at half time. 

Laren managed to equalise early in the second half, Lammers scoring her second of the game. But Fabienne Roosen and Elsie Nix scored for Den Bosch to give them a 4-2 win.

PICTURES FROM ALL TODAY'S MATCHES ARE ON OUR WEB SITE AT: www.HockeyImages.co.uk.