bc magazine

McLaren 625C Global Launch @ Seasons – 26 September, 2014

McLaren staged the global launch of their latest sports car the 625C in Hong Kong amidst a plethora of celebrities, customers and media.

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Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

The 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean race starts on 11 October from Spain and 7 teams will race 38,789 miles around the globe over 9 months. Over the 40 year history of the race, it’s seen amazing feats of sailing and the current race is sure to be no exception. what unique about the 2014 is the new one-design boat, and the amazing access we the public will have to see what’s going on on-board at anytime during the race. As each boat has 5 fixed cameras and an on-board reporter offering live video feeds and images 24-7.

The race is broken into legs and in the 2014-15 race there will be nine of them, with the boats crossing four oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans) and visiting 11 countries in five continents: Spain, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, New Zealand, Brazil, United States, Portugal, France, The Netherlands and Sweden. The China stop is at Sanya and is scheduled for 23-31 January, 2015.

Among the seven teams is an female team and the first ‘Chinese’ entry in the race’s history. The Dongfeng Race Team is a team with little experience that as well as looking to win hopes to raise the profile of sailing and off-shore racing on the mainland. You can follow the team here www.dongfengraceteam.cn

The main website for the race is www.volvooceanrace.com where the plethora of information and images can be accessed.

An Autumn Night’s Fair @ Tin Shui Wai – 5-9pm, 27 September 2014

Savour an autumn night differently as over 100 artists, vendors, urban farmers collaborate to make a difference by encouraging support and awareness for local businesses and initiatives. There’s also lots of food including a community kitchen featuring the tastes of Tin Shui Wai.

An Autumn Night’s Fair
When: 5-9pm, 27 September 2014
Where: 18 Tin Sau Road, Tin Shui Wai
Change for Light Rail 705 or 706 at Tin Shui Wai MTR Station. Get off at Tin Sau Stop or Tin Yat Stop.
How much: Free
More info: www.mad.asia/posts/665/Others/An-Autumn-Night%27s-Fair

Pre-season: HKCC 0-29 Kowloon @ Shek Kip Mei – 20 September, 2014

The midday sun was the greatest opposition for both teams at Shek Kip Mei on Saturday as Leighton Asia HKCC Ladies faced off against Abacus Kowloon Ladies in the second of three pre-season warm ups before the Women’s 15 Divisions start. ‘Warm’ doesn’t come close to describing the intensity though, in a blisteringly hot encounter during which Kowloon’s more experienced line up (mostly drawn from the league above HKCC), superior attacking skills, and seemingly relentless supply of fresh legs proved too much for the HKCC Babes, resulting in a 29-0 scoreline.

Dig a little deeper though, and the Babes emerge with credit. Three of Kowloon’s tries were scored in an aggressive and dominant first half display which led to uncontested scrums. HKCC’s backline had limited opportunities to show what they could do, and couldn’t take those that did materialise, with some basic decision making errors. In the second half though, and despite the energy-sapping heat, the Babes forced a number of errors and created turnover ball on numerous occasions, coming agonisingly close only for Captain Anna Holmes to be judged held up over the try line. Consistently excellent rucking around the park from Carolyn Champion and the irrepressible Emily Tuck provided a platform for forward momentum which finally swung the game HKCC’s way in the final quarter, but the damage was already done and Kowloon put on the afterburners with a last break to cap a well-deserved victory.

With five debuting players, including Jo Harvey making her first ever 15s appearance (just three months after picking up a ball for the first time) and a new-look backline with Julia Mason and Harriet Jamieson freshly arrived at 10 and 12, HKCC can walk away from the game with lots learned, lots to work on, and welcome reinforcements back from holidays. Stand in Coach Jeremy Nesbitt commented, “despite us having 17 players facing a squad of 30 we forced them to work really hard for their tries. The fact that every player who came off injured put their hand back up to get out there and give it a go again was great to see“. Special credit for this also goes to the great Paul Nazer, patch-up artiste extraordinaire.

If this game is any indication for the rest of the season, it’s going to be a scorcher, so come along next Saturday, 27^th September, for a 6PM kick off against Valley 2s at Happy Valley pitch 8.

SCAA Causeway Bay RFC

SCAA Standard Life CWB Phoenix is one of the oldest women teams locally and joined the HKRFU rugby league in 1997. In previous seasons, SCAA CWB Pheonix fielded one 10’s women team and one 15’s women team. In the 2014-15 season as part of the long-term development of the club and with a growth in members, we will have two 15’s women teams as we work to achieve our team goal of winning the league title.

Throughout training, we aim at developing players’ skills and attitudes towards playing rugby. However, we also focus on the team as a whole on team spirit and team structure. Besides our games on the field, we also have a lot of social events and gatherings to build up friendship among each team members.
We welcome anyone who is interested to play rugby and feel free to join us. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

Website: www.scaacwbrugby.com or www.facebook.com/CausewayBayRFC
Training: 7:30-9:00pm Tuesday & Thursday @ So Kon Po Sports Ground
Coach: Zanio Yong “Yong Jai” and Gary Chow
Captain: Kim Lau Sin Tung

Money for Nothing – Coin Collection Programme

In recent years many local banks have made coins ‘money non-grata’ and actively discouraged us, their customers, from depositing them by charging for accepting coin deposits. To the extent that 10cent, 20cent and even 50cent coins are often refused in many shops and in others you can almost see the sales clerks nose turn-up in disgust when your payment includes a few bronze coins.

Amazingly, a government body has come up with something practical and useful to Hong Kong residents that doesn’t cost multiple billions of dollars and line the pockets of the uber rich while causing mass disruption to the rest of the population.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) confirmed that it’s Coin Collection Programme will launch next month. Starting from the 6 October, their will be two “Coin Carts” visiting the SAR’s districts on a rotating basis to collect coins from members of public and turn them into notes or added value to your octopus card.

Each Coin Cart will normally operate at a location for seven days, Monday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Each vehicle is equipped with two coin counting machines and two staff will be present to provide assistance if needed. The programme will run for two years and the schedule from October 2014 to February 2015 is here.

It’s not made clear if you have to sort your coins first, and you are limited to 10kg of coins per transaction… All the ins and outs are here, but if you still have questions contact the HKMA [email protected].

At the launching ceremony, Mr Norman Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA said, “The coin collection programme provides a channel for the public to get value for their coins in addition to the existing banking system. The coins collected will be re-circulated to meet public demand, making circulation more efficient and reducing the need for minting new coins.”

A simple, practical scheme that helps all of us – and no it’s not April first – whatever next.

Valley RFC Ladies Rugby

Established in the early 1990’s, Societe Generale Valley Ladies Rugby team has grown to be one of the most successful women’s rugby club teams in Hong Kong. From our humble beginnings, the team has made incredible progress in terms of on-field rugby achievements and introducing new players into the game of rugby. In our short history, we have gone from having a few ladies playing the odd game of touch rugby to being able to field two 15’s women’s teams into two separate divisions – Valley Black ladies and Valley Red ladies. We have been league winners and grand championship winners in previous years and continue to strive adding to our trophy cabinet.

Valley Black ladies are a team made up of girls with international playing experience as well as those who are experienced with the game. This team plays in the HKRFU Women’s 15’s division 1 league. Valley Red ladies are a team made of up of both experienced and development players as well as those who are new to the game. This team plays in the HKRFU Women’s 15’s division 2 league. We also have several minis and colts teams with young girls playing in the different age group teams. These girls eventually feed into our women’s team through a clear pathway of rugby development.

Not only do we play rugby, but we have a great social scene too with lots of regular off the field events throughout the year, including our street party, annual rugby tours to Macau and another Asian destinations (previous years including Shanghai, Philippines and Singapore).

Whether you are fast or slow, big or small, new or experienced, social or serious, there is a place for you at Valley RFC. We train at Happy Valley rugby pitch every Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30pm – 9:00pm. Games are played on Saturday afternoons. If you are interested in coming down for a run around or to see what rugby is like contact [email protected]

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.valleyrfc.com or www.facebook.com/groups/129965760495825/
Training: Happy Valley rugby pitch every Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 – 9pm
Coach: Chris Garvey and Jo Wilkonson
Captain: Amelie Seure and Aggie Akanisi Vira

HKCC Babes Singapore 2014 Tour Report

As preparation for their debut in the XV’s league, a 16 strong HKCC Babes touring party including coaches Darren Cartlidge and Jeremy Nesbitt visited Singapore on Tour from 5-7 September, 2014. Here’s Joan Yip’s tour report:

The first HKCC Babes XVs tour was amazing for the team as we continue our preparations to debut in the XVs league this season. The “Babes” impressed both our coaches and opposition in a hard fought match that saw us go down narrowly 22 (4 tries) – 19 (3 tries) to the Singaporean side Bucks RFC – whose team was dotted with former internationals from New Zealand and present internationals from Singapore.

It was an excellent display of core skills, teamwork and sportsmanship as well as individual excellence with players developing from strength to strength. Throughout the game we defended effectively and the Bucks ladies had to work hard to earn their tries. When we had possession, we effectively gained yards and displayed some great ball retention and protection skills while working through phase after phase in the forwards.

A handful of players from two other local clubs, Blacks RFC and Bedok Kings RFC, assisted with making up numbers which saw a great exchange of technique and skills amongst the players playing alongside each other for the first time.

The HKCC Babes have once again proved we can lift our game to the next level as a XV-aside team through bonding on and off field throughout the tour. There is no doubt we will be ready to take on the existing XVs teams by storm in the domestic ladies league beginning this October.

A huge thank you to the Bucks RFC Ladies for graciously hosting us as well as to everyone who supported our preparations for the tour. HK-CC!”