As the field in the Dutch Eerste Klasse reaches the turn, ACC have their nose in front and seem set for a return to the top flight after just one season back in the lower ranks.

But there's a pack of other sides breathing down their necks, and they will not want to experience what happened to Rood en Wit last year, when they faded badly in the home stretch and ended up missing out on promotion.

ACC have largely held on to the squad which was relegated from the Hoofdklasse last season, with two significant additions.

South African John Geoghegan, the new coach, is leading the way in the batting with 428 runs at 61.14, while off-spinner Faisal Zaman, back in The Netherlands after playing club cricket in England, is the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 26 at a remarkable average of 7.73.

Even allowing for the difference in standard between the Eerste Klasse and the Hoofdklasse, it surely cannot be long before Zaman catches the eye of the national selectors.

With Bas van der Heyde, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Scott Fraser and Steven de Bruin all amongst the runs, and evergreen seamer Jan Balk picking up regular wickets, the side will be difficult to catch in the second half of the season – their only loss so far was to Dosti, when they were unable to defend a total of 221.

Dosti are, in fact, their closest challengers, just one game behind at this stage.

Coach Mohammad Shahbaz is their trump card, with 230 runs at 46.00 and 20 wickets at 11.65, but skipper MN Khalid is also performing with both bat and ball, and the advent of former international Asim Khan, as miserly and probing as ever at 46 years of age, has certainly strengthened their seam attack.

The KNCB, indeed, should consider looking for sponsorship for the Eerste Klasse from pension funds or other caterers for the ‘grey euro': apart from Balk and Zulfiqar at ACC and Khan at Dosti, the competition is proving a happy hunting-ground for such veterans as former international (and national coach) Peter Cantrell at Kampong Utrecht and keeper René Schoonheim, at 63 playing in his 48th season of first XI cricket.

Last Sunday, indeed, he had the somewhat ambiguous pleasure of catching his 31-year-old son Tjerk, who plays for Bloemendaal – off Cantrell's bowling.

Then there are the squads of former Hoofdklasse players fielded each week by the second XIs of Hermes-DVS and Quick Haag, with the latter including Nolan Clarke, 60 this week, back with the club for whom, eighteen years ago when he was a mere 42, he once scored 265 not out off 60 overs.

One feature of this season's competition is that the three second teams are anchored at the bottom of the table, despite the combination of experience and youth which they are able to muster.

Apart from Dosti, ACC's principal rivals seem to be Hercules Utrecht, a further game back in third spot.

The start of their season was disrupted by the last-minute withdrawal of their prospective coach, Farhaan Behardien, but they now have an excellent replacement in the young South African Qaasim Adams, as well as his compatriot, the exchange player Colin Sher.

With brothers Javed and Farid Durrani again performing well, and Jasper Koop, Lucas Brouwers and Jaswinder Singh also in the attack, Hercules have a pretty strong outfit, although one cannot help doubting whether they have the consistency to overtake the leaders.

Promoted sides Bloemendaal and PDCCR both began well, but they, too, have proved vulnerable as the season has progressed, and they seem likely to finish, along with Kampong and Rood en Wit Haarlem, in a fairly crowded mid-table.

Rood en Wit have been the enigmas of the campaign: having dominated last year's competition until the final weeks, they began slowly this year, and only now is their season beginning to gain momentum.

With five defeats in the first nine games they are well off the pace, despite the presence of former coach and current skipper Jarrod Englefield and the return of another former coach in Enoch Nkwe.

The loss of Moenir Bhoelan from the attack has been compensated by the arrival of Aziz Khan from Dosti, but it has been the batting which has so far been the source of the trouble.

As a club with a strong youth section, the Haarlemmers will be looking to their younger players to develop to the point where they can again challenge for a place in the top flight.