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Scotland Beat Hong Kong by Eight Wickets

NAGPUR, INDIA - MARCH 12: during the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Round 1 Group B match between Scotland and Hong Kong at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium on March 12, 2016 in Nagpur, India. (Photo by Christopher Lee-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)

Scotland has sealed an eight-wicket victory over Hong Kong chasing a revised target of 76 runs in a rain-affected match in Nagpur on Saturday.

After Hong Kong posted 127 for seven in its 20 overs, Scotland passed the revised target to finish at 78 for two in eight overs, and also record its first victory in a global ICC tournament.

Earlier, A 49-run partnership between vice-captain Mark Chapman (40) and 18-year-old Anshuman Rath (21) formed the foundation for the Hong Kong innings.

Rain stopped play at in the final over of Hong Kong’s innings, and Kinchit Shah and Aizaz Khan came back to the crease for three balls to add seven runs and push Hong Kong to a modest total to 127 for seven.

Hong Kong v Scotland World Twenty20 2016 Rain during the innings break led to the revision of the Scotland target and a reduction of its innings to nine overs. Its batsmen came out swinging, hitting boundaries to ensure that Scotland stayed about the required run rate. Matthew Cross top scored with 22, while for Hong Kong, Aizaz Khan and Nadeem Ahmed claimed a wicket apiece.

Captain Tanwir Afzal felt his side had let an opportunity slip through its fingers: “I think I am quite happy with the first two games, we fought really hard, but we lack of experience and maturity. So we can play better than we showed here. We did not take our chances tonight.”

Coach Simon Cook agreed: “To a certain extent, yes, we are an inexperienced side. You take Ryan Campbell out and our average age is 20. We don’t have a lot of grounds in Hong Kong, so our domestic structure also lends itself to infrequent cricket. It becomes tough to get the group together.”

“I am a little bit disappointed as to how we played, because we are a better side than what we’ve showed in these three games. We’ve certainly proved that in the past, with the recent World Cricket League Championship and ICup matches, that we are a competitive side. I’d like to see that we keep making progress.

Hong Kong v Scotland World Twenty20 2016 “That inexperience comes in as how to play on those slower pitches, understanding that 140 to 145 is actually a really competitive total and not trying to go for the 150s or 160s. There’s a combination of things, but I certainly would have liked us to win at least one game in this tournament.”

The coach continued: “A few things that we’ve been working on haven’t quite clicked. One of our strengths in the past has been our partnerships, having batters batting through the majority of the innings, and finishing the end of the innings explosively. And the fielding, we worked really, really hard with Trevor Penney who came over and did some work with us prior to coming away. They are controllable things for us, and when we play against better teams, you want to try and do your controllables very well, and everything else hopefully fits in.”

Looking ahead, Cook said: “We’re so new to this level of cricket, this is the most cricket we’ve ever played, so we are kind of happy! Having said that, the more cricket, the better for us, and I understand that there may be frustration of how the calendar is scheduled. I think when we find our footing a little bit more in the Associate calendar, then we’ll probably want more cricket.”

Source: HK Cricket Association
Photo: ICC Cricket

Valley and Gai Wu Contest Third Straight Women’s Grand Final

Gai Wu v Valley Black

Valley Black will take on Gai Wu Falcons for the third successive Grand Final between the two clubs at King’s Park today (16.30). Valley were unbeaten in league play for the second consecutive year extending their winning streak to 28 matches – the longest such streak in Hong Kong Rugby.

It is a fitting match-up as the two clubs have dominated the elite edge of women’s rugby in recent seasons. The last six Grand Finals have seen at least one of the two sides taking part, with Valley claiming four titles to Gai Wu’s two during that period. In their head-to-heads over the past two finals, the clubs split the honours with Falcons handing Valley its last loss in domestic competition in 2014, while Valley ran out 20-10 winners over Falcons to claim the title in 2015.

The Falcons enter the match as the underdogs after having dropped both of their games to Valley this season, a 15-3 defeat in Round 7, followed by a more comprehensive 49-12 loss in their most recent outing on the last weekend of the season, when Valley fullback Olivia Coady ran riot for five tries. Despite the margin of defeat, the 12 points posted by Falcons is the most that Valley conceded to any opponent in the league, when they scored a staggering 565 points in 12 games.

Gai Wu v Valley Black Valley continue to reap the rewards of a long-term vision implemented when coach Chris Garvey arrived at the club following its 2012 Grand Championship. “We lost 9 players after that season and there was a lot of work to do to re-build. The next season we had 25 players competing across the 15s and 10s league. I remember one Saturday when we had back-to-back games and had to finish a 10s match with seven players on the pitch, pulling girls off so we could start a 15s game on the next pitch with 12 players.

“But we gave ourselves three years to re-build with a focus on sustainable growth. We focused on our infrastructure as if we got that right, the results should take care of themselves. We were able to get good coaches and recruit some strong players not just from overseas, but also from local universities and schools. Now we’re at the point where there are only three or four players running out that aren’t playing for Hong Kong or eligible to play for Hong Kong. We have two full squads this season and our seconds went from winning only one match last year to reaching the Grand Championship final tomorrow,” Garvey adds.

Valley’s numbers are holding strong for the re-match with Gai Wu says Garvey, “There are always a few niggles and we’ve had to leave vice captain Karen So on the bench, as she hasn’t fully recovered from injury, which hurts because she’s a prop/hooker and our front row has been a bit light this year. But other than that, we’ve held up well.”

That weakness up front contrasts with Gai Wu, whose main strength is its forward pack and set piece. For Garvey that means a contrast in styles and strategies in the final: “Our backbone is the midfield. We’re good at broken play and anything off the cuff is to our advantage. Our weakness is probably our set piece. The forwards have scored tries for us, but not as many as in previous seasons. I’m being a perfectionist really, as the forwards have done the job for us this season, but I don’t think we’ve developed our play up front as much as we have across the backline this season.”

Gai Wu v Valley Black “Gai Wu’s strengths are their set piece and overall fitness, which is slightly better than ours. They have a solid kicking game and I think they will look to play very structured rugby. But I’m confident. We don’t have to chase this game or change our style, we just need to keep calm, soak up any pressure and trust our systems. If we can restrict Gai Wu to two or three phases, we’re in with a chance, but if they’re still in it with ten minutes remaining anything can happen.”

Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang is angling to have his side in just that position: “Last week’s win over USRC Tigers gave us a lot of confidence and we’re picking up momentum late in the year. All the pressure is on Valley and we’re optimistic for tomorrow.”

Lai knows that defence is the key to Gai Wu’s championship hopes, saying: “Defence needs to be our primary focus. We need to put Valley under heavy pressure and that starts when they have the ball.”

While missing the inspirational but injured Christy Cheng Ka Chi, a leader for Falcons and the Hong Kong Sevens squad, Lai says the rest of his squad are fit. “Up front we have everyone we’d like to have and our training this week, and really since the end of the league, has been positive with over 30 players out for every session. That was a big help in getting us to the stage to achieve what we needed to in the semi-final over the Tigers.”

All today’s Grand Championship Final’s fixture details here.

photos: Takumi Photography

Women’s Rugby Sevens Teams Announced

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/HK-Sevens-2015-Friday/i-SgZZ4xr

Women’s rugby in Hong Kong has been going from strength to strength in recent years and this has been reflected in the national 15s and 7s team results; highlighted by the 7s team winning their first ever Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournament in Qingdao last September.

So it’s more than a little disappointing that the male dominated hierarchy of the HKRU continue to remain so blind to the attractions of women’s rugby, especially in an Olympic year when Hong Kong are still in with a chance of a place in Rio. With women’s rugby 7s expanding fast globally that only ten teams, down from twelve in recent year’s, will take part in the 19th Hong Kong Women’s Rugby Sevens (HKWRS) is depressing.

bc has supported the Women’s 7s since its inception and know that teams want to come to play, and the national side needs the experience of playing teams outside Asia, but cite costs as the main problem in attending the tournament. The HKRU is awash with cash but the men in charge remain too cheap to, and blind to the benefits of, financially supporting the expansion and improvement of the HKWRS. The nine countries, from four continents joining Hong Kong are: Argentina, China, France, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Tournament Director Ruth Mitchell and former Hong Kong captain said of the announcement “I’m excited at how the tournament has progressed over the years. Hong Kong is the longest established women’s sevens tournament in the world and we have had 38 international teams participate over the past 19 years. This year, for the first time, all of the teams have played in the tournament before, so we can expect a high standard of play and with plenty of Asian teams involved, the rivalry is sure to be intense,”

Of the participating teams, France, Kenya and Japan have already qualified for the Rio Summer Games in August, where rugby 7s will make it’s debut at the Olympics. France and Japan are also participating on the Women’s Sevens Series this season with France in fourth place in the standings and Japan eleventh of the 12 core teams. Both teams have figured in recent HKWRS Cup finals. Japan lost to Canada, 19-12, last year while France was beat by Canada, 24-0, in 2014.

Argentina, China, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong will compete in the Olympic repechage tournament in Dublin in June, making the HKWRS an important preparation event for the final stage of Olympic qualification. The winner in Dublin will be the 12th and final team to qualify for the Women’s Rugby Sevens competition at the Rio Games.

As always, Asia is well represented with the hosts Hong Kong, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Thailand all taking part. Japan and China finished first and second in Asia last season with Hong Kong hot on their heels in third place in the region.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens coach Anna Richards commented on the field assembled saying, “There is a good range of teams this year with sides from Africa, Europe and South America, alongside the top teams from Asia. It’s always good to get a chance to play against teams with different styles then those we see in the region and it will be helpful for us as prepare for the Olympic qualifier in Ireland where there will be 16 teams from all over the world.”

Last year, Hong Kong, after beating beat Samoa in the quarterfinal, narrowly missed out on reaching their first cup final losing the semi 10-5 to Japan. Another close result went against the hosts when they lost the third place play-off to the Netherlands, 14-7. It was Hong Kong’s best ever performance in the HKWRS and set the stage for a strong run in the Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens series later in the year.

“We got on a roll last year with a great start on the opening day when we beat China and Kazakhstan. Those performances gave us the self-belief we needed to go out and compete both on day two and later in the year on the Asian series. We will need another fast start this year so a lot will be riding on what pool we are drawn in as we need to finish either first or second in our group to advance to the cup,” Richards said. The tournament draw for the HKWRS will be held alongside the Hong Kong Sevens draw on Monday, 14 March.

Complicating matters for Richards is a lack of warm-up events for the women’s team ahead of the HKWRS: “Last year we had two tournaments in the build up to the sevens, but this year we don’t have any. We’ve been training really hard and are working closely with the Sports Science team at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, but I know the girls are excited about the prospect of our first tournament action since November last year.”

Richards has had to get creative to accentuate the build-up campaign. The sevens training squad will play a series of training games against a touring side from Princeton University on March 16.

Richards, a former New Zealand international, has also negotiated with the New Zealand Rugby Union to organise a group of New Zealand Sevens development players who the HKRU are flying up to Hong Kong, where they will mix with top local players in a Barbarians format, for a two-day training camp at the Hong Kong Sports Institute on March 19 and 20.

The HKWRS tournament in on Thursday and Friday, (7-8 April) with the opening day’s action at Kings Park in Kowloon. Day Two will be held at the Hong Kong Football Club (8 April) with the final again being held beneath the lights at the HK Stadium as a main focus of the opening day of the Hong Kong Sevens.

Disappointing Hong Kong Out With a Whimper

Jamie Atkinson

After a bright start Hong Kong’s middle order failed again as Afghanistan bossed their way to second successive win, this time by six wickets, to set up a knockout match against Zimbabwe to determine the Group B qualifier for the World Twenty20 Super 10s.

Hong Kong won the toss and, opting to bat, raced away to 40 without loss before losing the plot as four wickets fell in four overs – mostly to lose shots. Although Mark Chapman could do little about a superb yorker from Gulbadin Naib. Hong Kong needing to post a good score to stay in the tournament just couldn’t find the boundary rope and struggled to reach 116 for 6 – mainly thanks to Anshuman Rath’s unbeaten 31-ball 28. A total that was 40 short of what Tanwir Afzal, the captain, hoped to get.

Hong Kong’s slim chance was to pick-up early wickets, that that didn’t happen and the game was reduced to a cakewalk for Afghanistan who won with two overs to spare.

Hong Kong v Afghanistan: World Twenty20 - 11 March, 2016

Ryan Campbell, who struggled on his Hong Kong debut two nights ago, opened with a ‘high-risk, high returns’ approach and muscled five early boundaries. But Nabi’s slow turn beat him as he attempted a sweep and the ball bounced back onto the stumps. Two balls later Babar Hayat’s disappointing tournament with the bat continued as he was deceived by the flight and chipped a simple catch to cover.

Rashid Khan, the skiddy legspinner made an impact immediately with his mix of googlies and sliders as Hong Kong’s batsmen suddenly started playing for demons that weren’t there. The slow bowlers scythed through the middle order, with the continuous loss of wickets making run-scoring difficult.

Amidst the carnage, Rath nudged his way along playing with soft hands, and using deft touches to push his team to 116 for 6. Nabi was the pick of the bowlers, his 4 for 20 the best figures by an Afghan bowler in T20Is.

Hong Kong v Afghanistan: World Twenty20 - 11 March, 2016 Noor Ali Zadran’s straight boundary off the first ball of Afghanistan’s innings heralded the start of the end. With little swing or nip off the surface, the pacemen resorted to gentle off-cutters. Afzal then turned to spin in the hope of doing to Afghanistan what Nabi and Rashid Khan did to them. But the batsmen’s application thwarted their designs as Afghanistan scored 43 in the first six overs. Overconfidence got the better of Shahzad, who holed out to long-off for a 40-ball 41 to give Campbell his first T20 wicket. Nabi and Noor Ali then milked the bowling before an ungainly slog ended Nabi’s stay. Two balls later, Noor Ali was run-out courtesy Hayat’s flat throw from the deep.

The three wickets in quick time did very little to lift Hong Kong, whose muted celebrations were a giveaway that it wouldn’t really affect the big picture as Afghanistan completed an easy chase and knocked a hugely disappointing Hong Kong out of the World Twenty20 tournament.

Afghanistan 119 for 4 (Shahzad 41, Noor Ali 35) beat Hong Kong 116 for 6 (Rath 28, Campbell 27, Nabi 4-20) by six wickets

Mark Chapman

source: ICC, cricinfo

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 12 March, 2016

womens-rugby-12-march-2016

Hong Kong Stumble Against Zimbabwe

hk v zimbabwe - march 2016

Batting fireworks from Jamie Atkinson and Tanwir Afzal were not enough as Hong Kong lost to Zimbabwe by 14 runs in the opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 2016 in Nagpur on Tuesday.

A late flurry with the bat, including a career-best 44-ball 53 from Atkinson and a brisk, undefeated 31 from skipper Tanwir off 17 balls, was not enough to chase down the target of 159 set by Zimbabwe.

It was the first time the teams have faced each other in a T20I, and Hong Kong’s precise fielding kept the Zimbabwe batsmen on their toes, with Babar Hayat contributing to three brilliant run outs from the boundary. Skipper Tanwir and 21-year-old Aizaz Khan claimed two wickets apiece as Zimbabwe posted 158 runs for the loss of eight wickets.

Hong Kong v Zimbabwe: World Twenty20 - 8 March, 2016

In response, Hong Kong got off to a slow start, but opener Atkinson unleashed to score 27 runs in his last three overs, while Tanwir smashed three fours and a six to race to an unbeaten 31 runs from only 17 deliveries. The batting onslaught proved too little, too late, however, and Zimbabwe recorded the first victory of the tournament by 14 runs.

Captain Tanwir Afzal said that despite the disappointment of losing, he saw many positives in his side’s performance: “Our plan was to bowl first and to restrict them for less than 140, and I think we managed that really well in the middle overs. We were in a position to control them, to restrict them below 145. The last few overs weren’t really good, so I think we had a very good plan that we executed well until the last few overs.”

“Even with their total, we knew we could chase that total and we know our batting ability, we can chase that.”

Tanwir said that the Zimbabwean bowlers effectively kept the Hong Kong run rate down at the beginning of the run chase: “We know that if we can save the wickets in the powerplay, we can accelerate later on. But unfortunately, we were able to save the wickets, but we couldn’t get our target in the powerplay. Credit goes to the Zimbabweans, they bowled really well in the powerplay.

“Of course we are disappointed with the result, and we know that runs really matter in the points table. The next game is really crucial for us. We know that we are still alive in the group, and we will work very hard to produce better results in the next game.”

Reflecting on his all-round performance, Tanwir said: “It’s all about the team and team work. Forget about my performance – if we win, that is a big thing for me.”

Hong Kong will have one rest day before it faces Afghanistan in a night match at the VCA Stadium, Nagpur, on 10 March.

Result: Zimbabwe won by 14 runs
Zimbabwe 158 for 8, 20 overs (Vusi Sibanda 59, Elton Chigumbura 30 not out, Malcolm Waller 26; Tanwir Afzal 2-19, Aizaz Khan 2-33, Nadeem Ahmed 1-26)
Hong Kong 144 for 6, 20 overs (Jaime Atkinson 53, Tanwir Afzal 31 not out, Mark Chapman 19; Donald Tiripano 2-27, Tendai Chatara 2-28)

Man of the Match: Vusi Sibanda

WNL1 B Semi-final Match Report: HKCC 48-7 Tai Po Dragons – 5 March, 2016

hkcc feb 2016

HKCC went into the knock-out stages of the season still on a high from the previous weekend’s sealing of the WNL1 B league title. Alex Tarleton reports as HKCC played the Tai Po Dragons hoping to reach a Grand Championships final for the first time since its reincarnation.

The opening minutes saw scrappy play mainly in the Tai Po half as the Dragons worked hard to keep HKCC at bay. A defensive scrum was excellently stolen by HKCC to put the ladies in white on the front foot. HKCC made their way into the Tai Po 22 through some good work by the forwards and then two passes down the line unleashed Tissia Polycarpe for her first of the day in the corner, 5-0.

5 minutes later Tissia added her second in almost identical fashion after some good forward play scoring in the opposite corner, with Harriet Jamieson adding the extras to make the score 12-0.

The HKCC forwards continued to dominate play and turned a Tai Po scrum. From the resulting put-in, simple hands down the line to the wing saw the flying Russian Yana Dimitrova score in the corner as HKCC’s lead increased to 17-0.

HKCC continued to put pressure on the Dragons as Tai Po were boxed in their 22 for the majority of the first half. Another scrum 5 metres out and saw the forwards use their dominance to drive towards the line. No.8 Lynda Nazer showed some great footwork before picking up to push over the line to make the score 22-0.

Approaching half time, Tai Po had a spell of pressure pushing HKCC back into their own half. The Cricket Club defence contained the Tai Po attack and earned a scrum. Some great interchanging passes between Ashley Brooks and Tissia Polycarpe brought the play back into the Tai Po half with Tissia sprinting home to complete a first-half hat-trick. Jamieson made the conversion for a half-time score of 29-0.

The second half started with HKCC not taking their foot off the peddle as Ashley Brooks took a quick penalty on the half way line and jinked in and around the defence to score under the posts with Harriet again converting and taking the lead to 36-0.

Tai Po refused to give in and continued to press the HKCC defence, Centre Tissia however stole the ball in the HKCC 22 and danced through the Tai Po defence to score her 4th try with an emphatic run from her own half, 41-0.

In the closing 10 minutes HKCC continued to bombard the Tai Po try-line and a final score arrived as Lynda Nazer scored her second when she again picked up from the base of the scrum and powered over the line. Harriet added the conversion to put HKCC 48-0.

In the closing minutes the proud Tai Po Dragons team continued to play with great heart and passion and their effort was rewarded on the last play of the game. The ball was shifted wide to the wing who, still with a lot of work to do, used her speed to sprint passed the HKCC defenders and score under the posts and with the conversion added, the final score read 48-7.

HKCC play HK Scottish in the WNL1 B Final, 4:30pm, 12 March at KGV.

Player of the Match: Tissia Polycarpe

HKCC:
Carolyn Champion, Wawa Li, Nobuko Oda, Lauren Petersen, Lainie Man, Isabella Rivers, Cheryl Gourley, Lynda Nazer, Emma Chung, Harriet Jameison, Diani Li, Tinley Wong, Tissia Polycarpe, Yana Dimitrova, Angie Ng, Ashley Brooks, Katie Rowbottom, Mhairi McLaughlin, Stephanie Zhang, Kassie Chapel,Serene Yee, Julia Mason, Jo Harvey

Undefeated Valley Black Thrash HKFC Ice, While Gai Wu Beat USRC Tigers

valley black march 2016

Undefeated league champions Valley Black Ladies proved too strong for HKFC Ice, easily advancing to the Grand Championship final. HKFC Ice bowed out after a strong debut in the Premiership. Coach David Wigley commented on their season saying: “Valley are a level above everyone, but we’re really pleased with our first season in the Premiership.

“We had quite a few injuries early on, but we’ve come on and got stronger. This is a tight-knit group that play for each other. We came in fourth this season and we would have been happy to finish 5th or 6th at the beginning of the year, but now we feel like we can contend against the likes of Tigers and Gai Wu. We’re still at a learning and building stage, but we’re very happy with our performance.”

In the other semi-final, Gai Wu Falcons came up with an emphatic 24-5 win over USRC Tigers to set up a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship final with Valley. Speedster Aggie Poon Pak Yan collected a brace for the Falcons, with Hong Kong fifteens captain and No.8 Chow Mei Nam, and up and coming sevens star Chong Ka Yan, adding tries in the statement win over Tigers. Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang was proud of the performance saying:

“We went out and executed our game plan, particularly with our defence and our play at the breakdown. It was a really tough game and the team deserves a lot of credit. It was a big win for us and will give us a some momentum. It was also good to get a bit of revenge after Tigers edged us out of second place in the league.”

It will be a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship when Valley beat Falcons 20-10. “It is going to be tough against Valley, said Pang, “They have a lot more size then we do so we’re going to need to be clinical in our defence and tackling. But we have built some strong momentum today. The win over Tigers was really good for our confidence and we deserve our place in the final,” Pang added.

photo: Valley RFC
source: HKRU