Bloemendaal’s hopes of making it four EHL Men’s titles in succession will be put to a huge test in the KO16 on Saturday when they come up against Dutch rivals SV Kampong.

Indeed, the sparrows have not lost an EHL fixture since April 2015 when they bowed out of the competition at the FINAL4 stage to Oranje-Zwart. Since then, every time they have qualified for the competition, they have taken the title to stand alone at the head of the medal table with six gold medals.

The run includes their memorable final win over Kampong in 2018 but both sides come into this years showdown with some early season cobwebs to shake off. For Bloemendaal, they were undone 4-2 by Rotterdam last weekend while a week earlier, Kampong fell 1-0 to Klein Zwitserland.

For Bloemendaal, they are bedding into life without the retired trio of Glenn Schuurman, Roel Bovendeert and corner gun Tim Swaen while Sam Figge moved to HGC.

Zach Wallace, though, took little time to get up to speed with a debut hat trick against Schaerweijde – including a now-trademark volley – while Spanish Marc Miralles also joined during the summer.

They link up with the all-star cast with Arthur Van Doren, Jorrit Croon, Thierry Brinkman, Floris Wortelboer and Maurits Visser among their ranks.