Category: 2016

Udderbelly Festival – 4 December, 2015 – 14 February, 2016

udderbelly-hk

It’ll be interesting to see over the next couple of months if the ‘there’s nothing to do in Hong Kong’ brigade will open their wallets to support the inaugural Udderbelly Festival Hong Kong which takes place at the Central Harbourfront event space from the 4 December-14 February. Centered around the iconic Udderbelly, a 410-seat pop-up theatre in the shape of an upturned cow (specially brought to Hong Kong from the UK) the festival features a smorgasbord of shows and will sit alongside The AIA Great European Carnival. The Udderbelly cowshed will be full of entertainment, music, food, comedy (lots of comedy) and family fun throughout the holiday season. Udderbelly has proved a huge hit with audiences at the Edinburgh Festival for over 10 years and on London’s South Bank for the past seven.

Udderbelly Festival
Date: 4 December, 2015 – 14 February, 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: see individual event
More info:
Check the events diary for schedule

Women’s Rugby Season 15/16 Preview

Women’s Premiership captains: Chan Long Sze Royce, Chloe Mak, Nam Ka Man, Jen Mackay, Jay Ho, Dora Kwok, Mok Ting Yan.
Women’s Premiership captains: Chan Long Sze Royce, Chloe Mak, Nam Ka Man, Jen Mackay, Jay Ho, Dora Kwok, Mok Ting Yan.

The women’s league structure, which was comprehensively overhauled for the 2014-15 season, sees further tweaks for the 15/16 season as the overall number of teams competing increases from 22-25 across three leagues. Despite the HKRU’s indifference to women’s rugby, it’s been the fastest growing area of the sport locally for several years and with Hong Kong’s women 7s winning in Qingdao recently there’s a lot of excitement ahead of the new season, which starts on 3 October.

The Premiership has grown from six to seven teams with HK Football Club Ice moving up to the top rung of local women’s rugby. The other participating Premiership teams are defending champions Valley Black, Gai Wu, USRC Tigers, Kowloon, SCAA Causeway Bay and Tai Po Dragons. Women’s Rugby Performance Manager Jo Hull and Women’s Rugby Development Manager Sam Feausi are looking to increase that to eight in the 2016/17 season.

One step below Premiership level, the National 15s League has grown by three teams to 11 with HK Scottish, SCAA Causeway Bay 3rds and Revolution joining the competition this season. The National 10s League will feature six teams and continues its role as a bridge for new and younger players looking to integrate into 15-aside competition.

The main change to this season’s competition is the introduction of a new internal representative competition: the Women’s Rugby Super Series – designed to bridge the gap between domestic rugby and the national XVs set-up.

“The Super Series will feature our top 66 players from the domestic league. These players will be split into three Barbarian sides which will play against each other, effectively adding a component of representative rugby apart from the domestic league and just below the national setup. The goal is to better prepare and help transition players to full representative rugby,” said Sam Feausi.

Feausi added that, “The Super Series will give coaches and selectors an opportunity to look at our best players and test combinations with an eye on the coming international season. The teams will primarily be drawn from the Premiership with selectors identifying any players from other competitions that we believe have what it takes to represent the National Team. The Super Series will give more opportunities to the best players in the Premiership to play at an even higher level.”

“We are focused on introducing more of a performance aspect into our women’s club system this season. The Premiership is the pinnacle of Women’s rugby and we want it to be geared towards high performance, as we are ultimately targeting qualification for Women’s Rugby World Cup in future.” said Jo Hull.

The three leagues promise to serve up some incredible rugby with defending champions Valley Black and perennial contenders Gai Wu shaping up as the favourites once again in the Premiership race. Gai Wu have 11 players involved with the national sevens team, Valley Black have nine. SCAA Causeway Bay is the only club to field a team in all three of the senior woman’s competitions.

“This is set to be the biggest club woman’s competition we have ever had in Hong Kong,” said Feausi. “With 25 teams across three highly competitive leagues it will be interesting to see who will be pushing hard for a place in the Premiership and spots in the Super Series teams. On the other end of the scale, we will be monitoring how successful clubs are at introducing beginners and less experienced players to rugby and transitioning them from National 10s to higher levels of competition.”

The Women’s Premiership will kick off on 3 October as part of the HKRU Super Saturday league launch at Kings Park. The National 15’s and Women’s 10s also kick-off this weekend and you can find the complete fixture list here.

Source HKRU, image courtesy of HKRU

Udderbelly Festival 2015-16

udderbelly

The Udderbelly Festival to be held in conjunction with The Great European Carnival (4 December 2015 to 14 February 2016) has already released tickets to some great shows including comedians Rory Bremner, Jason Manford, musicians Gobsmacked, Michael Winslow and shows such as The Boy with Tape on His Face and The Elephant in the Room.

Udderbelly Festival
Date: 4th December 2015 – 14th February 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: various

The Great European Carnival 2016

great-european-carnivalweb

The Great European Carnival returns to the Central Harbourfront this winter from the 4th December 2015 – 14th February 2016. As well as games, thrilling rides the midway this year will also feature the unique Udderbelly – a performance venue like no other.

The Udderbelly Festival has already released tickets for some great shows including comedians Rory Bremner, Jason Manford, musicians Gobsmacked, Michael Winslow and shows such as The Boy with Tape on His Face and The Elephant in the Room.

Great European Carnival + Udderbelly Festival
Date: 4 December 2015 – 21 February 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: various

Pizza Express World Cup Sponsorship Draft

hkfc-ice-vs-cwb-scrum-20161022

HKFC Ice kicked off against CWB Phoenix with an unintended late start at King‘s Park courtesy of typhoon Haima. Ice had a noisy crowd of enthusiastic supporters there to cheer them on.

Rosie Hopewell-Fong led the girl’s from the start, implementing a pre-planned kicking strategy to exploit the space. The chasing backs earning Ice an early penalty. HKFC looked threatening, exerting pressure and keeping the ball deep in the CWB’s half. On 14 minutes, an excellent drive for the line by Rosie Hopewell-Fong opened the scoring.

CWB put together some fast passages of play and notable scrums from their forwards; however HKFC’s solid defence and some exceptional tackling from Crystal Wray on the wing prevented them from gaining the possession. With both sides kicking for territory and looking for a line break, the majority of action was in the middle of the pitch as the first half drew to close.

Ball and handling errors from both sides resulted in a few missed opportunities for HKFC. Two yellow cards were presented to CWB for foul play. Ice exploited their numerical advantage and Captain, Bobby Wilson scored a hard earned second try just before the whistle. Half-time 10-0.

After the break, CWB looked to pick-up the intensity of their game, as they did so though the errors started to creep in and several dropped balls and Ice took full advantage of CWB’s generosity as Bobby Wilson scored her second try of the afternoon, converted by Rosie Hopewell-Fong’s 17-0.

Exciting, yet scrappy game play at times from both teams fighting for their place. Ice made some changes with Angelina Cheung and Maggie Wong off replaced by Nina Pirie and Natalia Lech. Relentless pressure from CWB looking for a way back into the game was finally rewarded with a converted try.

With 5 minutes to go, more subs for HKFC; Jamie Ho for Stephanie Siu, Denise Chan off for Doris Chen and Amy Kong on for Royce Chan. These fresh legs combined to set up HKFC Ice’s Crystal Wray for a fourth try and surely seal the game with 3 minutes to go. CWB replied quickly penetrating a wide gap up the middle to secure a well deserved second converted try. Final score 22-14.

HKFC Ice:
1. Denise Chan, 2. Shonagh Ryan, 3. Megan Richardson, 4. Angelina Cheung, 5. Iris Chan, 6. Claire Hunter, 7. Nina Pirie, 8. Bobby Wilson ©, 9. Sophie Short, 10. Rose Hopewell-Fong, 11. Jane Cheung, 12. Stephanie Siu, 13. Jamie Bourk, 14. Crystal Wray, 15. Helen Lee
Substitutes: Doris Chen, Cheryl Gourley, Zuzanna Osinska, Royce Chan, Cynthia Luk, Henrietta Wong, Hei Hei Wong and Rabbit Leung.
Tries: Bobby Wilson (2), Rosie Hopewell-Fong, Crystal Wray
Conversion: Rosie Hopewell-Fong

Causeway Bay Phoenix:
1. Pui Yan, Cooliy Wong, 2. Tsang Siu Ching, 3. Chin Po Po, 4. Chan Yan Yi, 5. Wing Chi Jenny Wong, 6. Li Man Yi, 7. Tin Yan, Dora Chim, 8. Tsang Ching Man, 9. Sin Man Hau, 10. Wong Sze Man, 11. Lau Sin Tung, 12. Au To, 13. Chan Abigail, 14. Lam Ka Wai, 15. Tsang Yuen Ying
Substitutes: Ho Pui Ki, Kwan Ki Chan, Rain Lam, Kwok Yuk Lin (C), Ling Yee Ally Cheung, Ng Wing Yee, See Wai June Au, Wing Ting Catherine Cheng

 

Pinky Fest Women’s World Cup Sponsorship Draft

hkfc-ice-vs-cwb-scrum-20161022

HKFC Ice kicked off against CWB Phoenix with an unintended late start at King‘s Park courtesy of typhoon Haima. Ice had a noisy crowd of enthusiastic supporters there to cheer them on.

Rosie Hopewell-Fong led the girl’s from the start, implementing a pre-planned kicking strategy to exploit the space. The chasing backs earning Ice an early penalty. HKFC looked threatening, exerting pressure and keeping the ball deep in the CWB’s half. On 14 minutes, an excellent drive for the line by Rosie Hopewell-Fong opened the scoring.

CWB put together some fast passages of play and notable scrums from their forwards; however HKFC’s solid defence and some exceptional tackling from Crystal Wray on the wing prevented them from gaining the possession. With both sides kicking for territory and looking for a line break, the majority of action was in the middle of the pitch as the first half drew to close.

Ball and handling errors from both sides resulted in a few missed opportunities for HKFC. Two yellow cards were presented to CWB for foul play. Ice exploited their numerical advantage and Captain, Bobby Wilson scored a hard earned second try just before the whistle. Half-time 10-0.

After the break, CWB looked to pick-up the intensity of their game, as they did so though the errors started to creep in and several dropped balls and Ice took full advantage of CWB’s generosity as Bobby Wilson scored her second try of the afternoon, converted by Rosie Hopewell-Fong’s 17-0.

Exciting, yet scrappy game play at times from both teams fighting for their place. Ice made some changes with Angelina Cheung and Maggie Wong off replaced by Nina Pirie and Natalia Lech. Relentless pressure from CWB looking for a way back into the game was finally rewarded with a converted try.

With 5 minutes to go, more subs for HKFC; Jamie Ho for Stephanie Siu, Denise Chan off for Doris Chen and Amy Kong on for Royce Chan. These fresh legs combined to set up HKFC Ice’s Crystal Wray for a fourth try and surely seal the game with 3 minutes to go. CWB replied quickly penetrating a wide gap up the middle to secure a well deserved second converted try. Final score 22-14.

 

HKFC Ice:
1. Denise Chan, 2. Shonagh Ryan, 3. Megan Richardson, 4. Angelina Cheung, 5. Iris Chan, 6. Claire Hunter, 7. Nina Pirie, 8. Bobby Wilson ©, 9. Sophie Short, 10. Rose Hopewell-Fong, 11. Jane Cheung, 12. Stephanie Siu, 13. Jamie Bourk, 14. Crystal Wray, 15. Helen Lee
Substitutes: Doris Chen, Cheryl Gourley, Zuzanna Osinska, Royce Chan, Cynthia Luk, Henrietta Wong, Hei Hei Wong and Rabbit Leung.
Tries: Bobby Wilson (2), Rosie Hopewell-Fong, Crystal Wray
Conversion: Rosie Hopewell-Fong

Causeway Bay Phoenix:
1. Pui Yan, Cooliy Wong, 2. Tsang Siu Ching, 3. Chin Po Po, 4. Chan Yan Yi, 5. Wing Chi Jenny Wong, 6. Li Man Yi, 7. Tin Yan, Dora Chim, 8. Tsang Ching Man, 9. Sin Man Hau, 10. Wong Sze Man, 11. Lau Sin Tung, 12. Au To, 13. Chan Abigail, 14. Lam Ka Wai, 15. Tsang Yuen Ying
Substitutes: Ho Pui Ki, Kwan Ki Chan, Rain Lam, Kwok Yuk Lin (C), Ling Yee Ally Cheung, Ng Wing Yee, See Wai June Au, Wing Ting Catherine Cheng

 

Lai Yuen World Cup Sponsorship Draft

hkfc-ice-vs-cwb-scrum-20161022

HKFC Ice kicked off against CWB Phoenix with an unintended late start at King‘s Park courtesy of typhoon Haima. Ice had a noisy crowd of enthusiastic supporters there to cheer them on.

Rosie Hopewell-Fong led the girl’s from the start, implementing a pre-planned kicking strategy to exploit the space. The chasing backs earning Ice an early penalty. HKFC looked threatening, exerting pressure and keeping the ball deep in the CWB’s half. On 14 minutes, an excellent drive for the line by Rosie Hopewell-Fong opened the scoring.

CWB put together some fast passages of play and notable scrums from their forwards; however HKFC’s solid defence and some exceptional tackling from Crystal Wray on the wing prevented them from gaining the possession. With both sides kicking for territory and looking for a line break, the majority of action was in the middle of the pitch as the first half drew to close.

Ball and handling errors from both sides resulted in a few missed opportunities for HKFC. Two yellow cards were presented to CWB for foul play. Ice exploited their numerical advantage and Captain, Bobby Wilson scored a hard earned second try just before the whistle. Half-time 10-0.

After the break, CWB looked to pick-up the intensity of their game, as they did so though the errors started to creep in and several dropped balls and Ice took full advantage of CWB’s generosity as Bobby Wilson scored her second try of the afternoon, converted by Rosie Hopewell-Fong’s 17-0.

Exciting, yet scrappy game play at times from both teams fighting for their place. Ice made some changes with Angelina Cheung and Maggie Wong off replaced by Nina Pirie and Natalia Lech. Relentless pressure from CWB looking for a way back into the game was finally rewarded with a converted try.

With 5 minutes to go, more subs for HKFC; Jamie Ho for Stephanie Siu, Denise Chan off for Doris Chen and Amy Kong on for Royce Chan. These fresh legs combined to set up HKFC Ice’s Crystal Wray for a fourth try and surely seal the game with 3 minutes to go. CWB replied quickly penetrating a wide gap up the middle to secure a well deserved second converted try. Final score 22-14.

 

HKFC Ice:
1. Denise Chan, 2. Shonagh Ryan, 3. Megan Richardson, 4. Angelina Cheung, 5. Iris Chan, 6. Claire Hunter, 7. Nina Pirie, 8. Bobby Wilson ©, 9. Sophie Short, 10. Rose Hopewell-Fong, 11. Jane Cheung, 12. Stephanie Siu, 13. Jamie Bourk, 14. Crystal Wray, 15. Helen Lee
Substitutes: Doris Chen, Cheryl Gourley, Zuzanna Osinska, Royce Chan, Cynthia Luk, Henrietta Wong, Hei Hei Wong and Rabbit Leung.
Tries: Bobby Wilson (2), Rosie Hopewell-Fong, Crystal Wray
Conversion: Rosie Hopewell-Fong

Causeway Bay Phoenix:
1. Pui Yan, Cooliy Wong, 2. Tsang Siu Ching, 3. Chin Po Po, 4. Chan Yan Yi, 5. Wing Chi Jenny Wong, 6. Li Man Yi, 7. Tin Yan, Dora Chim, 8. Tsang Ching Man, 9. Sin Man Hau, 10. Wong Sze Man, 11. Lau Sin Tung, 12. Au To, 13. Chan Abigail, 14. Lam Ka Wai, 15. Tsang Yuen Ying
Substitutes: Ho Pui Ki, Kwan Ki Chan, Rain Lam, Kwok Yuk Lin (C), Ling Yee Ally Cheung, Ng Wing Yee, See Wai June Au, Wing Ting Catherine Cheng

 

Flaminog Bloom at Womens World Cup draft

hkfc-ice-vs-cwb-scrum-20161022

HKFC Ice kicked off against CWB Phoenix with an unintended late start at King‘s Park courtesy of typhoon Haima. Ice had a noisy crowd of enthusiastic supporters there to cheer them on.

Rosie Hopewell-Fong led the girl’s from the start, implementing a pre-planned kicking strategy to exploit the space. The chasing backs earning Ice an early penalty. HKFC looked threatening, exerting pressure and keeping the ball deep in the CWB’s half. On 14 minutes, an excellent drive for the line by Rosie Hopewell-Fong opened the scoring.

CWB put together some fast passages of play and notable scrums from their forwards; however HKFC’s solid defence and some exceptional tackling from Crystal Wray on the wing prevented them from gaining the possession. With both sides kicking for territory and looking for a line break, the majority of action was in the middle of the pitch as the first half drew to close.

Ball and handling errors from both sides resulted in a few missed opportunities for HKFC. Two yellow cards were presented to CWB for foul play. Ice exploited their numerical advantage and Captain, Bobby Wilson scored a hard earned second try just before the whistle. Half-time 10-0.

After the break, CWB looked to pick-up the intensity of their game, as they did so though the errors started to creep in and several dropped balls and Ice took full advantage of CWB’s generosity as Bobby Wilson scored her second try of the afternoon, converted by Rosie Hopewell-Fong’s 17-0.

Exciting, yet scrappy game play at times from both teams fighting for their place. Ice made some changes with Angelina Cheung and Maggie Wong off replaced by Nina Pirie and Natalia Lech. Relentless pressure from CWB looking for a way back into the game was finally rewarded with a converted try.

With 5 minutes to go, more subs for HKFC; Jamie Ho for Stephanie Siu, Denise Chan off for Doris Chen and Amy Kong on for Royce Chan. These fresh legs combined to set up HKFC Ice’s Crystal Wray for a fourth try and surely seal the game with 3 minutes to go. CWB replied quickly penetrating a wide gap up the middle to secure a well deserved second converted try. Final score 22-14.

HKFC Ice:
1. Denise Chan, 2. Shonagh Ryan, 3. Megan Richardson, 4. Angelina Cheung, 5. Iris Chan, 6. Claire Hunter, 7. Nina Pirie, 8. Bobby Wilson ©, 9. Sophie Short, 10. Rose Hopewell-Fong, 11. Jane Cheung, 12. Stephanie Siu, 13. Jamie Bourk, 14. Crystal Wray, 15. Helen Lee
Substitutes: Doris Chen, Cheryl Gourley, Zuzanna Osinska, Royce Chan, Cynthia Luk, Henrietta Wong, Hei Hei Wong and Rabbit Leung.
Tries: Bobby Wilson (2), Rosie Hopewell-Fong, Crystal Wray
Conversion: Rosie Hopewell-Fong

 

Causeway Bay Phoenix:
1. Pui Yan, Cooliy Wong, 2. Tsang Siu Ching, 3. Chin Po Po, 4. Chan Yan Yi, 5. Wing Chi Jenny Wong, 6. Li Man Yi, 7. Tin Yan, Dora Chim, 8. Tsang Ching Man, 9. Sin Man Hau, 10. Wong Sze Man, 11. Lau Sin Tung, 12. Au To, 13. Chan Abigail, 14. Lam Ka Wai, 15. Tsang Yuen Ying
Substitutes: Ho Pui Ki, Kwan Ki Chan, Rain Lam, Kwok Yuk Lin (C), Ling Yee Ally Cheung, Ng Wing Yee, See Wai June Au, Wing Ting Catherine Cheng