posted Jun 26th, 2008 - The stongest showing of last weekend's numerous events in the USA and Europe came from the Netherlands where 4-way competition is on the same upswing that many other leagues are currently enjoying. The small European country had 23 teams competing at the annual Tomscat Trophy.

The national 4-way team Dynamic Fource finished in 8th position of the very strong 32-team AAA Class field with a 17.4 average. This first result in 2008 matches the team's highest average in August last year. Seven other Dutch teams competed in the AAA Class, as well, none of them new for the NSL News audience and on the NSL leaderboard.

Mind Your Step was the strongest team in the AA Class with 20 teams. The Dutch team scored an 8.9 average after ten rounds. Two teams of the Florida Skydiving League, FSC Wind Damaged and Z-4, are actually on the top of the leaderboard. They would probably have been competitive over six rounds, as well, but completed only one/two rounds at Skydive City. Habanero ended up in the middle of the AA Class field.

The Dutch teams completely dominated the A Class competition and swept the top spots of the 19-team field on the leaderboard. Serges Angels (11.2), Empat Lak Laki (9.2) and Tiramisu (8.8) took the first three places, six more A Class teams came from the Netherlands.

A Dutch team also had the highest score of the whole Rookie Class competition. Bedazzled's 17-pointer in Round 2 laid the foundation for the first place at the Tomscat Trophy 2008. The Dutch Rookie Class teams completed nine rounds.

Carolina Groove offered a very strong competition over the four Rookie Class rounds at the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008 and was actually three points ahead of Bedazzled when the meet was completed in Raeford. Three more teams from the Netherlands competed in the Rookie Class.

Dutch league coordinator Mike Pennock sent greetings from the Netherlands and provided the meet videos of two teams, Team Pulse and Whooops. The NSL News had introduced Whooops with the story on 22 February 2008. The team had competed in the A Class last year, skipped the AA Class and entered the AAA Class competition this year. However, the team was satisfied with the first scores after applying the whole IPC dive pool, as the team's Tail, Peter Tak, explained:

"I know, we ignored Mike's advice and competed in the AAA Class instead of the AA. We are very satisfied with the results so far, and we promise you'll hear more from Team Whooops."

Mike Pennock is the team videographer of Team Pulse at the same time. The other team members represent the management of the Dutch Skydiving League. He commented the successful event in the Netherlands:

"We started the 14th Tomscat Trophy on Friday the 20th of June with a new record attendance of 23 entries. Actually, we had 24 teams, but one team had to withdraw last week because of a broken leg. Although the forecast was not that promising, we could start right away and managed to get to Round 5 with most of the teams before going on a weather hold due to high winds at 17:30 local time.

The first round (P-O-19-M) started promising with Pulse and Dynamic Fource both scoring 22 points (see Pulse video). Both teams were in Deland for a training camp in April. Pulse was coached by Pete Allum, Dynamic Fource by Gary Smith.

Overall the Dutch scores are up this year, and the Netherlands are preparing to defend their European Skydiving League championship title this year on Texel in September."