The tourney

The Hong Kong Sevens, an international and annual tournament which this year was also the World Cup. My first ever international sporting event. Tonnes of fun, but I feel not neccessarily a good example of an international tournament.

The reason I say this is the party atmosphere is a touch more prevelant in this tourney. Although it's a world cup, the whole thing only takes 3 days, because games are only 14 minutes long. It's a boom boom boom scenario and to tell yourself you're going to watch every game intently is a lie (or you're insane). You need food and washroom, and a lot of people suplement that with beer.

I came prepared with lots of snacks (and snuck in pop top tins of baked beans although cans are banned) so I wouldn't have to pay any of the exorbitant (expensive) food prices. And fruit and stuff too, but that apparently isn't banned. Why ban such things? Well this tournament has a tendency to encourage the throwing of items on the field from what I was told and heard. The corporate sponsors give out little soft rugby balls and various sift edged flying discs, not to mention various giant inflatable things that bounce around the crowds. These sometimes intentionally sometimes by chance make the field. Usually not aimed at players, but more likely the weiner security guards (more on them later). My personal fave things that were flying around the stadium though were the paper airplanes. People were refining designs over the course of teh tourney and it was fun to watch them float down from the upper decks, or sometimes dive straight into the fans below. If a game was particularly boring and a plane made it particularly far the fans would give a round of applause for its efforts.

From what I read in the paper this tourney was a bit tamer than most. Probably because it was the world cup. The "south stand" where the party is really supposed to be centred was apparently tamer, and the corporate boxes apparently had more of an exclusivity to them. Not that I was even allowed to go up the special escalator which gives access to the corporate areas. Thos guys gave out tonnes of swag though. There is nothing more frustratiing than watching people emerge with FREE rugby jerseys and scarves. I mean they're rich and important and therefor in the box, they don't need mopre free stuff. If I could have actually gotten a few jerseys I could wear them to practice in, not tshirts that risk being getting torn asunder at a moments notcie. Ah well. Some people didn't even get to go to the tourney so why do I complain.

Definitely a lot of fun had by all. But the tournament is very much an expat thing that some of the Chinese resdients take part in.