Hong Kong will take on South Africa in the opening match of the Hong Kong World Sixes as the playing pools and schedule were announced for the tournament which takes place on 28-29 October, 2017.
South Africa, who won the event when it was last held in 2012, the Marylebone Cricket Club and five-time champions Pakistan join Hong Kong in Group A.
Group B kicks off with Sri Lanka up against Bangladesh, with New Zealand Kiwis and Australia the other two teams who will vie for top seeding on finals day.
The fastest paced cricket tournament in the world will see all 12 group matches played on Saturday, with all finals of both the Cup and Plate championships played out on Sunday.
Sunday’s fixture list also includes an exhibition match to kick off day two, with the Hong Kong Women’s Team facing off against the Hong Kong Dragons
“Seeding teams for this event has been particularly difficult with many unknown factors. As expected most teams are stacked with young talented guys sent to hone their skills. The MCC and NZ Kiwis add a balance to that equation so the draw has allowed for five-time champions Pakistan to play MCC and for Australia to play New Zealand Kiwis as the last 2 matches in an intriguing finale to the packed 12 match schedule on the first day,” said Tournament Director Glyn Davies.
“Anything can happen in Sixes cricket and Sri Lanka, a traditional crowd favourite, along with Hong Kong have always had an influence in every event to date so anyone can win.”
Play commences at 8am each day with the final on Sunday scheduled to start at 4.15pm local time and will be an eight over a side match. All other games outside the Plate final (6 overs) will be five overs each team.
Hong Kong’s women finished the Sri Lanka leg of Asia Rugby Sevens in fifth, going down to Thailand 12-7 in the Cup quarter-finals, however they held on to fourth place overall in the series.
The game against Thailand could have gone either way and while she was disappointed her side couldn’t again win through to the top four, coach Anna Richards was realistic about the result.
“The whole weekend has been a bit of leveller with the mud, there has been a lot of close games and I think Thailand have played pretty well across the two series,” she said.
“We just made too many errors and we just turned the ball over a bit too much. I think the girls have just got to get a little bit better at staying calm and being able to maintain their focus and skills in the big games.”
Hong Kong led 7-5 through a converted try to Chong Ka-yan but just couldn’t hang on, with Richards praising the efforts of the speedy winger. “I thought she played really well, the conditions didn’t really suit her but she came up trumps with a couple of really good tries for us,” Richards said.
Colleen Tjosvold ran in three tries as Hong Kong defeated South Korea 29-0 in the plate semi-final, with Ivy Kwong Sau-yan and debutant Vivien Poon Hoi-yan also scoring.
Hong Kong hung on to see off Sri Lanka 12-5 in the plate final thanks to two more tries to Chong.
As well as Poon, Jessica Ho Wai-on and Agnes Chan Tsz-ching were also on debut and Richards was pleased with her new blood as she looks ahead to tournaments in Fiji and Borneo early next year in the lead up to the World Series qualifier in Hong Kong.
“It was just about introducing them to tournament pressure,” Richards said. “I thought Agnes did really well, Vivien had a couple of good games today. Jess didn’t get too much game time but what she did do, she did well. I think it was a good introduction for the three of them.
“They have got next week off and then we are just going to throw them back in the gym, they have had a pretty tough year and it will just be about building them back up and getting their bodies right.”
Hong Kong’s men are off to the Rugby Sevens World Cup in San Francisco next year after beating Japan 19-14 in extra-time in the final of the third round of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka.
To qualify for the Sevens World Cup Hong Kong needed to finish at least two spots ahead of South Korea to grab second spot in the series behind winners Japan and their tournament win meant they did it comfortably, with the Koreans slipping to fourth after losing the play-off for third spot to the hosts.
“It’s a huge thing for Hong Kong rugby to be playing in those major competitions. To beat Japan twice in two days is a great achievement and the most important thing was we knew we’d qualified going into that last game but it was just not to relax and go on and win the tournament.” said Hong Kong coach Paul John.
Toby Fenn and Kane Boucaut scored tries as Hong Kong battled back from a 14-7 half-time deficit to level things up when the hooter sounded, with Seb Brien crossing in the early stages of extra-time to secure victory.
Earlier on, Boucaut notched three tries and Hugo Stiles two as Hong Kong blitzed Taiwan 50-0 in the quarter-finals, while Salom Yiu Kam-shing found the line twice in a 26-12 semi-final win over Sri Lanka.
“The main goal was to get qualification and I’m just pleased the way that they dug in and fought for each other out there,” John said.
Local boat Xabi Fernández’s Mapfre were a popular winner in the first point scoring race of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race.
Fernández and his team made a bold call at the start to duck behind the entire fleet in order to sail up what turned out to be the favoured right hand side of the course, coming from behind to earn a narrow lead at the first gate.
“It was pretty clear from Joan (Vila) and Rob (Greenhalgh) that we wanted to hit the right side of the course in the first upwind looking for more breeze,” explained Fernández. “Our intention was to start on port but Pablo (Arrarte) saw the gap himself when Brunel did a poor tack and they couldn’t accelerate so we want for the cross and we had plenty of room and once we hit the right everything went well.”
Mapfre sailed away to establish a lead of nearly one-minute at the bottom gate, giving them a lead they would enjoy the rest of the way.
“The truth is it hasn’t been an easy race but we took a bit of a risk at the start,” Fernández said after the finish. “We saw the gap in front of Brunel and we went for it. Everything went really well.”
In fact, the Spanish team sailed a flawless race, in terms of strategy and execution, and were never threatened after grabbing the lead at the first mark.
But behind them, it was a hard-fought race. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag was strong on the first leg, but dropped back over the course of the race. In contrast, Dongfeng Race Team fought up the fleet to grab second place, battling with Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel who were trading places throughout the race.
“There was a lot of action! Mapfre played their own game alone but behind them, we had a big fight for second place. It’s good, it’s good,” said skipper Charles Caudrelier on Dongfeng Race Team.
“We showed how we can sail well, after having not such good results in the last few days. It’s great that we managed to come back and get this result.”
“It was a very exciting first In-Port Race for us,” said Charlie Enright, the skipper of Vestas 11th Hour Racing. “They’re always really close. You know, when you’re racing these 65-foot canting keel boats around a one-mile track it gets interesting, with a lot of exchanges and big headsails and a lot of grinding. We did some good things and some bad things and got third place. All in all, not a bad way to start the campaign.”
“I had a bad start and that put us on the back foot,” said Bouwe Bekking the skipper of Team Brunel. “But we sailed the boat very nicely. All in all, we’re pretty happy with how we sailed today.”
Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag made a late gain to grab fifth over team AkzoNobel with Turn the Tide on Plastic never recovering from a poor first leg.
“It was okay. Fifth’s not great but it was okay. We were second at the top but we just made one mistake on the first run and it cost us. Basically, it was good. Amazing to be racing here in Alicante,” said David Witt, the skipper of Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag.
Hong Kong’s men and women enter the final round of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in Sri Lanka needing strong performances to qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens.
A new-look women’s side featuring four changes will take on Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea in pool play.
Debutants Jessica Ho Wai-on, Agnes Chan Tsz-ching and Poon Hoi-yan all come in to the side, as well as the returning Sham Wai-sum, replacing Au Yeung Sin-yi, Steph Chan Chor-ki, Lindsay Varty and Yuen Lok-yee.
After a condensed build-up due to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Richards admits her side are still underdone but are better positioned than in the first round of the women’s competition in South Korea three weeks ago.
“The girls have been training pretty well so we are looking forward to it,” she said. “The first leg was pretty difficult and we didn’t have a great lead into that; I think the girls are more comfortable in the sevens environment now
“Are we sevens fit? Probably not, but the girls have trained well since we came back. What I liked about the first tournament was that we got a good look at the top three so we will be going into this tournament better for that.”
Richards is looking forward to having Sham back in the side and is excited to see World Cup representatives Ho and Chan, as well as the youngster Poon, in action: “I thought [Agnes] played really well at the World Cup so it will be great to see what she can do on the field for us.”
Japan are leading the men’s competition and are the likely winners, while Korea sit two points ahead of Hong Kong after triumphing on home soil three weeks ago with Hong Kong had settling for third.
It means Hong Kong must finish at least two places above South Korea this weekend or things will be awfully tight.
“If we don’t play Korea and don’t win the tournament, then we need to finish two places above them,” coach Paul John said. “We need to play Korea at some point, whoever wins that game will be ahead in the head to head. The bottom line is that if we do really well and win the tournament we will be okay, if we meet Korea along the way that will help us provided we get a positive result from it.
Hong Kong face Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines in pool play, with South Korea and Sri Lanka awaiting on the other side of the draw.
“It means that we get a really good game on day one [against Japan] and depending on what happens at the end of day one is where we cross over,” John said. “It all depends on how the tournament goes and with sevens you can never really predict it so every game is a massive game for us now to put us in a good position for day two.
“Sri Lanka will be stronger being at home and China gave us a difficult game at the end of the tournament last time.”
Debutant Max Denmark comes into the side after recently figuring for the Hong Kong U20s at the World Rugby Junior Trophy. Denmark replaces Fong Kit-fung, who sustained an ankle injury in the last round, in what is the only change to John’s squad.
“Max has been training with us for the last three or four weeks,” John said. “He’s very quick and he’s played wings for the under 20s, he’s a back-row forward as well as playing wing. He gives us a bit of speed out wide and I’m looking forward to watching him play. He’s powerful and he chases kick-offs really well, so it’s exciting for him.”
The first official racing of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race takes place on the 14 October with the first In-Port race in the start port of Alicante.
Who will win the first points scoring event of the race? The start gun is at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) as seven of the best sailing teams in the world push hard to lay down a marker ahead of the main race start.
“You always go out and want to win,” said Bouwe Bekking, skipper of Team Brunel, who will have Alberto (Albi) Bolzan on the helm for the race. “He’s an excellent helmsman. He has a lot of hours driving these boats but he’s also one of the smaller guys on board and it’s important to have power on the winches for these in-port races.”
“I think the most important thing for the in-port race is to treat it as practice for the race start for the offshore leg,” said Charles Caudrelier, speaking from experience after starting behind the fleet on the Prologue leg. “Even on the long legs, the start is important… it helps the team to be confident to get the lead early.”
“A lot of the sailors on our team come from short course racing,” said Dee Caffari the skipper on Turn the Tide on Plastic. “So they get a real buzz out of this. They’re all over this style of racing. I have to remind them that a Volvo Ocean 65 takes a bit longer to manoeuvre and we can’t go as close to the other boats as they’re used to, so I have to manage expectations a bit!”
The In-Port Race Alicante is two laps of a windward-leeward course, set with a target time of 45-minutes. The course is set up with a gate system, with two top (windward) marks and two bottom (leeward) marks.
In Friday’s practice session, MAPFRE took the win over Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, who impressed with their best showing, and Vestas 11th Hour Racing, who took third place, completing the podium.
The seven Volvo Ocean Race skippers will have a final oppourtunity to tune their boats on the Prologue Leg, a non-scoring race to the start port of Alicante, Spain. It’s a last chance for teams to lock in crew configurations and get in some speed testing against the competition ahead of the start of Leg 1 on October 22.
“This is the last opportunity for all of the boats to face each other before we start,” says Mark Towill of Vestas 11th Hour Racing. “We’ll be lining up against the other teams to check the things we’ve learned during testing compared to the rest of the fleet.”
Towill and his team have been training against team AkzoNobel. The Dutch team’s Luke Molloy spoke of the benefit from the sessions.
“The two boat training sessions we did with Vestas 11th Hour Racing were definitely very valuable and actually quite eye opening in a few areas,” he confirms. “Just to check on some of our sail crossovers and lock down what we think we know in some other performance areas.”
Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper Dee Caffari says she’ll be giving some of her crew who have less offshore miles time on board during the Prologue, as her team makes the transition from training to competition.
“It’s an opportunity to get back into race mode,” she says. “It’s almost a practice of Leg 1, because we’re going from Lisbon to Alicante and that’s going to be the reverse for Leg 1 so it’s nice to suss it out.”
Leg Zero,SHK Onboard,. Video by Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race. 21July,2017..Onboard sailing action
Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, disappointed with its results this summer during Leg Zero, will be racing with some new crew members and navigator Steve Hayles says the team will be looking to bed in improvements made during practice over the past month.
“I think (on Leg Zero) everything was sub-par, so this is a good chance to put into effect everything we’ve been doing since. We’ve been sailing hard, we’ve done at least as many miles as anyone else, and so this is a good opportunity to cement those changes. Nothing is as good a measure of where you stand as going racing and hopefully we’ve made a big step up in our team performance.”
Rob Greenhalgh, about to embark with the Spanish team MAPFRE on his fifth Volvo Ocean Race, is looking forward to this final look at the opposition.
“It’s pretty important. Everyone’s going to be keen to check in,” he says. “We’ll be keen to race properly… we won’t be backed off. We’ll be going for it!”
Dongfeng Racing team director Bruno Dubois will see his team leave the dock in Lisbon satisfied they have done what they need to do to be ready to race by the start of Leg 1.
“My objective was to make sure we put everything in place and didn’t leave anything to chance,” Dubois explains. “We made a plan and we’ve stayed to it. Maybe someone is going to head out in Leg 1 and be very fast, but we’ve done what we needed to do to make our boat ready and fast for the start of the race. After that, well, it’s a long race.”
Dongfeng Race Team goes sailing in their re-fitted Volvo Ocean 65 as they begin training for the 2017-18 edition.
The weather forecast offers a mixed bag that will get the wrinkles out of all the new sails the teams have installed in Lisbon. The boats will race upwind through the Gibraltar Straight early on Tuesday morning against the infamous Levanter easterly wind that could accelerate to over 30kts, all while penned in by a narrow coast, heavy shipping exclusion zones and coastal fishing nets. Forced into a 1.5-mile wide channel, skippers will be balancing the desire to push for a good result in their last warm-up versus the need to protect new sails that need to last 45,000 miles around the world.
Bouwe Bekking, the skipper of Team Brunel, was very candid about placing a priority on protecting his equipment.
“It’s about finding that balance between pushing the boat, getting it ready, and putting the least amount of hours on the new sails,” he says. “If there is a lot of wind, we’ll want to save our sails… that’s just what we have to do.”
After the Straights, the fleet will continue upwind through the Alboran Sea along the south Spanish coast in an uncomfortable sea state created by fresh easterlies running over the permanent eastwards current created by the Atlantic flowing into the Mediterranean. Turning northwards by Cabo de Gata, the wind is expected to drop to just 5 knots from the east, pushing the homecoming in the Alicante race village deep into Wednesday evening.
“We heard all the stories about how the Race Village in Alicante is nearly ready and everyone is waiting for us to arrive,” Caffari says. “And I know from the moment we arrive, the circus begins and it is pretty much non-stop. The time will fly by and we’ll be crossing that start line and heading away from Alicante for Leg 1 in no time.”
Hong Kong will host the Women’s East Asia Cup featuring the hosts, Japan, China and Korea from September 21-24. HK Cricket have announced a 14 woman squad for the tournament which includes debutant Bella Poon.
The team, led by all-rounder Mariko Hill, is looking to improve on it’s performance in last year’s World Cup qualifiers where they squandered some good positions. The East Asia Cup serves as an important part of the squads build-up to the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifiers in November.
Coach Richie Waite has been putting the players through their paces over the summer and is in confident mood ahead of the tournament. The squad has been doing extra conditioning sessions said Waite “Players have been put through skill set sessions. We have made good progress over the last 2 months and go into the tournament with only a winning mentality.”
“It gives us an opportunity to test ourselves and I am looking forward to seeing them translate their hard work into first-class performances on the pitch.”
As for the squad, Waite said the selectors had tried to ensure it well-rounded “The squad gives us good options across all disciplines, Mariko shows great leadership on and off the field and is determined to lead this squad forward. Our preparation for the upcoming tournament has been very good.”
Hong Kong East Asia Cup Squad:
Mariko Hill (Capt), Kary Chan (Vice-Capt), Jenefer Davies, Emma Lai, Shanzeen Shahzad, Yasmin Daswani, Keenu Gill, Natural Yip, Ka Man (Betty) Chan, Ruchi Venketesh, Pull To, Chan Sa Ha, Annie Ho, Bella Poon
Women’s East Asia Cup 2017 Date: 21-24 September, 2017 Venue: HKCC, KCC, Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground Tickets: Free More info:
21 Sept – HKCC
22 Sept – KCC
23-24 Sept – Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground
