Congratulations to Gai Wu Falcons, winners of the Women’s Premiership 2017-18!
photo: Takumi Photography
Category: January
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
Veune: Tin Kwong Road
Tickets: $1,300, $600, $350, $200, $20 from Ticketflap
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
The Ring Soft Opening Party – 25 January, 2018
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New esports bar The Ring on Knutsford Terrace held it’s soft opening on the 24-25 January, 2018. Taking up the whole 6th floor, The Ring offers 6 luxury esports chairs with lovely large curved screens set up in pairs for head to head competition. Playing is free, but the loser has to buy the winner a victory drink (price tbc). There are two beer pong tables, multiple tv’s and ‘The Ring’ which serves many functions.
A nice touch are the lockers behind the benchseats allowing customers to lock their bags away and ‘game on’ anywhere in the bars without worrying about their valuables.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images
The Ring – 6/F, 10 & 11 Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Sha Tsui
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Clever Personal
With Valentines Day approaching bc took a look around the local personals websites to see if love is thriving in the era of swipe left or right.
Among the many adverts, was this wonderfully clever one which is too good not to share.
Kudos to the lady in question, hope it works.
Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 27 January, 2018
Toasties, Fruities and Flamingos
Flamingos have become a regular sight around Central and TST, the pink inflatable birds adding a highly visible flourish to Flamingo Bloom’s floral and fruity tea drinks.
The two outlet chain has expanded it’s range of drinks this month adding “Naked Zero” beverages ($43) that have no added sugar, use antioxidant and vitamin packed fruits such as mulberries, strawberries, mangoes paired with almond milk for lactose intolerant customers.
bc sampled ‘v!olet’ the mulberry and grape mix, which looks a lot like a fruit smoothie but lacks a smoothie’s dense consistency and texture. Taken as a drink it’s pretty good. The almond milk giving the drink very little consistency and from it’s appearance my brain was expecting something more smoothie like.
FB are also offering a number of toasties – grilled sandwiches – including smashed tomatoes served with soft cooked egg, grilled cheese corn-beef, and smashed avocado with tomatoes sprinkle with herbs. The sandwiches cost $43 ($33 if purchased with any drink).
All the toasties use a big slices of bread, maybe 5 inches square and medium thick cut slices. The cheese and corn beef has a nice melted cheese taste and texture although some of the edges were a little lacking in cheese and there wasn’t much flavour from the corn beef. But it’s pretty good toasted cheese sandwich. The avocado is an open top style sandwich with (according to the staff) a full avocado smashed across it.
Unlike some sandwich places where the filling is all in the section facing you both the samples we tried had plenty of ingredients and will make solid options if you’re in the area and looking for sandwich.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Naked-Zero-Flamingo-Bloom-12-January-2018/i-Dq9Pg4t