Over 1300 wine producers and distributors from across the globe are exhibiting and showcasing their wines at this year’s Vinexpo. There’s something for everyone to enjoy and taste from the casual wine drinker to the connoisseur. As well as two floors of wine to explore, there’s seminars and curated tastings to enjoy.
Vinexpo
Date: 9:30am-6:30pm, 24-26 May 2016
Venue: HKCEC
Tickets: $600 (free with invitation)
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An appreciative and noisy crowd enjoyed some fine goals at the Soccer Sevens held at the HK Football Club.
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Women’s Premier League – 15 May, 2016
The first of three Women’s Premier League 40-over fixtures was played at the Mission Road ground on Sunday, 15th May 2016. Teams were boosted by the addition of star players Sarah Coyte and Kristen Beams from Australia and Shizuka Miyaji and Mai Yanagida from Japan. Both teams also featured an under-13 player with Aarush Bhagwat playing for Sail and Sachit Anand playing for Bauhinia.
Conditions were sunny and hot as HKCA Sail (wearing blue) won the toss and elected to bat first. They got away to a good start with Kary Chan and Chan Sau Ha putting on 43 for the first wicket before Kary was bowled by Marina Lamplough for 12. Chan Sau Ha fell shortly afterwards for 25 – the first of seven run-outs in the match – and when Shanzeen Shahzad was trapped LBW for 1 by Shizuka Miyaji, Sail had slipped to 3/58.
Emma Lai and Sarah Coyte then combined in a 76-run partnership for the fourth wicket that laid the foundation for a big Sail total. Lai was eventually bowled by Kristen Beams for 24 and Coyte was stumped off the bowling of Alvina Tam for 54. Aarush Bhagwat hit 29 and Mai Yanagida scored 11 in the late charge for runs as Sail finished on 8/191 from their 40 overs.
For the Bauhinia team, Kristen Beams was the pick of the bowlers with 2/29 from her eight overs while Marina Lamplough, Shizuka Miyaji, Alvina Tam and Keenu Gill claimed one wicket each.
The Bauhinia innings followed a very similar pattern to that of Sail’s. An enterprising opening stand of 46 between Shizuka Miyaji (12) and Keenu Gill (28) was followed by three quick wickets that saw Bauhinia slip to 3/59. Jasmine Titmuss claimed both openers, with Mehreen Yousaf taking a brilliant catch to dismiss Keenu Gill, while Pull To was the third to fall after being sent back by her partner and run-out for 5. Another run-out saw the demise of Bauhinia’s skipper Mariko Hill (5) thanks to an excellent piece of fielding by Chan Sau Ha, to leave the Bauhinia innings teetering at 4/76.
A 62-run fifth wicket partnership between Sachit Anand and Kristen Beams got the Bauhinia innings back on track. Sachit batted very well to reach 41 but he fell to an excellent caught and bowled by Amanda Kwok. Marina Lamplough the fell for 5 off the bowling Coyte but Bauhinia still looked well on target to overhaul the Sail total at 6/160. But when Bauhinia’s momentum stalled, their batting and running between the wickets got more desperate as the overs ebbed away. Beams was bowled for 47 by Mehreen Yousaf after which Jenefer Davies, Annie Ho and Lemon Cheung were all run-out chasing non-existent singles.
Jasmine Titmuss was the pick of the bowlers for Sail, claiming 2/27 from her eight overs with two maidens while Mehreen Yousaf, Sarah Coyte and Amanda Kwok were the other wicket-takers for Sail.
Sail’s victory by six runs was their first in the series after Bauhinia had won the first two T20 matches in the series.
Despite being on the losing side, Sarah Coyte earned the Player of the Match award for her 54 runs and 1/28.
Score Summary: HKCA Sail 9/181 from 40 overs beat HKCA Bauhinia 185 from 39.1 overs by 6 runs
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Sidewalk Cafe opened it’s third outlet in Tin Shui Wai last month and if you’re in the area and looking for western cuisine it’s a solid place to go. With so many new restaurants opening each month finding something unique to catch diners attention is increasingly hard. Chef Hans option… a 1 metre pizza. No that’s not a mis-print Sidewalk Cafe’s signature pizza is 100cm long and a healthy 30cm wide with three different toppings ($268). A real table filler and tasty too – it also easily passes the how does it taste cold the next day test. Sadly for take away orders it’s sliced into three sections for ease of transport. There’s also a range of traditional 9 and 11 inch circular pizzas.
The rest of the menu offers a wide range of dishes from soups and salads, to pastas, risotto, steak and suckling pig. Portions sizes are good, with dishes well presented. bc tried the Baked Potato Wedges with meat and cheese ($42) a good filling starter with the potato nicely cooked and soft inside. The Baked Lasagna ($88) was enjoyable, cooked al dente and served with tomato sauce on the side. Personally I’d have preferred a few more herbs and spices in both parts of the dish but that’s my western tastes buds talking. The Pan Seared Barramundi Fillet with Spinach and Clams ($118) featured a generous portion of fish and half a dozen clams served in a white sauce on a bed of spinach. The fish was nicely cooked but the white sauce a little simple and thin.
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Sidewalk’s signature dessert is the Golden Snow Mountain ($68) a towering, it’s much taller than a can of soft drink, mass of toast, cream, ice-cream and fruit. It’s fun and designed to share. One word of caution, as with many restaurants in Hong Kong, some of the desserts and specialty drinks include that overly sweet artificial cream that you either love or hate. If you don’t like it (like me) then thankfully there are more than enough options to choose which don’t include it.
There’s a wide range of set lunches, teas and dinners which incorporate dishes from the main menu plus a soup/salad and a drink. If you want to share dishes you can as the portions are big enough. At Sidewalk Cafe you can have a good filling meal in a comfortable relaxed environment for $100-$150/person and up. A 1 metre pizza, love it!
Sidewalk Cafe
L128 Tin Shing Shopping Centre, 3 Tin Shing Street, Tin Shui Wai
Tel: 2682 8260. 7:30am-11pm daily
Other outlets:
Shop P8, Podium Floor, Telford Plaza 1, Kowloon Bay.
Tel: 2756 2218. 7:30am-11pm daily
Shop 503, 5/F The Spot, Sheung Shui.
Tel: 2868 2733. 8am-10:30pm
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New Makati’s 27th Anniversary, it’s actually not quite that many but fung shui and the beliefs of the owners means that several ‘inauspicious’ anniversaries are skipped. But who cares, they’ve been around for a long time and it’s time to celebrate.
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Hong Kong scored seven tries in a 40-7 away win over Singapore at the National Stadium in a warm-up match for the final leg of the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship series with Japan on 28 May.
It was a match Hong Kong should have won comfortably and did, but the scoreboard hides another error strewn performance, riddled with handling errors and turnovers. Coach Jo Hull is effusive in her praise of the team, but must know that a better team than Singapore would have punished the away side’s generosity. The Hong Kong squad know they have a lot of work to do if they’re to ‘live up to’ their potential and pose Japan any sort of challenge in the away leg of the Asian Women’s Championship.
A hot start saw Hong Kong score in the opening minute through sevens captain Natasha Olson-Thorne, playing at outside centre. The visitors’ second try came through prop Tammy Lau Nga Wun in the ninth minute. Aggie Poon Pak Yan converted Olson-Thorne’s tally but missed on Lau’s, before adding a penalty in the 14th minute.
One of Asia’s premier finishers, Poon scored Hong Kong’s next ten points with a try in the 26th minute and a second ten minutes later for a first-half brace, giving Hong Kong a commanding 25-7 lead at the break. Poon finished with 15 points from the outing from two tries, a penalty and a conversion.
In the second half, Hong Kong exploded out of the blocks once again with a try in the 43rd minute as Lau, the HKRU Women’s Premiership player of the season, collected her brace.
Captain Chow Mei Nam added to the forwards’ contribution with her first try for Hong Kong in the 60th minute. Candy Cheng scoring Hong Kong’s seventh try of the match twelve minutes later to give Hong Kong the 40-7 win.
Hong Kong coach Jo Hull credited her forwards for a “dominant” display against an imposing Singapore pack as a key part of the victory. “Our set piece performed very well and we were able to set up a dominant platform at the scrum and line-out which led to the pack tries,” said Hull.
She also credited Lai Pou Fan, who came in at fly-half this week. “She really controlled the game and the combination with Colleen Tjosvold at scrumhalf worked really well,” said Hull, adding that, “We used our full bench today to have a look at some new combinations and the girls are creating some real selection dilemmas now. There is a lot of positive competition, not just to stay in the match-day 23 but to crack the starting XV which shows the growing confidence in the side.”
After calling for action and not words, particularly from the senior players in the squad, after last week’s 39-3 loss to Japan, Hull was pleased with the performance and her first win with Hong Kong.
“We played with a lot of confidence today, which was great to see. We generated a lot more go-forward ball and were much more accurate under pressure then last week,” Hull said. “We can take a lot of confidence and some good lessons away from this match, particularly about what kind of shape we want to be in in our attack, but we’re under no illusions about what this result means for Japan.”
“We didn’t talk about the result after the game, we were purely focused on our own performance goals which is another positive indicator of what we are building. It was my first win with the team in four outings so far, so I’m obviously happy to get that under my belt, But the win is more important as a building block now and I’m just really pleased with the way the team responded after last week.”
I have to admit before the concert, I wasn’t that familiar with Olivia Newton-John. Sure, Iike everyone I’ve heard of Grease and have listened to some of the songs from the musical which she starred in. However, unlike many of the audience I was not a fan. Olivia Newton-John is just not famous or well known among teenagers today, but music doesn’t have an expiry date and I was curious to hear these famous songs live.
The almost capacity crowd at the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre were treated to a virtuoso performance with ONJ performing a selection of her hits including Xanadu, Physical and Hopelessly Devoted to You mixed in with some iconic covers. Perhaps most surprising was her energy and bright personality unlike many modern artists she turned up on time, appeared to enjoy performing and even cracked some jokes between songs. She belted out her songs with a passion. The audience enthusiastically and happily, if often tunelessly, singing along with her. The vibrant atmosphere was infectious and all too soon goodbyes and thank you’s were being said… After two hours, a standing ovation and cheers of of ‘Encore!’ saw Olivia return to perform one final song Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
A thoroughly enjoyable night out which gave me a new appreciation for songs that “are not my generation”. Live music can do that in a way that sometimes an album heard on headphones can’t. But until next time I need to update my itunes library.
Empty cliches abound as Hong Kong women’s coach Jo Hull names an almost unchanged squad for the one-off test against Singapore. Hong Kong, dire against Japan last week, should win comfortably but really need a ‘performance’ to show that the talented squad is improving not falling away as the quality of women’s rugby across the globe increases in leaps and bounds. The match will kick off at 17.30 and serves as the opener for the final Sunwolves’ Super Rugby match of the season in Singapore when they take on the Stormers.
Singapore are a relative unknown for Hull, who is in her first Asian Championship season as coach, but she expects a good challenge:“We don’t know too much about Singapore but we expect their forwards will be dominant and know that they have a good number of their sevens team in the squad. They will be massively up for this match being played in the new Stadium as well, but our focus continues to be on our own processes and correcting some of the faults we identified against Japan.”
“We know we have a job to do after last weekend. Our focus has been on defence and our set piece, as well as improving our accuracy in attack. We had a lot of opportunities against Japan but our accuracy wasn’t where we needed it to be. Singapore will provide another opportunity for us to refine that ability to play under pressure,” Hull added.
Hull has made three changes to the side that lost to Japan last week 39-3. The experienced Lai Pou Fan comes in to the squad for the first time this season at fly-half with Rose Fong Siu Lan moving to centre.
Lindsay Varty and Lau Sze Wa come on to the reserves bench, replacing Lee Tsz Ting and Nam Ka Man. Lee started at 12 against Japan with Fong taking her place against Singapore, while Nam Ka Man came off of the bench in the opening round of the women’s championship.
“We want to use this game to trial some new combinations,” noted Hull. “Lai brings a lot of experience and is a quality player, especially in attack. Rose is a natural 10 or 12 so there is no problem with her moving along the line. The addition of Dailo [Lai] should also help us improve our accuracy in the backline, which was an issue against Japan.
“Lindsay also adds another layer of experience and is very versatile and can play at scrumhalf or on the wing. She’s strong defensively, which is something we have bee focusing on this week. Sze Wa is a real attacking threat and I’m excited to see her play,” Hull said.
The tie with Singapore is a “massive” opportunity for Hong Kong’s according to Hull. “This game is massive for us in preparing for the away leg in Japan. Last week was our first match in five months so some of the issues were understandable, but I want action and not words and I am expecting our senior players to step-up tomorrow against Singapore,” Hull added.
“I was really impressed by the attitude in the squad this week. The girls were bitterly disappointed with the result against Japan but they aren’t feeling sorry for themselves and I’m pleased with the way they came into training this week.
“But now it’s time for some application. The girls are determined to address the issues from last week, but at some point we need to produce the results, and that starts tomorrow,” said Hull.
Hong Kong Women’s XV v Singapore (14 May):
1. Lau Nga Wun; 2. Winnie Siu Wing Ni; 3. Cheung Shuk Han; 4. Claire Forster; 5. Chow Mei Nam (captain); 6. Christine Gordon; 7. Melody Li Nim Yan; 8. Amelie Seure; 9. Colleen Tjosvold; 10. Lai Pou Fan; 11. Chong Ka Yan; 12. Rose Fong Siu Lan; 13. Natasha Olson-Thorne; 14. Aggie Poon Pak Yan; 15. Adrienne Garvey; 16. Karen So Hoi Ting; 17. Ku Hoi Ying; 18. Angela Chan Ka Yan; 19 Cheng Ching To; 20. Tsang Sharon Shin Yuen; 21. Lindsay Varty; 22. Cheng Tsz Ting; 23. Lau Sze Wa.
Additional reporting & image: HKrugby
