Excelsior skipper Tom Heggelman's all-round performace saw Excelsior beat Quick to claim the second finals spot on a low-scoring Topklasse Sunday, whilst wins for Hermes and HCC saw them safe from relegation, leaving VOC and VRA facing a wooden-spoon showdown next week.

With a spot in the finals against Dosti on the line at Nieuw Hanenburg, Excelsior'20 looked in trouble against Quick Haag when Ryan Cartwright struck twice in his first over to remove Tim Etman and Roel Verhagen. Stephen Kriel followed up by trapping Lorenzo Ingram LBW on the following delivery to reduce the visitors to an alrming 7-3.

David Woutersen kept Heggelman company for some 26 balls before Kriel had him caught behind by stand-in keeper Bob van Gigch for a gritty 3 runs, regular keeper Wesley Barresi being absent on national duty along with Quick skipper Tim Gruijters, but at 20-4 Excelsior looked under the kosh. Heggelman pushed on with Thijs Schewe to add another 28, but the wickets would keep coming for the hosts.

Schewe's 18 would prove the second best score for the visitors, whilst Adam Woutersen also stuck around with Heggelman for some time, but Asief Hoseinbaks would hold a return catch off the Excelsior skipper to bring a dogged 102-ball innings of 40 to an end, and remove Sohail Bhatti for a duck next ball and from there Excelsior would capitulate for 115 all out.

Quick would somehow contrive to get off to an even worse start however, Bob van Gigch run out off the fourth ball of the innings before Heggelman removed both Mol brothers in successive balls as Quick lost three wickets without a run on the board.

There would be no recovery for the hosts, Rens van Troost removing Ryan Cartwright shortly after and Heggelman clean bowling Daan Vierling as Quick slumped to 5-19. Lesley Stokkers ground out a 60-ball 22 before being caught off Bhatti in the 21st over with the total on 34, and Jeroen Brand would make an unbeaten 32 as Bhatti mopped up the tail at the other end, the innings eventually finishing as it started, Hosienbaks run out without scoring with Quick still 31 short. The win sets up a repeat of the 2012 final, Excelsior assured of their place alongside defending champions Dosti-United.

Dosti themselves are looking emminently beatable of late, sinking to their fourth successive defeat on Sunday, this time at the hands of ACC. Dosti were admittedly fielding an understregth side in a match of little consequence, with overseas players Colin Ackermann and Robbie Frylinck absent and both Ahsan Malik and Mudassar Bukhari unavailable.

Despite resticting ACC to 159-9 from their 50 overs, the defending champions would fall some 65 runs short of their target. The ACC middle order all chipped in to get them past the 150 mark after openers Asad and Saqib Zulfiqar fell early, but Dosti's second-string bowlers Aziz and Khan rose to the occassion, taking 3-31 and 2-22 respectively to keep the hosts to a chaseable target. They would not get close to it however, thanks in part to Sikander Zulfiqar's return of 5-12 in 9.4, Hans a nd Khan the only Dosti batsmen to reach double figures as they collapsed to 92 all out.

Meanwhile at the other end of the table HCC secured their place in next years Topklasse with a 3-wicket win over VRA at de Diepput. Mitch Lees and Emile van der Burg got VRA off to a positive start after being invited to bat, putting on a quickfire 54 for the first wicket. Both would fall to Ollie Klaus however, Lees again missing out on a milestone when he was caught by Bijloos for 46, and quick wickets followed as VRA were reduced to 92-4. Freddie Klaasen and Eric Szwarczynski would steady things however, putting on 130 runs for the next wicket before Klaasen fell 5 runs short of his half-century. The trend of missing milestones would continue when Szwarczynsky fell for 97 without further advancing the score, and VRA would eventually close their innings on 224-6.

Despite Sadiq Mahmood striking twice in succession to reduce the hosts to 31-2, Tom de Grooth and Jonathan Vandiar would bat hrough most of the remaining overs, adding 161 for the third wicket before Tom de Grooth was eventually run out for 89 with 33 still needed. Vandiar would make the requisite runs practically single-handed, finishing unbeaten on 114 as HCC cruised home with 3 overs to spare.

Likewise assured of their spot in next year's Topklasse are Hermes-DVS, who closed out a nailbiting four-wicket win away at VOC. Hermes' Maninder Singh was instrumental in restricting the hosts to 176-6 from their 50 overs despite VOC overseas Jeandre Jumat hitting and unbeaten 98, Singh taking 3-34 from his ten overs, whilst Davy Verveij was also admirably economical, conceding just 21 runs from his ten overs as well as claiming the wicket of Tim Ruyters.

In the absence of Stephan Myburgh, skipper Nick Staham again stepped in admirably, his unbeaten 69 providing the backbone of the Hermes chase. Despite the early loss of Olivier Elenbaas, Statham added 60 for the 2nd with Haro Seelaar before the latter was caught behind off Dirk van Baren. Davi van Slobbe, promoted to number four, then provided a game changing innings of 41 as together with Statham he took the visitors to 143-2. Jumat's introduction would threaten to break the chase, however, as he trapped van Slobbe LBW before clean bowling Bart Schilperoord and Seb Braat, Hermes stumbling to 145-6.

Those would prove the last wickets to fall however, as Singh joined Statham at the crease and the pair took Hermes to victory and safety with 2 balls to spare. The defeat means VOC's match against VRA at Amstelveen next week becomes decisive, with the losers taking on the third-placed Hoofdklasse team - likely Punjab Rotterdam or Rood en Wit Haarlem - in a three match relegation/promotion playoff.