What had been a fairly predictable day’s Topklasse cricket, with the top four sides proceeding to comfortable victories over the bottom four, ended in disgraceful drama at Maarschalkerweerd, where Excelsior paceman Jens Blankestijn apparently headbutted departing Kampong batter Robert van der Harten, whom he had just dismissed, knocking him to the ground.

There had been words exchanged in the course of the over, which began with Kampong needing ten runs off four overs for victory, with four wickets in hand, Blankestijn bowling back-to-back bouncers, the first of which was not called wide – though it might well have been – while  the second was.

Blankestijn then produced a slower yorker which found the base of Van der Harten’s stumps, and further verbal exchanges, and a slight push in passing, culminated in the bowler walking back to Van der Harten, who was still wearing his helmet, and appearing to deliberately headbutt him.

Such an act is a clear contravention of the Playing Conditions, arguably fitting the definition of a Level 4 offence, ‘Physical assault of another Player’, which should result in the offender’s removal from the field and the award of five penalty runs.

In this case, however, no such sanctions were imposed, and Blankestijn was allowed to complete his over, Kampong winning with five wides three deliveries into the next.

It was a sad conclusion to a match which had begun with opener Sam Rahaley making a fine 101 out of an Exclesior total of 239 for seven, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 114 with Stan van Troost (39); Lachlan Bangs was the most successful of Kampong’s bowlers with four for 44.

Lane Berry led the reply with a 104-ball 95, ably supported by stand-in opener Karel Vieler (38) and Lorenzo Ingram (37), and when Berry’s dismissal produced a mini-collapse, two more wickets falling for the addition of 20 runs, acting captain Pierre Jacod saw his side home with 16 deliveries to spare.

Two other matches followed somewhat similar paths.

In what would in normal circumstances have been the natural lead story, Hermes-DVS made short work of chasing a HBS total of 233 all out at Craeyenhout, a stunning 49-ball 94 from Daniel Doyle-Calle, which included 15 fours and four sixes, racing them to an eight-wicket victory inside 33 overs.

Doyle shared an opening stand of 146 with Ash Ostling, who stayed to the end and finished on 86 not out.

The Crows had done well to reach 233 after a devastating opening spell from Olivier Elenbaas had reduced them to 37 for four; skipper Tayo Walbrugh anchored the rest of the innings with 101, his 13th Topklasse century, sharing stands of 66 with Navjit Singh (32) and 94 with Julien de Mey (43).

Elenbaas, who had four for 21 at one stage, finished with four for 32, while Hikmatullah Jabarkhail returned to the top of the wicket-taking list with five for 40, including both Navjit and Walbrugh.

And at De Diepput, Sparta 1888 owed their total of 216 against HCC in large part to Kyle Klesse (57) and Juandre Scheepers (37), who put on 63 together for the fourth wicket.

But Josh Brown, bowling with real aggression throughout, claimed six for 37, running through the lower middle order and the tail, and Tonny Staal (91) and Oliver White (56) set up the Lions’ five-wicket victory with a third-wicket partnership of 109.

The least competitive game of the day was at the Hazelaarweg, where VOC were bowled out for 84 by Voorburg, who completed their nine-wicket win before most other matches had reached the halfway mark.

Much of the damage was done by Gavin Kaplan, who claimed four for 21 in his ten overs, while Patient Charumbira and former international Philippe Boissevain picked up two apiece, the latter taking two for 7 in just 15 deliveries.

With one eye, perhaps, on their net run rate, Voorburg raced to the win in 11.4 overs, Cedric de Lange and Kaplan scoring at better than a run a ball and Carl Mumba finishing unbeaten on 31.

The weekend’s closest encounter was the postponed match between VRA and Punjab-Ghausia, played on Sunday in the Amsterdamse Bos, won by Punjab by four wickets with 11 deliveries to spare.

Patrick Gouge (59) and Sachin Peiris (41) put on 99 for the first wicket after Johan Smal won the toss, but it took them 25 overs to do so, and although Smal himself was eventually able to raise the scoring-rate, his dismissal for a fine 63-ball 80 prevented the kind of final-overs onslaught that would have taken the home side to a really imposing total.

Suleiman Tariq contributed another of his economical spells, conceding just 25 runs from his ten overs, and Punjab’s four-man spin attack was also effective, while Tehzeeb Haider claimed two for 34.

Ashir Abid struck early when Punjab replied, removing the dangerous Fawad Shinwari, but thern he pulled up with a side strain and had to leave the field.

Without ever really taking control, the defending champions were able to keep up with the asking rate of five an over, Shoaib Minhas contributing 55, Mohsin Riaz 38 and Mohammad Gondal 47, and although VRA had a moment of hope when Burhan Niaz  was the sixth out with 42  still needed, Sikander Zulfiqar and Khurram Shahzad were able to knock off the remaining runs.