Photo: Participants of the 2015 student soil drilling contest
(Remo Wormmeester)
The playful event will take place tonight at the Haarweg. Participants compete in teams of four to seven people and pay 7 euros per person. Besides the 93 student teams, an additional 11 teams from various chair groups and business participate as well.
We are very happy with the turnout, says Monique Voesten, secretary of the organising committee GrondboorCommissie. ‘We were even somewhat relieved when the registration was closed.’ The logistics to accommodate an ever increasing number of participating teams turned out to be quite a challenge. But the contest is not coming apart at the seams just yet, says Voesten. If the organisation is able to find even more referees, the number of participants could theoretically grow further to somewhere around seven hundred. ‘More than that will not be possible.’
A bit of mud is part of the fun.
Monique Voesten, secretary of the GrondboorCie committee, study association Pyrus
Voesten expects Wednesday to be ‘cold and dry’. This means gentle conditions for the participants and little mud to clean up afterwards for the organisation. Which is kind of a pity, says Voesten. ‘A bit of mud is part of the fun.’
This will be the 18th student soil drilling contest. Soil Science lecturer Gert Peek was involved from the very beginning. Since 1979, he held drilling contests as a distraction during field practical courses. Last year, as an exclusive for Resource, he explained how it’s done one last time: soil drilling for pros. (video in Dutch)