An orange bus dinghy leads march in Bristol for women’s cricket

It was no Kansas City nor was it Hamburg, but Bristol turned orange on Thursday evening for the first-ever fan march to a cricket match.

The 50-odd Dutch supporters were unmissable, clad in their bright orange football and cricket jerseys turning heads of the locals as they snaked their way from the harbourside to the Bristol County Ground on Nevil Road – two miles away – on an extremely hot day.

An orange inflatable bus bopped to the sounds of “Links Rechts” as the fans swayed to the beat on the Castle Bridge. Ten minutes later, they broke into a Conga-line formation, dancing to Het is een Nacht. The Dutch love a party and they were in full swing ahead of the evening game against South Africa at the women’s T20 World Cup.

“I’ve got a big house and there’s eight of us staying together. We talked about mimicking the Oranje fan march from somewhere to the stadium. It’s a nod to the footballing tradition,” explained Canada-born, Bristolian Kirk Luciw, who spent five seasons at Voorburg Cricket Club.

“Then we got the idea of painting an orange bus. We needed some more people so it got posted around on socials and more people joined us.”

“[Dutch captain] Babette’s from our club so we have to come support her. We thought let’s have a party for three days and flew in from Holland this morning,” said Harold Vogelaar, a digital marketeer from the Hague who also plays for Voorburg, got the club to post about the first-ever fan march and the word spread.

“I was expecting only 10-20 people but that’s obviously gone up now!” laughed Kirk.

Around him, Logan van Beek, the Dutch men’s all-rounder, is up on a bench conducting the colourful crowd in his ODI kit. Fresh off a stint with Yorkshire, he has been drafted by the ICC’s content team and has kept a crowd of 50 engaged.

One of the loudest members of the fan march throughout was Carlijn van Koolwijk, the 19-year-old Dutch batter who missed out on a World Cup berth: “I fell out of the squad but if I can’t play, this is the second-best thing I can do.”

The orange army was founded in late 2015 by Hester Rijke, all-rounder Robine’s mother, and has travelled regularly with the men’s and women’s team to India, Nepal and Thailand over the years.

“Back in the Netherlands, there are only about 250 women’s players. Some of us family members travelled with the team,” explained Hester. “We were such a minority so I started bringing flags to the cricket and slowly others joined me. All the parents started bringing stuff and we just went. Now it’s a large army!

“It’s very emotional. Last year we lost Babette’s mother. It was a massive loss for their family but also for us because we travelled together for many years. I miss her. We hope that they [the women’s team] do very well, we support them no matter what,” she added before joining another batch of supporters on Gloucester Road.

The numbers swelled at the ground on a difficult night for the Dutch, who gave a good account of themselves in parts but could not hold off a dominant South African side, led by Tazmin Brits’ unbeaten 114, succumbing to an 88-run loss.

The support didn’t go unnoticed in the South African camp as Brits singled out the Dutch as “probably the coolest supporters I’ve seen.”

“It’s been phenomenal. It’s made the tournament for us,” said the Dutch head coach Neil MacRae at the post-match press conference.

“We drove up to the stadium today and the fans were marching with flags and banners, rubber dinghies, anything they could carry that was orange. And for the players to know that they’ve got that support behind them has been a huge thing throughout the last two years of qualification.

“We’re hoping that half the Netherlands will come on Saturday and support us, and that’ll give us the final push in this tournament.”