They did it last year. And this season too, the Cartouche had to maintain themselves in the Promotion Class through play-outs. That worked – even if it was with heels. After two draws against Ring Pass, shoot-outs were decisive on Sunday afternoon. One in which Cartouche keeper Ole Dorscheidt was crowned a hero.
Because in the shoot-out series, Dorscheidt stopped all four Delft attempts. No diving or heroic pursuits were required. Just watching and waiting turned out to be enough to unnerve the Ring Pass players. With almost playful ease, Dorscheidt either grabbed the ball or saw how his opponent pushed it wide of the goal. Cartouche also saw two of the four shoot-outs reversed, but they will not worry about that in Voorburg.
Martijn van Grimbergen has experienced everything as a player, including the national championship, with Bloemendaal in 2021 as the highlight. The veteran can now be admired for two seasons in the green and white of Cartouche ; the club where he lives around the corner. After the thrilling denouement, with a smile from ear to ear and still full of adrenaline, he gave all the credit for saving his life to Dorscheidt.
‘Ole is a young goalkeeper. Only twenty years. He really doesn’t stop them all during training, but he did phenomenally. He didn’t bite, but kept waiting for the right moment. This made them insecure. It is really thanks to him that we will also be playing in the Promotion Class next season.’
Ole Dorscheidt and Martijn van Grimbergen celebrate the enforcement. Photo: Willem Vernes
Potential conflict of interest
It was also striking that it was not Robbert Groeneveld who coached Cartouche, but Jorge Nolte. Nolte was coach of Leiden Dames 1 this season and combined that with a position as technical director at Cartouche.
Van Grimbergen: ‘When it became known that we were going to play play-outs, Robbert left the staff. The reason was that Roomburg (the other number two in the Promotion Class, ed.) became our potential opponent. He will coach that team next season. Fortunately, Jorge was able to step in. That was quite a change. With him things have changed in a positive way. Above all, more was asked of us. We have trained really hard in recent weeks. Not that we haven’t done that before, but it was different.’
Van Grimbergen could sense that there was more than a practical reason behind the coaching change. The veteran did not want to say more about it. ‘A lot has happened in the second half of the season. I prefer to keep what that is within the team. Let me just say that we did a great job with this young team this weekend. We came back from behind on both Saturday and Sunday. It was on the edge, but we won these play-outs based on character. I’m very happy with that.’
Party at Cartouche. Photo: Willem Vernes
By character
Cartouche did not start the match against Ring Pass on Sunday afternoon at all. While the Delft players were very effective in taking advantage of opportunities and scoring two out of two penalty corners, Cartouche had difficulty getting through. It wasn’t the fans’ fault. Hundreds of Cartouchigans had traveled to Delft to cheer their men to enforcement.
“The first half was mediocre from us,” Van Grimbergen analyzed. ‘We gave away stupid corners and they used them well. We changed a few things at halftime. As a result, we took matters into our own hands in the second half. Of course yesterday’s match was also in the cards. Ring Pass even played four games in nine days. There was therefore more space in the last quarters. Until the end. Then things got especially messy as neither team wanted to lose. And you see that matches against the top from the ‘Overgangsklasse’ are simply tough games. I am all the more pleased that we finally got it over the line.’
Cartouche was not given the enforcement for free. Photo: Willem Vernes
In any case, Van Grimbergen knows that he will continue. ‘That is absolutely certain now that we have stayed in it. But otherwise I think I would have continued. We have a great, young team and I still get a lot of pleasure from hockey. But I don’t need any more of these kinds of exciting matches. Next season we will ensure that we maintain ourselves directly.’
