C.R.P. Bakker in conversation with Henny Wijkhuizen
The bowler who was sometimes not allowed to bowl
Two 80year-olds! Opponents for years in the competition and teammates at the Flamingos and the Dutch XI. Now, sitting in the undersigned's library, one is questioning the other honourary member of our club about various aspects of his prestigious career in sports and in society.
Now the elderly among us mainly remembers Henny as a gifted cricketer, but we shouldn't discount the fact that he came out 20 years before HFC's First. We're focussing on cricket for now. Henny has the best memories of having competed against different Test teams. To the sometimes almost unattainable class that famous players radiated.
In a general sense, it didn't really matter to Henny who he had as an opponent. There were only a few players in the Netherlands who inspired him with awe. He named as an impressive batsman and decent bowler Peter Cantrell, player and coach of Kampong, who must have been very close to the Australian Test Team. Exceptional as it may sound, but as a bowler Henny was also punished with some regularity by Ron Elferink, also from Kampong.
Emmerson Trotman
In a class of his own, he mentioned fellow player and coach Emmerson Trotman at Rood & Wit. If you look at the statistics, you will understand at what exceptional height Trotman found himself in as an inventive and aggressive batsman. The only disturbing thing was that juniors were going to imitate him, but they weren't good enough.
Battling Henny, I always noticed that he was a master at finding weak spots in a batsman's arsenal. It was no surprise then, that he said he always studied the style and weaker technique of every reasonable opponent in the league. It turned out in passing that a legendary record breaker like Wally van Weelde apparently only scored a few runs on Henny.
Last over against Australia
Were there any highlights in Henny's cricket career? Well, he didn't want to think about that too much, but there had been quite a few outliers. At the top is battling with Ruud Onstein against Australia in 1963, when the victory was won against all odds. Other highlights were his five wickets for the Netherlands against Hampshire, an achievement he remembers with even more pleasure because captain Robbie Colthoff gave him ample opportunity.
While other captains sometimes completely ignored the fact that Henny was chosen for his bowling and never gave him the ball once. He also mentioned an away match against Denmark where the Dutch XI contained five Red & Whiters (Bijleveld, De Nijs, Onstein, Wijkhuizen and Bouwman), which according to Henny was a pleasant exception. Again, Henny was denied bowling, but he had to go in number three in the 1st innings. And due to a finger fracture sustained by Manus Stolk, Henny was promoted to opener in the 2nd innings. He did very well both times, underlining Henny's status as an all-rounder.
Henny is of course proud to have been awarded the Cramer McLean Cup in 1973 for an exceptional performance against VOC. And there is a story behind it. The day before, on the Saturday against HCC in The Hague, neither Henny nor Paul Bouwman had anything to say against offspinner Auke Smits. And they hated that. In the evening, somewhere in a restaurant in The Hague, Bouwman and Henny agreed after a quite intensive dinner that they would open together against VOC the next day, resentful and furious. And that worked out well: a score of about 80 runs for the first wicket. And if we check the merit quote that day, we see that Henny made 37 runs, took 5 wickets and managed to lead Red & White to a victory through his brilliant captaincy. A better appreciation of Henny as a versatile cricketer is hard to imagine.
At the beginning of our conversation, we briefly referred to Henny's career. As an engineer, he worked for many years at KLM, for whom he regularly carried out jobs abroad. And his passion for cricket came in handy in English-speaking countries, because the King of Sports is always an excellent entrance to, for instance, the British in Hong Kong!
After finishing his career at KLM, Henny worked independently for some time as slot coordinator, the one who ultimately determines the available space at airports. And, so it could happen that in a year when a major international football final was to take place in Amsterdam, where huge numbers of supporters from Italy and Spain were expected, Henny followed the usual rules and, due to lack of space at Schiphol, informed the foreign supporters that they could only come by bus as there were not enough runways available for extra flights! It caused quite a fuss. Mrs. Jorritsma, then Minister of Transport, Public Works & Water Management in Purple I, concluded: "That slot coordinator, Ir. Wijkhuizen, clearly doesn't like football!"
As a retrospective and look at the future, here are some of his critical words.
“Today's condensed cricket leaves less room for theory and thinking about strategy. There is only a little throwing. And due to the limited number of overs, a bowler hardly gets the opportunity to work a batsman, as in the past.
The batting itself lacks the technical structure of yesteryear and unfortunately often tends to chop down cookies.
The speed is out of the game, because it doesn't matter much if you only bowl 12 to 14 overs per hour, whereas the time factor used to play an important role in the result of the game. Modern material is different. In general, for example, the quality of today's bats cannot be compared with the patched-up versions of which there were a few in the club bags in his time. But for that reason, you are now more likely to be beaten for 6.”
He sometimes visits matches of the Dutch XI team, but with mixed feelings. He does not like the qualification options for foreigners, nor the financial impact. Finally, would Henny mention his favourite sport outside cricket? No. Because that still remains cricket! And that is the sport where Henny Wijkhuizen excelled at such a high level both on Dutch fields and abroad.
