Author: simon

Women’s Rugby Results – 27 January, 2018

Premiership

CWB Phoenix 13-3 City Sparkle
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 16:00

Gai Wu Falcons 79-0 HKFC Ice
@ KG V, Kick-off: 16:30

Tai Po Dragons 20-0 Kowloon
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 17:30

USRC Tigers 20-38 Valley Black
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

National League 1

Valley Red 5-34 Gai Wu Fawkes
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 13:30

USRC Tigers v HKCC
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00

HK Scottish Kukris 5-7 Revolution SRC
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:0

 

National League 2

CWB Lammergeier v Kowloon
@ HKIED, Kick-off: 14:30

University 5-46 Gai Wu Hawks
@ Tai Hang Tung, Kick-off: 16:30

Tin Shui Wai v HKFC Fire
@ KG V, Kick-off: 18:00

Police Sirens 30-0 City Twinkles 
@ Police Boundary Street, Kick-off: 18:00

Images: bc magazine, Takumi Photography

Roller Derby @ Victoria Park – 27 January, 2018

The ladies of the Hong Kong Roller Derby took on the Pan-Asian Spring Rollers at the Victoria Park Roller Rink. bc was there to capture the action even if, in truth, we didn’t quite understand all the rules.

A good time was had by all as the Pan-Asian Spring Rollers with a late surge snatched victory. Despite the heavy padding there’ll be some sore bodies today as the action is fast and furious.

If you’re interested to participate, then check out www.hongkongrollerderby.com. Click on any photo for the full gallery of images.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Roller-Derby-Victoria-Park-27-January-2017/i-KmT7DzF

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MAPFRE wins the Around Hong Kong Island Race

It was a challenging, if grey day for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet as they tackled the Around Hong Kong Island Race with a reasonable sized spectator fleet on hand to cheer them on.

The light and variable wind shortly after the start allowed the leading boats to break away as they found the new wind pressure first. But it didn’t mean opportunities for passing later in the afternoon were completely closed off.

Three teams broke the line early and needed to restart, with Team Brunel, Turn the Tide on Plastic and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag all turning back leaving MAPFRE with the best start in the fleet and they eked out a lead in light breeze.

It put them at an immediate disadvantage, but while Brunel had the best re-start, it was Turn the Tide on Plastic who moved up the fleet to challenge the leading pack over the next 20 minutes.

However as the race progressed, MAPFRE and Dongfeng Race Team found the new favourable wind first and built a commanding lead over the others.

“With these inshore races you never know, because just as you can have the advantage one moment, the next you can lose it,” said MAPFRE navigator Juan Vila. “Fortunately today it was more of a race in which the one in front always seemed to have better pressure. The transitions have also gone a little better for us and of course, the start and the moments afterward were key.”

“It was very tricky conditions today but we had a lot of good advice from local sailors and it helped us a lot,” said Dongfeng Race Team skipper Charles Caudrelier. “So I think we prepared it very well and the result is there, so that’s good.”

Behind the leading pair, it was team AkzoNobel and Turn the Tide on Plastic  battling for third place early. But a the teams rounded the southern shore of the island, Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag and Team Brunel slipped through in the middle of the channel with better wind.

Local favourite Scallywag went from being last across the starting line to a third place finish with Team Brunel just a couple hundred metres back to take a popular podium result.

That left AkzoNobel, who won Saturday’s HGC In-Port Race Hong Kong to take fifth place in front of Turn the Tide on Plastic, who had a frustrating weekend trailing the fleet in both races.

Sunday’s results mean Dongfeng Race Team has the best overall score on the weekend after two second place finishes. The team will claim a full 7 points from the Hong Kong series which pulls it into a tie on the overall In-Port Race Series Leaderboard with MAPFRE, both sitting on 25 points. Dongfeng Race Team is ranked first based on winning the most recent series in Hong Kong.

“It is a very good result for us,” Caudrelier continued. “We are in the same position as the MAPFRE crew which is full of inshore specialists, so I think we can be proud of the team’s performance.”

Volvo Ocean Race In-Port Race Series Leaderboard

Dongfeng Race Team – 25 points
MAPFRE – 25 points
Team Brunel – 17 points
team AkzoNobel – 16 points
Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 12 points
Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag – 9 points
Turn the Tide on Plastic – 7 points

Additional reporting and images: Volvo Ocean Race, Ainhoa Sanchez

Gai Wu Falcons Win Women’s Premiership 2017-18

Congratulations to Gai Wu Falcons, winners of the Women’s Premiership 2017-18!

photo: Takumi Photography

AkzoNobel Win Hong Kong In-Port Race

Team AkzoNobel took the win in the Hong Kong In-Port Race on a dull grey afternoon on the waters of Victoria Harbour.

It was a typical harbour race. The wind was a 6 to 10 knot Easterly, quite shifty and puffy, and with a strong tide running crews needed to keep concentration levels high.

For spectators while the grey backdrop was dull, the puffy nature of the breeze allowed all those watching to fully appreciate what a beautiful boat the Volvo 65 is. Graceful on the water, picks up speed on the slightest puff and nimble on the tack. A much stronger breeze and the fleet would have had to be more circumspect on their tacks and crossings, as it was boats were tight to the transom – just as you would race in a dinghy.

“We had a fantastic race, pretty exciting. We planned to sail our own race today. It was tricky enough with the tide and the windshifts,” said team AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont. “The team sailed an unbelievable race and the guys in the back of the boat played the tactics very well… It’s good when things come together. It’s a nice reward for all the effort the team has put in.”

Dongfeng Race Team finished in second place, with Team Brunel third. The two swapped places on the third lap of the course after a solid upwind leg by Brunel gave them the lead, but the Dongfeng crew fought back on the run to secure second place.

A fourth place finish on Saturday by the series leader MAPFRE means Dongfeng vaults to the top of the table. But it’s a tight leaderboard and it could compress further following Sunday’s Around Hong Kong Island Race, when results of the weekend of racing will be combined to assign the points from this stopover.

Hong Kong’s hometown heroes Scallywag had a fantastic start, but fell back and battled to a fifth place finish over Turn the Tide on Plastic on Saturday. Both teams will be determined to move up with a better result on Sunday.

Watch a full reply of the Hong Kong In-Port race here

The Around Hong Kong Island Race is scheduled to start at 11:30am on 28 January. There will be live coverage of the start and finish of Sunday’s race on www.volvooceanrace.com

Volvo Ocean Race In-Port Race Leaderboard

Dongfeng Race Team – 24 points
MAPFRE – 23 points
team AkzoNobel – 18 points
Team Brunel – 18 points
Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 12 points
Scallywag – 9 points
Turn the Tide on Plastic – 7 points

Additional reporting and images: Volvo Ocean Race, Ainhoa Sanchez, Pedro Martinez

T20 Blitz Squads Announced

A record 27 overseas players will compete with the best of Hong Kong’s domestic talent as the final squads were confirmed ahead of the 2018 Hong Kong T20 Blitz on 6-11 February.

Ten overseas players return for a second time, including headline stars Kumar Sangakkara (Galaxy Gladiators), Daren Sammy (Jaguars) and Dwayne Smith (Cantons).

“I loved the previous season of the Blitz, and cannot wait to represent Gladiators for the second time running. I’m super excited to get back with the team,” said Sangakkara.  “I loved the Hong Kong experience and vibe and to come again and play with the home-grown talent in front of such enthusiastic supporters is something I am looking forward to.”

Defending champions Kowloon Cantons have gone to pace in their bid for a three-peat with Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz set to play in the Blitz for the first time. They won’t be the only side with pace to burn, with Hong Kong Island United securing 216cm quick Mohammad Irfan. Meanwhile the Galaxy will have young gun Jofra Archer in their armoury, who has been bowling in excess of 150km/h in the Big Bash League.

City Kaitak boast a wealth of international experience with West Indies’ Rayad Emrit returning to the franchise and supported by Sohail Tavir, Ravi Bopara, Samuel Badree and Kyle Coetzer, who was the second leading run-scorer in the tournament last year.

“The depth of talent in this year’s overseas draft is incredible,” Tournament Director Matt Stiller said. “The franchise owners have done fantastically well to assemble these squads, which are sure to provide a great spectacle for cricket fans in Hong Kong.”

To encourage the continued development of emerging cricket nations and Chinese cricket, each squad is required to field one overseas Associate player and one Cricket Hong Kong Dragons player.

The franchises have embraced this vision wholeheartedly according to Stiller. “It’s great to see franchises promoting the Associate member nations, not only by raising the profile of the tournament in Hong Kong, but by including players like Paul Van Meekeren and Scotland captain Coetzer, who will make up integral parts of the playing XI’s. We’re expecting a great show with sold out crowds on the weekend,” he said.

Over 120 sixes were hit over five days of the tournament last year and that number is expected to increase with some power hitters signed on.

HKI United’s Kamran Akmal is one of the most notable with 145 sixes in his T20 career alone, while Galaxy’s Cameron Delport smashed 109 off 59 balls for Leicestershire in England’s T20 Blast last season.

And not to be forgotten is the hitting power of the locals, with Hong Kong captain Babar Hayat, the leading run scorer in Nepal’s Everest T20 League, and Nizakat Khan looking to repeat the his whirlwind century against City Kaitak in last year’s Blitz.

City Kaitak 

Overseas: Samuel Badree (WI), Rayad Emrit (WI), Sohail Tanvir (Pak), Ravi Bopara (Eng), Kyle Coetzer (Sco)
Domestic Players:  Anshuman Rath, Aizaz Khan (c), Waqas Barkat, Jamie Atkinson, Manjinder Singh, Ishtiaq Muhammad, Umar Mohammad, Raag Kapur, Mudassar Hussain, Siegfried Wai, Kalhan Marc Challu

Galaxy Gladiators Lantau

Overseas Players: Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Seekkuge Prasanna (SL), James Franklin (NZ), Cameron Delport (RSA), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Chetan Suryawanshi (SGP)
Domestic Players: Karandeep Singh, Haroon Arshad, Imran Arif, Shahid Wasif, Amandeep Singh, Li Kai-ming, Moner Dar, Muhammad Balal, Mohammed Osama, Awais Mohammad

Hong Kong Island United 

Overseas players: Kamran Akmal (Pak), Mohammad Irfan (Pak), David Wiese (RSA), Luke Ronchi (NZ),  Hussain Talat (Pak), Ryan Ten Doeschate (NED)
Domestic Players: Tanwir Afzaal, Ehsan Khan, Yasim Murtaza, Zeeshan Ali, Daniyal Bukhari, Ahsan Abbsai, Suhaib Ahmad, Jason Lui, Chris Carter, Hamed Khan

Hung Hom JD Jaguars

Overseas players: Darren Sammy (WI), Ben Laughlin (Aus), Riki Wessels (Eng), Johan Botha (RSA/Sydney Sixers), Roelof van der Merwe (Ned)
Domestic Players: Kinchit Shah (Capt), Nizakat Khan, Tanveer Ahmed, Adil Mehmood, Kyle Christie, Ninad Deveng Shah, Nadeem Ahmed, Scott Mckechnie, Damien Yee, Aarush Bhagwat, Rana Nasrulla

Kowloon Cantons

Overseas Players: Dwayne Smith (WI), Wahab Riaz (Pak), Samit Patel (Eng), Ashar Zaidi (Eng), Paul van Meekeren (Ned)
Domestic Players: Babar Hayat, Ehsan Nawaz, Waqas Khan, Ryan Buckley, Adeel Shafrique, Hussain Butt, Hassan Khan, Simandeep Singh, Sunny Bhimsaria, Saad Mahmood, Bobby Chan

T20 Blitz
Date: 6-11 February, 2018
Veune: Tin Kwong Road
Tickets: $1,300, $600, $350, $200, $20 from Ticketflap

Victoria Harbour Race

Six Volvo Ocean Race teams will be on the start line for the In-Port Race in Victoria Harbour this afternoon.

MAPFRE, the overall race leader, is also at the top of the In-Port Race Series leaderboard, with Dongfeng Race Team just one point behind, and Team Brunel completing the current podium.

The In-Port Race is one of two events scheduled for the Hong Kong Stopover this weekend. On Sunday, the teams will compete in the Around Hong Kong Island Race, a near-shore race around the island of Hong Kong.

Results from the two races will be combined and scored as one event for the purposes of the In-Port Race leaderboard.

Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag will be a team to watch over the weekend. The hometown favourite won Leg 4 from Melbourne into Hong Kong and will be keen to continue its winning ways in front of its enthusiastic home supporters.

Meanwhile, Vestas 11th Hour Racing has announced it will not be participating in the inshore racing in Hong Kong this weekend nor in Leg 5 from Hong Kong to Guangzhou as the team arranging repairs to the boat caused by the collision with a fishing boat and the death of a Chinese man on Saturday 20th January.

Volvo Ocean Race In-Port Race Series Leaderboard

1. MAPFRE – 19 points
2. Dongfeng Race Team – 18 points
3. Team Brunel – 13 points
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing – 12 points
5. team AkzoNobel – 11 points
6. Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag – 6 points
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic – 5 points

Additional reporting and images: Volvo Ocean Race, Rich Edwards, Pedro Martinez

Women’s Rugby Regular Season Finale

It’s the final round of the 2017-18 women’s rugby season and there’s all to play for at the top and bottom of all three divisions.  With teams also looking for an advantage going into the Grand Championships it  promises to be another fiercely competitive day of rugby.

In the Premiership Gai Wu Falcons lead Valley Black by a single point. To take the title for a fourth successive year, Valley will need a bonus point victory over USRC Tigers (18:00, King’s Park) and hope that HKFC Ice can contain Gai Wu (16:30, KG V). Quite why the HKRU can’t schedule the games to kick-off at the same time instead of giving Valley the advantage is unknown.

In the insultingly names Premiership Development Legaue three teams have a shot at wrapping up top spot. Kowloon, in second place, need a four-try win over leaders Tai Po Dragons (17:30, HKIED), while third-placed CWB Phoenix need a demolition of winless City Sparkle (16:00, HKIED) and a narrow win for Kowloon.

The USRC Tigers head to King’s Park touting their October draw with Gai Wu as evidence that they have what it takes to bring down Valley Black, whose seeming invincibility was dispelled in their 22-15 loss to Gai Wu, two weeks ago.  Both teams have near-full-strength squads, with their Hong Kong sevens players back from the Coral Coast Sevens.

Tigers coach Fan Shun Kei has opted to play exciting 17-year-old Lara Schats at fly half, and move New Zealander Sarah Swinbanks to fullback where she can use her strength and kicking skills to cover the back line. His only notable absentee is winger Hebe Talas, resting after a concussion in her previous game.

“Lara is the youngest in the squad, but is a very attacking player. In the fly half role, she gives us an extra possible combination for the Grand Championships. We now have the option to swap around for each team we play,” Fan explains.

Fan is brimming with optimism about the opportunity to cap the season by beating one of the top two. “Unfortunately we are not able to compete for the league leadership,” Fan added. “But our girls are very excited because of Valley’s defeat by Gai Wu. This is our rehearsal for the Grand Champs and hopefully it will bring out our best game.”

“Valley have some really good players, but do not always play as a team. If we can mark up their important players, and shut down their attack, we’ve got a chance. Our attack this year is quite sharp, and we should be able to score against them, as Football Club did last week,” points up Fan.

Unsurprisingly, that’s not how it looks to Valley’s player-coach, former Samoa captain Bella Milo. She recognises that the league win may have slipped from their grasp, ruing that their single loss to date in the season doesn’t overcome Gai Wu’s two losses and a draw. But the team are focused on securing a fourth consecutive Grand Championships title, and are going about it in typically thorough fashion.

Milo had the players watch and honestly analyse the video of their streak-breaking loss to Gai Wu. The team saw some correctable errors that led to a dip in confidence that she believes they can put behind them, with no major revision of the approach that notched 51 straight wins across three seasons.

Milo expects a tough match but comes well-armed. “We can’t take anything for granted, after losing to Gai Wu. Tigers have all their sevens players back and a strong team so it’s going to be a battle right through the 80 minutes. But this is the first week this season that we have a possible best starting line-up. So this is a good situation as we go into the [Grand Championship] quarters and semi-finals,” she observes.

In Women’s National League 1, leaders Revolution SRC will hope to retain the WNL 1 Challenge Shield for a fifth week when they play HK Scottish Kukris, just two points adrift in third (18:00, King’s Park). In WNL2, second-placed Police Sirens play City Twinkles (18:00, PBS), eying a third week in possession of the National League 2 Challenge Shield.

Additional reporting and images: hkru, Phoebe Leung