(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Opening Day Play-Offs rains out
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
On Saturday (September 16), the first three games were scheduled to be played in the Play-Offs of the Golden League.
However, all three games were canceled due to the weather conditions.
All games were scheduled to be played at the site of Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem, which earned the right to host the opening day by finishing in second place in the regular season of the Golden League.
All games on Day 2 of the Play-Offs, scheduled for Sunday, will be played at the site of FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem, which finished in first place in the regular season.
Around 8:30 AM, the opening game between last years finalists Sparks Haarlem and Terrasvogels was canceled because of steady rain.
It had rained throughout the previous night and so, the game, which was scheduled to start at 11 AM, was scrubbed.
The match-up was re-scheduled for coming Tuesday-evening at the site of Sparks Haarlem.
It was hoped that the next two games could be played on Saturday-afternoon.
However, at 11 AM, the decision was made to also cancel these two games.
It not only still rained, but it was impossible to make to field playable again.
In the afternoon, Sparks Haarlem was to play against Roef!, which became the fourth team to reach the Play-Ofs on September 2.
That game now has been moved to Sunday, which is Day 2 of the Play-Offs with the games being played at the site of Olympia Haarlem.
The game had been added to the schedule and becomes the fourth game to be played on Sunday following the regularly scheduled other three games.
Initially, it was planned to make up the game coming Wednesday-evening at the site of Roef!, but it was requested (and granted) to move the game to Sunday.
The first day of the Play-Offs was to close with the game between Olympia Haarlem and Roef!, starting at 4 PM.
This has now been re-scheduled for coming Thursday-evening at the site of Olympia Haarlem.
In case the games on Sunday also rain out, the re-scheduled make-up games will change again.
In that case, two games will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Last year, the Play-Off Round was played under much better weather conditions.
On September 24 and 25, it respectively was 23° and 24° Celsius (73,4° and 75,2° Fahrenheit).
A year ago, the Play-Offs ended in a tie of the top-3, who then needed to play an additional series of three tiebreaker-games in the following week.
A week later, the second day of the Season's Finals were disrupted by rain with two games being postponed and be played a week later.
The two best teams of the Play-Offs will clinch a spot in the best-of-three Holland Series, which is scheduled to be played coming weekend.
That will be the Season's Finals Weekend with all deciding games scheduled to be played at the site of Roef! in Moergestel.
In the meantime, the rain also disturbed the schedule in the Promotion Pool and Relegation Pool of the Silver League.
Hoofddorp Pioniers already secured first place, but the team in second place is still undecided.
Four teams are still theoretically in the race for this position, being De Glaskoning Twins, Birds, Amsterdam Pirates and Euro Stars.
All scheduled games rained out today and will be made up coming Tuesday and Thursday.
On Sunday, more make-up games will be played of games that were postponed earlier.
The team that finishes in second place will meet DSS coming Saturday at the Season's Finals in Moergestel.
DSS finished in sixth place in the Golden League and now has to play in the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off.
The winner of this game will meet Hoofddorp Pioniers on Sunday in the Promotion/Relegation Final.
After playing its final regular season games on September 3, DSS has to wait three weeks (!) to play again coming weekend.
Also to be decided coming weekend in Moergestel is the Promotion/Relegation of the Silver League/First Division.
In the Silver League, Ban-Topa Future Stars and HCAW are currently sharing fourth place in the Silver League Relegation Pool.
The team that finishes fifth relegates, the team that finishes fourth meets the second best team from the First Division on Saturday.
The First Division-champion meets the winner of this game on Sunday.
Currently, Gophers will either finish in first or second place in the First Division, but second place is not yet decided.
(September 16)
Complete Schedule
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Game 1 of Day 1 of the Play-Offs, scheduled to be played at the site of Sparks Haarlem in Haarlem.