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Hong Kong Cricket All-Stars 2021

The Cricket Hong Kong (CHK) All-Stars Series postponed from last December will now take place later this month at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground in Kowloon. Thirty-six cricketers from across the region have been split into three teams, each of which represents a major district of Hong Kong.

The Kowloon Lions, Hong Kong’s most populous district in the shadow of Lion Rock, will be lead by current Hong Kong skipper Aizaz Khan. While current HK vice-captain Kinchit Shah will lead New Territories Tigers named after the wild tigers that used to roam the area.

Former HK captain Jamie Atkinson will lead the Hong Kong Islanders, home to many of Hong Kong’s distinctive landmarks. The three teams will play each other once in a single round-robin stage, with the top 2 sides playing each other in a Final.

All-Stars Squads

Kowloon Lions: Aizaz Khan (Captain), Zeeshan Ali (Wicketkeeper), Nizakat Khan, Hamed Khan, Ehsan Ayaz, Jack Metters, Mehran Zeb, Dan Pascoe, Dhananjay Rao, Ahan Trivedi, Gandeep Sandhu, Charlie Wallis

New Territories Tigers: Kinchit Shah (Captain), Adit Gorawara (Wicketkeeper), Babar Hayat, Wajid Shah, Akbar Khan, Daniyal Bukhari, Aftab Hussain, Ashley Caddy, Bilal Akhtar, Sheryar Khan, Mohammad Hassan Khan, Ateeq Iqbal

Hong Kong Islanders: Jamie Atkinson (Captain, Wicketkeeper), Umar Mohammad, Ninad Shah, Waqas Khan, Haroon Arshad, Simandeep Singh, Zakir Hayat, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Waheed, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla, Mohsin Khan

All-Stars T20 Series

The T20 series will see all three teams compete across 2 days, playing 3 round-robin matches followed by a winner takes all final.

The 50 over competition will see the teams re-drafted with the Hong Kong Islanders taking on the Kowloon Lions in a best of 3 series.

Friday 26th March

9:30am: Kowloon Lions vs New Territories Tigers

1:30pm: Hong Kong Islanders vs Kowloon Lions

Saturday 27th March

9:30am: New Territories Tigers vs Hong Kong Islanders

1:30pm: FINAL

All games played at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground in Kowloon.

The T20 series will be followed by a 3-Match ODI Series between the Kowloon Lions and Hong Kong Islanders.

All games will be screened live and free on Youtube

Four Changes as Hong Kong Chase Gold in China

After taking silver in the opening Asian Rugby Sevens Series tournament the Hong Kong men’s sevens squad will be looking to go one better in Huizhou, China (14-15 September) – the second of the three-leg series, which builds up to the Olympic qualifiers in November.

Four players are called up to the men’s squad, which lost to Japan in the final in South Korea, as coach Paul John rotates and looks to freshen up the team. Raef Morrison, Seb Brien, Alex McQueen and Ben Rimene are included in the 13-man travel squad with Rimene the nominated injury replacement for the weekend. Their inclusion sees forwards Kane Boucaut and Toby Fenn, and back Tom McQueen, rested.

The eight-team Series offers no easy groups and Hong Kong face a physical route in Pool B, to a hoped-for cup final appearance, against the Philippines, UAE, and China.

UAE had a muscular debut in Korea, narrowly losing to the Philippines in the plate semi-final before beating Taipei to claim 7th overall.

A motivated China seven, fresh from claiming Bronze in the opener – their first podium finish in nearly a year, are second seeds behind Hong Kong and will prove a stiff test on home ground.

John is confident he has a group suited for the task, saying: “Our squad is strong. This competition is getting more difficult to pick a squad for, now, which is good. There is good competition across the group and we have another 14 or 15 guys training that are not travelling, but are pushing for spaces, and that is what we want.

“The boys were excellent in Korea and got very close to Japan, but we didn’t play as well as we could in the final, and that was a bit disappointing. We want to go as far as we possibly can again this weekend. But there is no use in talking about it, until we have an opportunity to play our first game. We’re only thinking about the UAE and China, our day one opponents.

“China were very good in Korea. They can give us a hard time and we are probably playing UAE at the worst time to get someone like that, in the first game of t tournament. It’s a tough group and we need to be on top of our game to come through,” he added.

Hong Kong Men’s Sevens Squad (Huizhou, China, 14-15 Sept 2019):

Max Woodward (Captain); Seb Brien*, Michael Coverdale, Jamie Hood, Lee Jones, Cado Lee Ka-to, Alex McQueen*, Raef Morrison*, Jack Neville, Ben Rimene*, Hugo Stiles, Russell Webb, Yiu Kam-shing.
*Season debut

Additional reporting and images: HKrugby

Talented Youth Pushing for Hong Kong to Shine

There are four changes in the 13-woman squad for the second-leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series tournament in Huizhou as Hong Kong look to improve on their first-leg bronze medal. Jessica Ho, Amber Tsang Wing-chi and Agnes Tse Wing-kiu coming in as Florence Symonds, Amy Pyle and Lee Tsz-ting are rested.

The youth movement continues as coach Iain Monaghan uses every opportunity to expose Hong Kong’s emerging talent to next-level competition. After a seamless debut from Symonds, who scored a hat trick against Kazakhstan in the bronze medal final, coach Iain Monaghan is set to debut another in a long list of recent National Age Grade (NAG) candidates making senior debuts in forward Chloe Baltazar.

Baltazar is one of a block of Borrelli Walsh USRC Tigers players entering the national side and has represented Hong Kong at U18 and U20s sevens level. She is joined in the squad by scrumhalf Jessica Ho Wai-on, one of the original wave of Tigers graduating from age grade to senior rugby in 2017, who earns her first sevens call-up of the season this weekend.

“The young girls bring bags of energy on and off the field, and they are still nowhere near their potential so it’s really exciting to watch them at this level. They all love giving their best to make Hong Kong and their families proud,” said Monaghan.

Monaghan complimented his newest cap Baltazar saying, “Chloe has transitioned well over the summer and played a strong role in the U20s team that won the Asian Series. She brings an edge in our contact tackles and some hard carries from her fifteens experience. She never takes a backward step and I’m pleased she is getting this chance, especially after how hard she worked this summer.”

Captain Melody Li leads the squad with Natasha Olson-Thorne and Nam Ka-man also featured, after successfully returning from injury and delivering impact in Korea. Their defensive skills will be needed with Hong Kong in a challenging group as second seeds in Pool B behind hosts China, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. China showed well to start the season, reaching the cup final in Korea before losing 19-5 to Japan. On home ground they enter as early favourites.

“We want a more consistent performance in both halves and to show our hunger and desire to improve on, and back up our strong performances from last week, while affording some new players a chance to show what they can do,” said Monaghan.

“It is a competitive and hard working squad, which is good, because we have some challenging games against improving opponents, who exposed us in Korea when we did not work harder or smarter; we’re looking forward to righting some wrongs from the last tournament,” he added.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens Squad (Huizhou, China, 14-15 Sept 2019):

Melody Li Nim-yan (Captain), Natasha Olson-Thorne, Sham Wai-sum, Chloe Baltazar^, Jessica Ho Wai-on*, Au Yeung, Sin-yi; Poon Hoi-yan; Nam Ka-man, Chong Ka-yan, Stephanie Chan Chor-ki, Jessica Eden, Amber Tsang Wing-chi*, Agnes Tse Wing-kiu*
^ First senior sevens cap; *Season debut

Additional reporting and images: HK rugby

Ireland Too Good for Hong Kong

Ireland secured a place as a core team on the World Rugby Sevens Series 2020 by beating Hong Kong in the final of the men’s annual world series qualifier.

After three days of action, Anthony Eddy’s side proved to be worthy winners as they finished up with a comfortable 28-7 win in the competition-decider.

The victory in front of a packed, 40,000 strong crowd at the Hong Kong Stadium means Ireland will become one of the 15 core teams contesting the 10-round world series.

In the final Ireland struck first through Harry McNulty and captain Billy Dardis added the conversion. It gave them a spring in their step and an excellent angled run from O’Shea delivered their second just before half-time. A second successful conversion put them 14 points up before they extended that out to 21.

Hong Kong responded when Ireland went down to six men following a yellow card but Terry Kennedy’s converted try created a 28-7 advantage. As the time went into the red, the home side continued to battle but Ireland’s gutsy defence held firm and the players cried tears of joy as the full-time whistle sounded.

“We’re just delighted with this,” said captain Dardis after the full-time whistle. “It’s been a long and hard road. I think that we all just stood on the pitch there and couldn’t move. We’re just speechless. It’s class! It won’t sink in for a couple of weeks.”

This time last year, Ireland were knocked out at the semi-final stage by eventual winners Japan but went on to have a head-turning season.

The side played as the invitational team at the London and Paris rounds in the 2018 world series and took home a bronze medal from London. They won 23 of their 24 matches across the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series and at this all-important qualifying competition showed their strength and quality.

Ireland were housed in Pool F alongside Jamaica, Uruguay and Russia. The first day saw them comprehensively beat the Reggae Crocs 26-0 before starting strongly against Los Teros Sevens.

A 26-7 lead over Uruguay was clawed back though and had Tomas Ubilla not missed the final conversion attempt, a loss would have been recorded. Ireland used the overnight break to refocus and returned to record back-to-back wins over Russia on day two.

The first 33-7 victory completed their pool campaign before a statement quarter-final result followed. A 47-0 victory in the last-eight included braces from Jordon Conroy, O’Shea and Kennedy and created a last-four meeting with Germany.

The semi-final was a clash of the titans as both sides gave it absolutely everything. Although Anthony Eddy’s outfit led 5-0 at the break they went 10-5 down in the second half.

Despite the high stakes, Ireland kept their composure and worked a team try with just over a minute to go. Captain Dardis was the try-scorer and his monster conversion pushed them 12-10 in front. The cherry on top arrived after they secured the final kick-off and Conroy carried two German defenders over the line with him. Dardis again converted for a 19-10 victory.

Having earned their place on the World Rugby Sevens Series 2020, Ireland can now look forward to playing at the top level of rugby sevens ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Ireland will aim for Olympic qualification when the European regional qualification tournament takes place in Colomiers, France on 13-14 July, 2019.

World Rugby recently announced a new-look men’s and women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series which includes at least six combined events, as the women’s series increases to eight rounds for the first time in its history over the next four-year cycle. Dubai, Cape Town, New Zealand, Sydney, Hong Kong and Paris will host combined men’s and women’s sevens events from next season onwards as part of the next four-year world series hosting cycle.

Additional reporting and images: World Rugby

Brazil Win Hong Kong Women’s 7s Qualifier

Brazil win promotion to the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2020 after beating Scotland in the final of the world series qualifier in Hong Kong.

After two days of thrilling action, head coach Reuben Samuel’s side finished up as 28-19 winners over a strong Scottish outfit, scoring 120 points in six games at the 12-team tournament.

The final between the two confident sides was a game of cat and mouse in the first half. Scott Forrest’s Scotland scored first before ‘Las Yarras’ from Brazil held a slender 7-5 lead at the interval. Brazil went behind again early in the second half after Rhona Lloyd capitalised from the restart but a potent period followed.

Bianca dos Santos Silva raced away from Lloyd before Thalia da Silva Costa extended their lead again with four minutes left on the clock. It was a lead that they would not relinquish.

“It’s a little indescribable but we worked really, really hard for this. We just told ourselves to do everything we’ve been training to do and we finally did it,” said vice-captain Isadora Cerullo after the full-time whistle.

“It’s an amazing feeling. I’m incredibly proud, not just of the 12 players at the tournament because we’re a much bigger group than that. We’re looking to build even more, bring in a lot of new players and show everyone that our programme is growing and that we deserve to be back on the world circuit.”

Brazil’s route to the final saw them march out of day one unbeaten and hitting the quarter-finals at pace. A last-eight meeting with Kazakhstan commenced the second day and it marked their second encounter with Valerii Popov’s side in the same number of days.

After a narrow 14-12 victory in the pool stage, Las Yarras dominated and made no mistake at the second time of asking. A 21-5 victory was the result and it booked a semi-final match-up against Kenya. In the final four, they continued to be precise with their work, moving the ball well to their speedsters, and their clinical finishing helped them on their way to a 17-5 win.

Additional reporting and image: World Rugby