It's necessary to begin with a declaration of interest: your correspondent viewed the season from the VRA scorer's table, and might therefore be thought to have a partial, not to say, biased standpoint. Read with caution!

That said, VRA made the task easier by winning the title - their fifth in eight seasons - by five clear matches, losing only three games in the process. After falling to Quick Haag at home in the first week they didn't lose again until immediately after the long mid-season break, by which time they had established a fairly impregnable lead over their nearest rivals.

If the batting had often underperformed in 2004, that was not true this season. They passed 250 seven times, and 300 twice - the second time chasing VOC's 316 for nine in the penultimate round and falling just 15 runs short. Four players made 500 runs, with South Australian coach Mike Smith, who had moved from HCC, leading the way with 699. Openers Tjade Groot and Maurits van Nierop contributed excellent half-seasons: Groot could do no wrong in May but fell away thereafter, while van Nierop didn't hit his best form until the second half.

Among the bowlers, off-spinner Adeel Raja had his best season ever with 32 wickets, while the seamers Rashid Amin, Victor Grandia (right), Joost Leemhuis and Smith took more than 100 between them, fairly evenly shared.

The chasing pack helped the VRA cause by taking points from each other, and no side was able to put together a consistent run of victories to mount a successful challenge. Three teams won ten games each: HCC, defending champions Excelsior '20, and VOC Rotterdam.

Excelsior shared led the way for the first five weeks, but thereafter they displayed a disturbing tendency to drop points against the weaker sides - they went down twice to BCC, who were eventually relegated - and five of their eight losses were at home. Luuk van Troost had a great season with the bat, totalling 800 runs and making two centuries, while Billy Stelling took 34 wickets at 14.76.

HCC also lost games when it really mattered, including three of their last four games, and while VOC had one of the best runs among the challengers, winning six of their last seven games after the mid-term break, they had begun so poorly that this merely brought them level with the other two.

HCC and VOC relied heavily on their coaches, South African Test allrounder Neil McKenzie and Tasmanian George Bailey, who had the highest run aggregates with 987 and 870 respectively. McKenzie was well supported by Dutch international opener Tom de Grooth, who hit three centuries, but otherwise the HCC batting struggled. In six of their ten victories McKenzie and de Grooth contributed more than half the runs.

VOC's batting did a little better overall, with Bas Zuiderent making 725 runs and Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk 544, but again too much depended on Bailey and the two internationals. Apart from the coach, only Jelte Schoonheim and Ben Goedegebuur (right) took 20 wickets or more, and Schoonheim's best season to date was rewarded with a place in the Dutch winter squad.

Hermes/DVS, Excelsior's Schiedam rivals, and promoted side VVV, occupied the middle two spots in the table, each winning half their games, although VVV were docked two points for fielding an unqualified player. Hermes were always a force to be reckoned with in the field, but their batting was consistently disappointing. VVV, on the other hand, could take any attack apart on their day, and they scored more runs in total than any other side; the batting was led by Nolan Clarke, 57 years young, who made 782 runs.

The enigma of the season was Quick Haag, who won four of their first five games but struggled thereafter. Darron Reekers made 687 runs and took 35 wickets, while coach Tim McIntosh also had a relatively successful season with the bat, but apart from Reekers and Edgar Schiferli the bowlers were generally too expensive.

The remaining three sides battled it out to avoid relegation, right down to the last week of the season. Two of them, HBS and VCC, met in that final round, with HBS two points ahead of their rivals, who in turn were level with BCC. There was a real possibility of a three-way tie for last place, but in the event BCC lost to Hermes/DVS, while VCC beat HBS by 25 runs to avoid a play-off.

For VCC Tim de Leede dominated as usual, finishing fourth in the national batting averages with 772 runs and topping the bowling with 24 wickets at 14.63 and an economy rate of 2.5 (the best in the competition by a considerable distance); when Daan van Bunge was available - which wasn't often - he gave good support, but otherwise the batting in particular was problematic.

HBS had their good days, including victories against VRA and HCC, but fewer than might have been expected from a side with coach Grant Elliott, former Dutch keeper-batsman Reinhout Scholte, and the rising talent of Alexei Kervezee, all of whom made more than 500 runs.

BCC will be replaced in 2006 by Rood en Wit Haarlem, who return to the top flight after a two-year absence.