Slaying the tiger

Yesterday Sai Kung Stingrays under 13s first team played DEA Tigers.  Aiden was picked as inside centre. For some reason its a bit of a grudge match - possibly because the teams are pretty well matched historically.  Certainly I make a point of showing up ready to run a bit of mouth in the direction of their highly vocal parents ;-).

Most teams have a long warm up practice before a game.  Consequently, if you are a spectator you can see what's coming - and it looked pretty ugly because they had four really big guys - like six foot big guys - and I was watching them smash into the tackle bags and thinking aaiyaaa.  And aaiyaa it turned out to be.

Jules half way through getting smashed - size differential evident as he is crumpled. And definitely high.

The Stingrays spent the entire first half defending between their 22 and their try-line, as the monsters ran at them.  There was no getting the ball back either - their scrum must have weighed 50% more at least, so every time anyone on the pitch knocked on or pushed a pass forward, they'd get the ball back when their scrum destroyed ours - and I mean absolutely destroyed.  Line-outs were better, because although they had a height advantage their hooker was not exactly hitting the William Tell apple - and of course - big fellas are hard to lift.

Nello in the thick of it.  High?!  Neck roll?! WTF!! Where's the ref?

Anyway, towards the end of the first half the defenses eventually buckled, and the black and yellow hordes poured in.  The Stingrays trudged back to the kickoff, looking pretty tatty and down at the mouth, and a minute later one of their Billy Bulldozers had the ball again, and it was back into the 22 for more crunch and stomp.  I was regretting not having headphones to block out the b.s. blood-baying coming from their stands, and it was looking like a long and unpleasant afternoon.  But then, with about a minute left on the clock, Nello playing flyhalf managed to get his hands on the ball, and cleared it down-field with a long and lucky-bouncing kick.  After a bit of a scrap, Stingrays got a scrum, and managed to get the ball out of it while it was being driven back at pace, the scrumhalf drew a couple of players before being monstered, but got a sneaky pass off, and Nello cut back brilliantly to score under the posts.  Max then converted (they had missed theirs earlier) and bizarrely the first half ended 7-5 to the Stingrays.  It was GREAT, and I'm sure there were a few DEA parents looking for headphones of their own.

Nello again, getting toasted by a prop. And one shoulder fraction from high again.

The second half was more of the same - big boys running at them, and eventually scoring and converting - but also starting to get tired - and slowly but surely the tide started to shift as the beef ran out of puff, leaving their light-weights to do the work.  It's the problem of having a few Jonah Lomus - you'd be a twit not to build a game plan around them - but when, for whatever reason, that stops working, you can be well shy a plan B.

Game starting to open up, Aiden distributing (Nello, as usual, dusting himself off on the ground from contact)
- and big boys in the background running out of puff.

The Stingrays might on balance have been smaller - but they are fit and well drilled.  The game went back and forth, both sides coming close on occasion.  Then with about 10 minutes to go, the ball came from Nello to Aiden, who made a great break through their line, drawing  a number of players, and then passing to the absolutely flying speedster and tackle-king Nick Toller on his outside.  There was no way that their fullback could turn and accelerate fast enough, and Nick crossed the line with a couple of Tigers snapping ineffectually at his heels.  Have a finger.  And converted.

Ball in the midfield from Nello...

...and head down and go for the gap, getting the fend ready...

... no need, but now watch the centre on the outside...

... hurdle the ankle-tap, going flatout...

... get your Campese out - ball in both hands, flying past the midfield...

... draw and pass to Nick...

... who is straight past the fullback without a touch, and with far too much gas, goodbye.

Some more back and forth followed, then 3 minutes of brutal every-man-in defending, and have a nice day Tigers.  It was pretty cool.  The real heroes of the day, it needs to be said, were the forwards and loosies who got smashed and stomped on and beaten and bullied for the vast majority of the 60 minutes, but somehow prevailed.  Jake Brunner - featured in the pics with Arki a few posts back - was an absolute demon.  He's not yet a big kid, but he's hyper-fit, competitive, and utterly fearless.  Add to which getting a bit grumpy about the way things are going, and he becomes a complete handful for everyone on the opposing team (and indeed the ref).  Nello was superb, tackled way above his weight, got smashed repeatedly but kept going, and ran the team like an absolute champ.  There are many here not mentioned, kids that you won't know (Finn Bennett, Jake Cornelius, and others) who equally excelled in their individual games; but all in all it was the great team performance that counted - weathering the onslaught, thinking, co-operating and prevailing.  Schoolboy rugby at its best.  

Winter and happiness

Winter seems to have arrived at last - the temperature racing down to 12, all the humidity falling from the sky in cold thin drops, wind blowing it all around.  It's divine.  I also realised, waking in the middle of the night to find it curled up tight on the bed, that the cat makes me really happy.

Beautiful morning - wet, cold, clouds rolling in, Holly surveying.

Evan thought she'd feel left out yesterday.  Probably not.

From yesterday's football - bravesave

I wanted to post the photo at the bottom - it was such an un-glamorous (no arching dives and one handed turn aways here) yet cracking save in a game they ended up drawing but really should have lost.  The boy in the green on the left lets fly, but the Evinator has already sprinted off his line, cut down the angles, and taken a wicked shot in the guts.  Even got a little cheer from the opposing team parents, and of course a barrage of high fives from his mates.

Max and Ev on the way to the pitch - really like Max - a good friend and really nice person.

The open mouth look of horror on his team-mate's face says it all - the cannon shot at point blank range.

Evan in November

Good day on the soccer pitch this morning, kept a clean sheet in three games, including a real blinder. Consequently he was in a good mood and agreed to let me try some lights on him. Call me Martin Schoeller bru - learning.

Click here for a smile.  Uploaded by another boy's dad - touched that many scores up, Ev's team was keen to make sure that one lad, who was playing his last game of rugby, and who had never scored a try before, was given the opportunity to do so; a last outpost in this new world of f.u., me, m,e me, vote Trump.  Posted here principally because it has some of Ev playing in the beginning of the clip, and then ... aaiyaa

And while the rugby gods frowned on South Africa, the boys have their best weekend of the year

Unfortunately the camera could only be in one place at a time, and so I missed Aiden's game in favour of watching Evan in a tournament - they were playing at the same time at different venues.  What a pity that was, Aiden's team by all accounts played their best match ever - and absolutely crushed the Football club 55-0.  This is a very considerable turnaround from their last outing against them, which was about the same score, but the other way round.

So, sadly I have nothing to show of that - but instead, to balance things out, here is a rugby extravaganza of Evan, who was playing in a three match tournament as a flanker (though also propping at scrum-time ?!), and was named afterwards as the player of the tournament.  I am so delighted for him.  He was an absolute hand-full for the opposing teams, all over the place, with conspicuous abrasion.

One of Evan's talents is that he's very direct, runs straight and hard...

... and loves the rough stuff.  Here putting on a good leg drive through the middle against Sandy Bay.

In broken play against Sandy Bay.

As always, attacks the ball, and is difficult to dislodge.

Avoiding the attentions of one of HK Football Club's forwards...

... getting away from him, and attacking their gain-line.

Bursting through the breakdown area, a fend, a step, 

... and away.

He's got a good eye for a gap, and getting close to slower moving players, here off the base of a ruck,
straightening by cutting back in...

... and straightening through their forwards.

The all knees and elbows look of someone growing fast - makes me giggle.

Serious conversation.  Plotting with team-mates between games.  Mini-me?  Maxi-me.

Arki, Jake and Aiden

I worked from home today - it was so so nice - saw Aiden with Arki and Jake in daylight.  Ev is away on camp - too weird not hearing from him for a week, and really excited to see him tomorrow night. Got the three to agree to a photo - yes means you have a second, and then it all breaks down into dabbing and laughter.

Football vs Rugby - hammer away, no result

At the risk of annoying others, I think football might a better game than rugby: it's less reliant, generally, on mass and power than skill; it favours the underdog (through the relative rarity of goals); and therefore delivers greater surprise in outcome.  And if you play, you can do so into your fifties - not something that is sensibly undertaken in rugby.  BUT, man it can be frustrating, and Sunday morning's game for Aiden was one such - I thought his team were all over Tai Tam, yet they lost 2-1 largely (and given Ev's role I can appreciate how awful this is for the person in question) down to a keeper error, where one of the maybe 5 shots they had on target skidded on the wet pitch and went through their guy's legs.  It happens.  And what was the ball doing down that end of the field anyway?  On the other side, the keeper had an absolute stormer (until having a moral failure, at any rate). Aiden hammered away, largely unrewarded.  He beat defenders.  He slid sublime in-box passes.  He hit the upright.  He hit the bar; and then their keeper cheated (the ball a full foot across the line, obscured by the keeper's body, grabbed, pulled in, unseen by the ref - and sportsmanship....?  Not in football it seems).  So that's how it turned out - but I got some cool pics:

One-two with his midfield...

and letting go with a right.

Long shot from outside the box - hit the upright and was cleared by a defender. 

About to shoot with his left - love the fact that he can and does, this one victim of
a one handed turn away by the keeper.  Some days you just can't win.

Stingrays gobble up Lobsters

Some context: once a year Simon and Greg have a thing where they put together a volley ball match - our village, Sheung Sze Wan, vs the people we know in the villages on the other side of the bay, collectively known as Lobster Bay (and where Greg and Pam live).  Originally it was held on a super-low tide day, on the exposed sandbank on the side of the bay.  But that had a host of complications and limitations, so instead they organised it at Mils beach this year, and it was an absolute beast of a perfect day.  Its winter here now - all 25 degrees of it - so that means its hiking season, not beach season - so this perfect little spot is completely deserted.  A charmed day.  The Lobsters - the other team - decided on red budgie smugglers as a uniform.  Not a good choice in my view.  But they managed to look damn cool. The volley-ball itself was pretty close, evenly matched, but in the end the Sheung Sze Wan team prevailed.

Mils beach is such a perfect little thing, spit of fine sand between a small river and the sea.  Nothing else.

The stingray outfit was a pair of blue shorts featuring... a stingray.  Definitely
not as bold as the Lobsters.

In the spirit of the old world, which is now the new world,
women and men had separate teams.  Stingrays on the other side.

Fantastic hot and sunny, windless day.

Later in the afternoon, Lara and Dana catching up.

The village teams.  Its actually a beauty of a photo - these things so often turn
out really nasty.  Taken for me by Michael Abbot

Packing up to head off home at the end of the day.

Back at the Coxs, Dana and Greg share a chuckle; Greg just catching his breath for a
moment after being over funned for a day.

Slope engineering

Because of the topography and the rainfall, landslides are a big issue in Hong Kong.  When you go out by boat the hills of uninhabited islands are riven with landslide scars.  In areas where people are living, the government lands department manages these through a slope maintenance project.  Each area identified as a risk has a number, and is managed.  The good people in authority decided that the old slope behind our house needed fixing, and so fixing it is what they are doing - fixing it for the next thousand or so odd years.  It works like this: they have this boring machine that jacks and rotates segmented pipe into the hillside, rock, whatever it is, 8 metres worth.  They achieve this with a levered drill, which drives and rotates a cutting end, onto which they attach successive pieces of threaded pipe.  When it's done, the pipe gets filled with cement and is finished off with an expansion bolt attached to a rebar cage, set in a cut out recess of hill, itself which gets filled with cement.  And so you end up with the whole front of the hill, the bit which might shear off in a landslide, bolted into the rest of it  Before the recesses are filled, the naked slope is covered with mesh, and then the whole is filled in with piped, sprayed on cement.  It must cost an absolute king's ransom, and looks like taking 8 moths to achieve.  The crew is super-professional.  They start exactly on time, every day, and are a very skilled and polished unit; they consequently get through a very carefully sequenced and repeated mountain of work, still remembering to wave in a friendly way when they see you.  Quite amazing.

The drilled in pipe sections and boring machine

The re bar cages with expansion bolts in place, mesh being laid.

Spraying on concrete through the mesh and into the recesses.

Three faces and hands

Aiden

Aiden's mate, Scott

Evan

Back with rugby - Tin Shui Wai on Sunday

Walking out onto the pitch with his mate Jules - they have a really cool friendship, so nice to see.
Wiping astro chips out of his gum-guard on his shirt.  Tasty. 

Captain of his team, listening to the pre-game ref chat.  

Back at flyhalf this time.  Out there doing his stuff. 

Out on the pitch, with that haunted gummy look.