Kees Ruskamp
Flamingo since 1983
The champion from the East
Before Jan Marten Ruskamp settled with his family in Deventer in 1968, it was as if he already had a whole life behind him. During the Second World War, he was part of the resistance and went into hiding in Lunteren in a location that Willem Frederik Hermans used in his novel The Darkroom of Damocles (1958). In one of the last raids, just before the liberation, Ruskamp was caught and crawled through the eye of the needle. The Canadians arrived just in time for him.
Post-war, Ruskamp senior visited various places in the Netherlands, including Santpoort-Zuid near Haarlem. During that time, he became a member of HFC, of which he was chairman from 1959 to 1962. He is now the father of two daughters and three sons, of whom Kees and Tjebbe would excel on the cricket field. That happened at UD where Louk Hartong as the Pied Piper of Hamelin recruited members for the cricket department. Kees: "The batting was an early start and the wicket keeping also went well for me. Initially, UD did not play that high, but that soon changed. I remember very well that we drove Louk around in a big cart at one of our championships. He deserved a lap of honour.”
I came out for the eastern youth and for the Dutch youth team U16. With UD we went to England every other year under the direction of Dries Kost. Those were wonderful trips."
UD had a thriving cricket department in those days with six senior teams, four youth teams and a women's team. In Kees' first senior year he played UD 3 together with Tjebbe and Hessel Bijlsma. In that team he was prepared for the first. "During that period, I also had my first century written down. That was in Berkhamsted in 1976, a blisteringly hot summer, when the fields were scorched yellow and hard as rocks. If you played with short sleeves, your skin would soon be hanging off."
Kees gradually developed into a solid opener, someone you could rely on to get the shine off the ball. He soon mastered the off drive and the cover drive to perfection, but he didn't want to stop there. Kees: "The fact that I could also add the ondrive to my repertoire was thanks to Eduard Abendanon, who came to live in Deventer from The Hague, to work at Thomassen & Drijver. Eduard started playing cricket late at HCC but turned out to be a natural. Because T & D's factory was only a few hundred meters away from the Bergweide, where UD played at the time, he would go there to practice during his lunch break. He became a fabulous bowler on whose balls I could refine my ondrive. Eduard was a multi-talent by the way. He could also play football like the best."
At the age of twenty, Kees entered the Dutch national team. With three teammates: Steven Lubbers, Eduard Abendanon and Dick Bekedam. His main achievement in Orange took place eight years later and deserves extensive mention. "It was the end of June 1988 and we were playing at Lord's against the MCC with Test candidates David Graveney and Nick Cook in the ranks. It was no heyday for English cricket, as a week before, Viv Richards and his men had destroyed the English Test team in front of a packed Lord's. Now there were only about three hundred paying spectators, but they got their money's worth. The MCC came mainly through the hands of Gloucestershire crack Paul Romaines and the Dutch MCC-er Wulf van Alkemade (72) to 238 for 4 and allowed us 2½ hours to exceed that total. An impossible task, it seemed. I can say that I played the game of my life. With fast-scoring Robert Lifmann (69) at my side I made it to 117 not out. We won with nine wickets. The English had to recover from that too."
The national press, usually not very generous with cricket comments, paid ample attention to this remarkable achievement. It was the first time the MCC suffered a defeat against the Netherlands in front of its own audience. “Student Caas (!) Ruskamp did the sort of damage that Ruud Gullit inflicted on our footballers,” wrote an English newspaper, recalling the 3-1 defeat of England by the Netherlands during the European Championship on June 15, 1988 (three goals from Marco van Basten). The newspaper also recalled that one of the Dutch players introduced a Gullit wig into the dressing room, but refused to take it onto the field, afraid that the Lord's authorities would not condone such blasphemy!
Kees' career, of course has more highlights. The national championship with the now "Royal" UD in 1990 is one of them. It was the first time after PW in 1939 that an Eastern club had won. In the end, several ugly injuries put an end to his cricket career. "When I think back to those years, I can see how we drove from Groningen, where a number of us studied, to Deventer with a car full of cricket gear on Friday afternoons. Huize Ruskamp’s home was then a popular stopover. There was always food on the table for everyone and if the drink supply was exhausted, there was always the nearby café "De Lindeboom" to purchase a few crates. It was truly a sweet time. "
In recent years Kees enjoys playing golf, also in Flamingo branding. On those occasions he likes to see his old cricket mates again. Then, of course, tall tales are trumps. True cricket friendships are never lost!
Kees Ruskamp
Flamingo since
