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On the Road to England 2017

The Hong Kong Women’s team are eager to shine on home turf during the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 – Asia Qualifier 2016 which starts this Sunday.

China, Nepal, Thailand and Hong Kong will compete in a round-robin tournament where each team will play everyone twice. The top ranked team will earn a place in the global qualifiers for England 2017.

Captain Mariko Hill is looking forward to the tournament. “The pre-tour to India has boosted everyone’s confidence, so I’m sure everyone is looking forward to displaying their abilities.”

“Hosting an ICC event is rare let alone playing on home soil! We understand the conditions better and we hope to use this to our advantage. We can then plan strategies ahead of time according to the ground conditions and the team we are playing against,” said Hill.

“We are among the favourites to win the tournament. I have full faith and confidence in my team mates that we will too, seeing how hard we have trained over the last few months. Although I have some personal goals, the overarching goal for me is simply to contribute as much as I can to the team reaching the ICC World Cup Qualifiers next year,” added the captain.

Chloe Ip is one of the newer members of the Hong Kong team, after being scouted in a programme designed to find Hong Kong-born cricketers abroad.

“I was born in Hong Kong but moved to Australia with Mum and Dad when I was three years old, and my relatives are still live in Hong Kong,” said Ip.

“I don’t think it has really fully sunk in yet. Hopefully I will get picked to play at some stage during the tournament and wear the Hong Kong shirt. It will be an honour. The whole family living here are very excited and proud of the prospect of this happening.”

“Even though I’ve grown up in Australia I haven’t forgotten my roots and family history. Hong Kong has been close to my heart and I’ve been back as much as possible to visit. I am fitting in well with the girls, they’ve welcomed me with open arms from the first day. I enjoy the cultural diversity within the squad a lot.”

ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 – Asia Qualifier 2016
Date: 9-15 October
Venues: Kowloon Cricket Club, Hong Kong Cricket Club, Tin Kwong Recreation Ground
Tickets: free.

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket

Match Report: Uni-Pirates 5-35 City – 1 October, 2016

A new and as yet unnamed DB Pirates & University combined team for 2016-17

A new and as yet unnamed team took the field at the weekend as the combined forces of the University Unicorns and the DB Pirates faced their first challenge of the new season on a warm sunny Saturday afternoon at Sandy Bay. The Uni-Pirates squad consists mainly of players from the Summer Elementary Course, many of whom first picked up a rugby ball as recently as June, and a few veterans from the DB pirate enclave.

The home team kicked-off their National League 2 game against an experienced City Ladies team in high spirits and backed by the cheers of home crowd. Stout defence blunted the City attack and and the Uni-Pirates earned their first offensive scrum. And here’s where City’s experience told, you can practice and practice scrums on the training field but a match scrum is a vastly different beast and the Uni-Pirates conceded a penalty. Quickly taken by the visitors who passed it along their back line for the first try of the match.

Buoyed by the score City Ladies took control of the game, enthusiastic defending by the Uni-Pirates however kept them from adding to the scoreboard. The home town ladies though did not learn their lesson from the first try and conceded another as City successfully took advantage of another quickly taken penalty. The Ladies then added two more tries before the half time.

After the break, City remained on the front foot scoring two quick tries with some excellent back line moves. The plucky Uni-Pirates weren’t disheartened and kept plugging away looking for an opening and confidently seized their chance when it appeared. Awarded an offensive scrum on the City ten metre line the pack secured the ball and scrum-half Estelle Barbaroux sneaked through on the blind side, broke a couple of tackles and scored a fine try under the posts. A happy moment for the home crowd and the new team as they celebrated their first try of the season.

Despite the home team try, City were in complete control of the game and scored a seventh try before the final whistle for a final score of 35-5.

The crowd were generous in their applause of the players, congratulating the far more experienced City victors and celebrating the Uni-Pirates first game of 15s and their debut in the league.

Forwards:
Amoy Hugh-Pennie, Kon Chan, Meg McGrath, Monica Ariwi, Chona San Lopez-Aguila Alcantara, Florence Li, Catherine Greg Osburn, Debby Cheung, Jackie Philbrick Douglas, Renee McCreadie, Julie Buddle

Backs:
Sienna Stubbs, Estelle Barbaroux (Captain), Bonbon Jan, Hiuyi Cheng, Karen Shahar Gafni, Celine Malunes, Mandy Smith, Joyce Leung, Lai Ka Yan

Tries:
Estelle Barbaroux

Match Report: HKCC Ladies 10-19 Valley Reds – 1 October, 2016

The weekend’s fixture was the first match of the season for the HKCC Ladies who entered the new campaign with no pre-season games and a couple of new members playing with the team for the first time. Not the best preparation, but that didn’t prevent HKCC putting up a spirited display against Valley Red.

The match started with HKCC kicking off, and forming a great defence against the Reds causing them to knock the ball out over the sideline. As both teams struggled for meaningful possession a line break from Valley into HKCC’s 20 was stopped by flanker Maddy Witt. In the ensuing maul Valley slipped through a gap in the reforming defence to score the first try of the game.

This early setback energised HKCC who probed deep into Valley’s territory. The pressure told as Valley knocked on. From the resulting scrum the ball reached HKCC’s new fly-half Josie Jolley who, driving at the Valley’s defence gained some hard fought yards. Disaster struck though, a step from the try line as HKCC knocked on… At the resulting scrum HKCC packed away their disappointment, recomposed themselves and won the scrum leading to a nice try from Mandy Witt.

The remainder of the first half saw many big tackles, great attacks and defence from both teams, rolling into half time with the score 5-5.

The intensity increased after the break and Valley scored their second try through a gap in HKCC’s defence. HKCC bounced back with some great gain line attacks which saw the Reds commit numerous fouls, giving HKCC several penalty opportunities. The fierce commitment of both teams saw the referee issue several yellow cards during the half. HKCC got the better hand of that advantage and the ensuing penalties, allowing them to work as a team to attack deep into the Red’s territory and score a try from inside center Carolyn Champion. An unsuccessful conversion, left HKCC trailing 12-10 late in the last quarter.

Valley took advantage of a lack of concentration from HKCC scoring a try from a ruck straight after the kick-off. The conversion soared between the posts, giving Valley a 19-10 lead. HKCC pushed hard looking for a third score to give Valley a nervous last few minutes, but committed a couple of fouls and Valley edged a hard fought match.

Forwards:
Wawa Li, HoiYi Li, Terri Lau, Allison Mak, Kiki Kemp, Nobuko Oda, Lauren Petersen, Kon Chan, Joanna Harvey, Mhairi McLaughlin, Katie Rowbot, Maddy Witt, Josie Jolley

Backs:
Lynda Nazer, Stephanie Zhang, Brenda Chan, Carolyn Champion, Serene Yee, Margaret Chan

Tries:
Maddy Witt, Carolyn Champion

Women’s Rugby Results – 1 October, 2016

National League 1

Gai Wu Fawkes 19-0 HK Scottish
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00

Revolution SRC 5-10 USRC Tigers
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00

Valley Red 19-10 HKCC
@ Kings Park, Kick-off: 18:00

National League 2

Tin Shui Wai 17-25 Gai Wu Hawks
@ KGV, Kick-off: 16:30

University 5-35 City
@ Sandy Bay, Kick-off: 16:30

Tai Po Dragons 7-26 CWB Lammergeier
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 18:00

HKFC Fire 22-0 Kowloon
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:00

Photos: courtesy of their owners
Our apologies that not all scores are currently available, 2 days after the games and the HKRU has still not released the match scores

Building a Racetrack

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-rBDSVN4

The inaugural Hong Kong Formula e-prix is a week away and construction of the racetrack and infrastructure has started on the Central Harbourfront. bc took a wander around to see how the reality compares with the track graphic posted by the organisers.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-Tctn4qm

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-Dbh5g4b

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-djF5nZV

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-cvBzD7r

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2016/Birth-of-a-Racetrack-1-October/i-vmrCqxJ

Women’s Rugby Fixtures – 1 October, 2016

Nizakat Khan Scores Blistering Century

Nizakat Khan has continued his red hot run of form from Hong Kong’s tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland with a blistering century in the Premier league.

Playing for Hong Kong Cricket Club, Nizakat smashed 116 off 60 balls with his century coming off just 52 deliveries. His innings included an incredible 13 sixes. The innings comes after Nizakat scored 69, 123, 62, 43 and 40 in matches against Ireland and Scotland, with the right hander now feeling confident in his own game.

“I still feel that I’m in the form of my life, had a great tour for Hong Kong. I missed out in the first Premier League game but I knew my day would come and today was my day.” said Khan “I was in an aggressive mood, I wanted to be positive from the first ball and told myself anything in my zone I would put away. I wasn’t looking for fours, I was looking for sixes and they kept coming.”

Khan continued “I hit a few out of the ground, my favourite shot is to hit straight and managing to hit one over the sight screen felt good. I’m sorry that we lost so many balls today! But seriously, I am just trying to stick to my routines in training, working on my fitness and my weaknesses. I just want to be on the winning team so today was great.”

Nizakat’s whirlwind innings proved the backbone of a dominant 192-run win for HKCC against Pakistan Association Club.

HKCC posted 336-6 with Mark Wright (65) and Scott Mckechnie (56) also scoring half-centuries.

In response, PACC did reach 117-3 at one stage thanks to Bilal Muhammad’s 71, but the visitors collapsed to be all out for 144. Giacomo Lamplough ran through the tail and picked up 4-16.

In Sunday’s other match, Kowloon Cricket Club scored an easy win over the newly formed Cricket Hong Kong Independents XI.

Spinner Dan Pascoe’s 4-26 helped dimiss CHK XI for 139, Haseeb Amjad top scored with 36.

The CHK XI total was made more disappointing by the ease in which KCC picked off the runs. Kinchit Shah (53), Jamie Atkinson (40*) and Aizaz Khan (38*) helped the home side surpass the score in just the 22nd over.

Match Scores

Hong Kong CC v Pakistan Association CC: www.crichq.com/#matches/431090/1st_innings
Kowloon CC v Cricket HK XI: www.crichq.com/#matches/431093/1st_innings

Other domestic scores: www.crichq.com/#organisations/821/competitions/current

Additional reporting and image: HK Cricket Association

Women’s Rugby Shines on Super Saturday

The 2016-17 season of the Women’s Premiership kicked off with a Super Saturday showcase at King’s Park with six of the seven Premiership teams in action, including Premiership debutants City Sparkle, last year’s League and Grand Champions Valley Black and the runners-up in both competitions Gai Wu Falcons.

Last year’s top two were convincing form with muscular bonus point wins on the opening weekend. In the season’s opening match Valley dispatched CWB Phoenix 45-7 in an impressive eight try performance even though three of its top players were absent representing Hong Kong in the Asian Sevens series.

The absence of Valley’s large contingent of Hong Kong representatives, combined with a number of retirements in the off-season, has catalysed a youth movement in the Valley with numerous players called up from last year’s second side Valley Red.

“I’m really pleased with our performance today,” said Sam Feausi, the long-time Valley star, who is serving as assistant coach for the team this season. “We showed good structure despite having a few girls missing. We had seven or eight players from last year’s second team in the first side today and it’s good to see the young girls stepping up.”

Their ability to transition to Premiership level will play a decisive factor in Valley’s ability to defend its two-season long unbeaten streak once the top sides face each other.

“We are confident, but this season is going to be much more competitive. Everybody is pretty strong. All of the teams are missing their sevens girls but the results are still really convincing,” Feausi added.

Gai Wu Falcons soared to their biggest opening day victory in the day’s second match dispatching Kowloon 56-0 despite lacking four of their stars including Hong Kong captain Christy Cheng Ka-chi who were also on international sevens duty.

In the final match of the day, USRC Tigers withstood a fierce early charge from City Sparkle before overpowering the Premiership debutants 45 – 3.

Tigers coach Liu Kwok-leung said City’s intensity troubled his side early on: “They put us under a lot of pressure and it took us a while to get settled in and switched on. Their defensive line speed is good and stopped us from organising. They have good potential to compete this season.

“But eventually we settled a bit and I was pleased that we kept our structure and performed what we have been training,” Kwok added.

City coach Fung Kai-hang said, “Tigers are one of the top teams and they played well. We have set some goals for the league this season. There are games we target to win, games we target to compete in and games that we can use as a learning curve.

“This was our first Premiership match and the girls really felt the difference in intensity. It’s more confrontational and the speed and strength of the game is much better at this level, but we learned a lot today.

“We need to keep working on our set piece and the contact area. We play Football Club next and they have a big pack and will be similar to Tigers. But the girls are really positive. We gave up a lot of tries tonight but they kept working hard and going forward,” said Fung

For the full weekend’s results click here

Additional reporting and image: HKRU