One of our favourite producers and reporters on rugby in this part of the world, are the folks from Rugby Asia Channel (RAC).

They used to produce video reports on Asian rugby solely for YouTube and FaceBook, but they’ve saved enough money/drank less beer that allowed them to set up their own website.

Click here to have a look at their landing page; register and they will let you know when they go live on the web.

Meanwhile, with the NZI Sevens a day away, RAC posted the following clip of three of Hong Kong’s more famous Sevens exponents in Kenzo Pannel, Rowan Varty and Mark Wright.

You can also contact them for one of these cool Rugby Calendars

Hong Kong beat Papua New Guinea (PNG) by four wickets in the final of Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 3 (WCL Div.3) at the Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Having been set a target by PNG of 203, Hong Kong claimed victory after a superb performance by teenager Mark Chapman which set the side up for victory. By virtue of reaching the final, both Hong Kong and PNG joined Namibia, Bermuda, Uganda and hosts United Arab Emirates in Pepsi ICC WCL Div. 2 to be hosted in Dubai from 8 to 15 April.

After the group stage of the event PNG had been top of the table despite one loss to Hong Kong on Friday in the round-robin section of the tournament. Today, Rarua Dikana’s men were ready to avenge the Hong Kong side that had inflicted the only defeat on the team during the course of the tournament’s group stages, but Hong Kong had other plans in mind.

Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar had a fantastic day with the ball claiming 3-32 including in his haul the key PNG opener Tony Ura for 51 and top order batsman Chris Amini for 60.

Amini had few team-mates to build on the total with, not helped by the four batsmen below him totalling just 12 runs, but the arrival of Hitolo Areni helped the team to respectable 202-8 at the close of the Papua New Guineans’ innings.

After the break, the locals made steady work of knocking of the runs with the key player of the innings being middle-order batsman Chapman whose knock of 70 not out was key to the hosts victory.

The 16-year-old saw many of his team-mates come and go with Hussain Butt and Waqas Barqat the only two to pass 20 runs each. PNG captain Dikana was the pick of the side’s bowlers, taking match figures of 3-40.

HK Captain Najeeb Amar with ICC President Haroon Lorgat (Pic: ICC/CricketEurope)

A delighted Hong Kong captain Najeeb Amar said of the side’s win in front of its home crowd, “Today I feel like I’m flying, like I am sat on the moon I am so happy that we’ve won the tournament. I was delighted to score the winning the runs with Mark Chapman in front of our home crowd.

“Credit must not just go to the team but also our coach, Charlie Burke, he’s unbelievable, he made my job easier, he gave us a simple task, don’t panic and the results will come, which they did this week.

“Our team is full of surprises and talented guys, especially Mark Chapman among many others, they can prove themselves against any team and hopefully when we get to Dubai we can do the same. The teams in Division 2 will be a tough task, but the way we perform and play and we can make it any level and we’re confident.”

Man of the match Chapman said, “It’s an amazing feeling to win in front of my family and home crowd and then take home the man of the match medal too. I worked hard today to grind out the runs since I’ve not had a great run this tournament. I don’t know much about Dubai and the sides we’ll face, but I’m sure we’ll be ready.”

Man-of-the-Match 16-year old Mark Chapman at KCC today (Pic: Mike Jansen)

Elsewhere, Oman defeat Italy by eight wickets in the third-fourth play-off at Hong Kong Cricket Club while Denmark beat USA by 84 runs to take fifth place. Oman and Italy stay in Division 3 while USA and Denmark were relegated to Division 4.

Kowloon Cricket Club hosted Hong Kong vs. PNG today (Pic: Mike Jansen)

HSBC and Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) on Wednesday announced the continuation of their partnership in support of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations (HSBC A5N), Asia’s premier fifteen aside rugby competition.

HSBC and ARFU also announced the inception of a new rugby property, the HSBC Asian Sevens Series. Both sponsorships will run for the next three years from 2011 – 2013.

Mark McCombe, CEO of HSBC Hong Kong and Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship for HSBC Holdings plc joined Trevor Gregory, Vice-President of ARFU for Wednesday’s announcement.

Dean Herewini, HSBC Penguin International Coaching Academy coach and the coach of Malaysia 15s was also in attendance. Also present were players from each of the 2011 HSBC A5N Top 5 nations: Ayumu Goromaru of Japan; Timur Mashurov of Kazakhstan; Simon Leung of Hong Kong; Cyrus Homayoum of the new UAE Rugby Association and Sean Wijesinghe of Sri Lanka, Asia’s newest Top 5 team after promotion from Division I in 2010.

China 15s and 7s player and member of the China 7s coaching team Zhang Zhiqang was also on hand to represent nations participating in the HSBC Asian Sevens Series.

Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship for HSBC Holdings, explained the reason the bank continues to invest in rugby.

“Quite simply, rugby union works for HSBC in terms of enabling HSBC to communicate directly with so many target customers in key regions around the world. Rugby union shares many of the same values as HSBC as the world’s local bank – bringing together people from different cultures and communities with a shared passion, and it has proved to be a successful fit for our business.

“At the heart of every HSBC sponsorship is a commitment to the local community and the HSBC Asian 5 Nations in particular has a major community programme integrated with the sponsorship.

To ensure a legacy, as well as coaching children, adults involved in this year’s coaching tour will be trained to IRB Level One enabling them to continue teaching youngsters to play the game in future years. It is the biggest investment in the growth of the sport of its kind in Asia.”

To celebrate the renewal of HSBC’s sponsorship of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations and the launch of the new HSBC Asian Sevens Series, Mark McCombe, CEO of HSBC Hong Kong (fourth from right) is joined by international rugby players from China (second from left) and each of the Top 5 countries competing in the 2011 HSBC Asian 5 Nations, namely Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka, the UAE and Kazakhstan.

The Victoria Harbour Sundowner Sessions #20

There was a time in the South African community in Hong Kong when we were treated to a plethora of top South Africa artists and musicians visiting the Hong Kong shores.

One such musician who was invited over by the SA government is Shannon Mowday, who toured China as part of the South African national Expo in 2008.

She wasn’t alone when she visited Hong Kong in October 2008.  Making up what I liked to call “the awesome threesome” was bassist extraodinaire Concord Nkabinde as well as the multi-talented Mark Fransman.

The “awesome threesome” Shannon, Mark Fransman & Concord Nkabinde

Shannon Mowday

Born in South Africa to a musical family, Shannon Mowday draws from many influences with seemingly boundless energy and brings it together with purpose and style.

Acknowledged internationally as a gifted saxophone player, Shannon is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, covering the range of the woodwind family as well as piano.  Add to that the title of accomplished composer, arranger, educator and lyricist.

Her colleagues know her as an extremely adept and versatile musician, having performed in a variety styles including performances as soloist with a symphonic orchestra, live recordings of classical saxophone quartet , Big Band leader and conductor, straight-ahead jazz, African, klezmer ,traditional styles in both in a studio and live environment.

She has performed alongside South Africa’s best with artists including Winston Mankuku, Robbie Janssen,Jeduith Sephuma, Selaolo Selota Feya Faku, Concord Nkabinde, Gloria Bosman, Kevin Gibson as well as international musicians such as James Morrison, John Fedchock, Douglas Masek,Stefon Harris and members of the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra to name but a few.

(Source: ShannonMowday.com)

Shannon Mowday (Pic: Andy Nix courtesy of Classic Feel Magazine)

Shannon Mowday… Undoubtedly my fav pic!

The 2008 SA Expo in Hong Kong:

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Howzit-HongKong.com will feature a YouTube clip of one South African music legend every Friday as part of what we like to call The Victoria Harbour Sundowner Sessions. I am fortunate to be living right next to one of the most stunning working harbours in the world… Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. I often find myself staring across the Harbour at night, with the lights dimmed and one of my favourite musicians from home over the speakers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do…

Goodnight South Africa,

Mike Jansen

While the accompanying picture of a smiling Colin Montgomery is enough to make anyone who knows a little about international golf think that the headline (A Brilliant photo from Ryder Cup) is what this story is all about, sorry… it is not.

With the count-down to the 2010 Hong Kong Open in Fanling, Howzit-HongKong.com, in our other guise as BlitzBokke.com posted the following story today:

(BlitzBokke.com Monday 5 October 2010)

OK, OK… so the Ryder Cup is not rugby but as Peter De Villiers so famously said: “Rugby is (also) not ballet.”

Some time ago we raved about the brilliant rugby photography coming from the Republic, especially from the lenses of one Gerhard Steenkamp.

Given that ode to the rugby lens-men, today we were suitably impressed with what came out from the recently-concluded Ryder Cup in Wales. Especially this picture:

Ja but… some of you would argue, it’s just a photograph with a glitch. A spec of dust on the unfortunate lense of an unfortunate cameraman perhaps.

Not so.

Ask the cameraman in question, one Mark Pain who snapped all the Ryder Cup action for the Daily Mail. And then some.

Seconds after he activated his shutter for this picture, Tiger Woods’ ball (GOLF ball that is) hit his lens front and centre, Mister Venter!

Said Yahoo! today:

No, it’s not staged or Photoshopped. That’s really Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball straight at the camera.

How’d it happen? By mistake.

The cameraman, Mark Pain of the Daily Mail, was in the proper position on the 18th hole when Woods flat-out duffed his shot. The ball hit Pain’s camera and dropped to the ground. But unlike many instances when Woods and caddy Stevie Williams have taken issue with photographers, Tiger had nothing to say here. He knew he was in the wrong, not Pain.

While here at BlitzBokke.com HQ we appreciate the lengths at which sports photographers would go for THAT shot, all we could should about after seeing this pic was:

Who the hell was that bloke with the cigar and the Magnum mustache?!

In a week when South Africans all over the world celebrated the 100-day countdown to the kick-off to our biggest sports tournament ever, local celebrations were caught up in a spat between the Hong Kong broadcast-rights holders iCable and the other two broadcasters, ATV and TVB.

In a nutshell, iCable made a successful bid for the broadcast rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, while ATV and TVB declined to bid.  iCable then decided that, unlike during the two previous World Cups, they will make the TV broadcast available to TVB and ATV, provided they agree to broadcast the entire iCable programme schedule, including advertisements.  TVB and ATB declined and instead wrote to FIFA to try and get clarity on the issue.

At the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, South African Consul-General Ms Tembi Tambo, however played down the spat instead confirming that the local media tussle “will not mar the spectacle half a world away.” (See The Standard article below)

The countdown ceremony at Hong Kong’s Times Square on Wednesday, organised by iCable was not reported on by TVB’s English language Pearl TV during any on their news broadcasts on the evening of the unveiling.  Howzit-HongKong.com however, was not able to monitor ATV’s coverage on the evening.

At Times Square on Wednesday, hoards of media with their cameras were to be seen, but like we’ve seen (and reported on) at the Invictus premiere, one cannot say whether they were there for the celebrations or for the opportunity to interview the iCable head honcho about the current 2010 media spat.

Thankfully, as we reported in several posts after the countdown ceremony, the local English print media and in particular the South China Morning Post (SCMP) did a great job on covering this momentous occasion.  We noticed that SCMP’s sports reporter Alvin Sallay had another in-deep discussion with Mark Fish in this morning’s Sunday Morning Post (more about that tomorrow).   Here’s how the local English-language daily, The Standard reported on Wednesday’s countdown-clock event:

Although only about a week old, SA 2010 Ambassador Mark Fish’s baby daughter is already making ripples on the other side of the world.

On the day that we were supposed to attend a media conference with South African 2010 Ambassador Mark Fish, the Hong Kong media was alerted that the press conference was cancelled due to the birth of Fish’s baby-daughter.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are two things dear to the Chinese heart: one is their food with the other being their kids; and not always in that order.  The latter showed during the unveiling of the 2010 countdown clock.  The MC started his questions (see video) to the former Bafana Bafana (SA soccer team) player with a question about his baby.  I also heard two other reporters start their questions with the same issue. 

The local English daily’s sports reporter Alvin Sallay, though of Sri Lankan descent, was not left out and he filed the following story in the South China Morning Post the following day: 

(click on the pics to open larger image) 

If there’s one thing that Hong Kong people love it’s their seafood. This time around it was fish…

Mark Anthony Fish.

FIFA 2010 Ambassador Mark Fish this afternoon unveiled a special 2010 Countdown Clock at Causeway Bay’s Times Square. 

The South African Consulate in Hong Kong, under the energetic leadership of Consul-General Ms. Tembi Tambo has been very busy promoting what will certainly be South Africa and indeed Africa’s biggest sporting event:

The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

The Consulate partnered with local broadcast rights-holder Hong Kong Cable TV, the Hong Kong Football Club and the Leisure & Cultural Services Department to organise what was a very enjoyable media event.  The afternoon kicked off with a Diski Dance performance by a South African dance group who travelled to Times Square directly from the airport.  There was no jet-lag to be seen as the energetic troupe entertained the assembled media and local shoppers on stage.

  Diski Dance… This is how we do it in Africa, La!  Ke Nako / It’s out time!

Mark Fish was then invited to the stage to tell the audience about, amongst other questions, just what the 2010 World Cup means to him as well as to South Africans at large.  Feeeeeesh (as the fans would shout when Fish touched the ball back in the days) did himself and the South African Local Organising Committee (LOC) proud by giving the assembled media a glimpse of what they can expect at the World Cup in just under 100 days.  In typical Hong Kong style, questions from the MC opened about the recent addition to the Fish family!  (The Consulate had alerted the local media that Mark’s girlfriend had given birth to a baby girl recently.)

    SA Consul-General Ms Tembi Tambo joined Mark Fish at Times Square (Pic: Mike Jansen)

The event ended with Fish joining invited guests to unveil a special 2010 countdown clock.

As will be the case come the FIFA 2010 World Cup, the sound of the Vuvuzela was heard throughout the ceremony, courtesy of the Diski Dancers!

Ke Nako!  It’s our time.

Bring on 2010!

(If you’re in SA, please click on theInsurance4Women.co.za ad to support Howzit-HongKong.com)

Former South African (Bafana Bafana) footballer Mark Fish will visit Hong Kong this week as a guest of the South African Consulate. 

South African Consul-General in Hong Kong Ms Tembi Tambo has been actively promoting events around South Africa’s 2010 Soccer World Cup and invited Mark Fish, who is also a 2010 World Cup Ambassador, to Hong Kong. 

2010 Ambassadors Mark Fish (left) and Lukas Radebe with President Zuma (Pic: WEF)

Today (March 2, 2010) marks the official 100-day countdown to the start of the World Cup in South Africa.  During a media event to be hosted by local broadcast rights-holder iCable tomorrow (Wednesday March 3), Fish will unveil a special World Cup countdown clock at the piazza at Times Square, Causeway Bay.

During his stay in Hong Kong, Mark Fish will also conduct two football clinics for aspiring players at the Hong Kong Football Club as well as in Kowloon City.

The Hong Kong Cricket Association today announced that ticket prices for the 2009 edition of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes will be reduced to allow more fans to attend the cricket spectacular at the Kowloon Cricket Club.

Tournament Director Mark Burns told a packed media launch at the Club that, for the first time, adult fans will be allowed to purchase single-day passes at HK$300 (Saturday) and HK$470 (Sunday).  Kids’ single-day passes will cost HK$180 (Saturday) and HK$220 (Sunday).

Tournament organisers have also revised ticket prices for 2009 with two-day passes  at HK$680 (adults) and HK$380 for children.  This translates to a 13% saving on an adult pass and 15% on a children’s pass.

The 2009 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes takes place at the Kowloon Cricket Club (KCC) between October 31 and November 1.

See you at the KCC!

(Video: Mark Burns on this year’s tournament)