History of the championship

The Students Championship Soil Drilling originates from the university’s Annual Introduction Days (AID) in August. During the AID there is always one day for study associations to present themselves to that year’s freshmen. By tradition, Pyrus teaches her freshmen how to properly drill soil in a competitive way. This is always a success and leads to amusing scenes.

To honour Pyrus’ first lustrum in 1994 a deep drilling match was organized at the top of the Wageningse “mountain”. Numerous teams did an attempt on drilling to the greatest depth. Since then every now and then a group of students attempt to break the previous depth record. In October 1998 the AkCie (activity committee) came up with the most wonderful idea ever in the history of Pyrus. They organized a soil drilling match for Soil, Water, Atmosphere students. Despite the harsh weather it resulted in a great success which was worthy of a follow up.

In October 1999 this little match had grown into an outright Student Championship Soil Drilling. Where the little match in ’98 was a bit of a chaos, the ’99 edition had a structural organization. Only one thing was missing. The official title of Dutch Student Championship Soil Drilling, but work was in progress.

On the 11th October 2000 the first official ‘Dutch Championship Soil Drilling’ was organized by Pyrus. The championship was located on the field behind company the Nieuwlanden where about 45 teams were eager to start. Just like in 1999 there were teams from all over the country. Sister-study associations from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Delft gave acte de présence. The organization had arranged barbecues for the starving driller and of course a bar was present.

In 2008 the tenth Championship Soil Drilling was organized. A year after that Pyrus would celebrate its 4th lustrum and the championship would grow even further. A company competition was added. Sadly 2009 was the last time the championship was organized at the Nieuwlanden. The annual Student Championship Soil Drilling is now organized on the fields of the Haarweg where nowadays 400 participants are competing for the title of Soil Drilling Championship.