The sun was out, the drinks were cold and the BBQ sizzled, as did the sporting action at the second edition of Societe Generale Valley RFC’s “SG Fast, Femme and Furious” event at King’s Park Sports Ground on Saturday 4th September.

Celebrating the coming together for a new, and hopefully full, season of sport, SG Fast, Femme and Furious is Hong Kong’s premier all-women’s-and-girls sporting festival featuring rugby, hockey and netball. The event also provides teams with a much needed, last chance “live fire” competition a week or two prior to their leagues commencement where they can tinker with their selections, experience authentic pressure and fine tune game plans.

The day commenced in the morning with multi-sport coaching clinics for the teenage girls of Integrated Brilliant Education, delivered by premiership coaches and players from the Valley women’s premiership teams in all three sports. The enthusiastic participants enjoyed a hearty lunch in the clubrooms before cheering on the Valley teams in the afternoon. The clinics are an important steppingstone in the infancy of the Societe Generale Valley Bright Girls program which will eventually be funded by the Valley Foundation, the clubs’ “section 88” charity which is pending registration.

At 1:30pm, all three sports tournaments kicked off abbreviated versions of their game – meaning with less players and/or less time with women’s premiership hockey tournament at King’s Park hockey stadium, a multi-divisional invitation netball tournament on pitch 3 and a rugby premiership and div 2 competition on pitches 1 and 2.

Rugby Summary

With just two weeks of runway leading into the Women’s Rugby Premiership, all six Premiership clubs seized the opportunity that the SG FFF presented and enjoyed three games of 25 minutes duration to take some contact, stress test the systems and get the ball through the hands.

Kroll USRC Tigers and Societe Generale Valley emerged as unbeaten winners of their pools to meet in the final, with the Tigers grinding out a deserved 12-0 victory, while DAC Kowloon and Natixis HKFC duked it out in 3rd/4th playoff and First Pacific SCAA Causeway Bay and Gai Wu rounded out the days’ action pitch 1.

Just four teams (Valley 2, HKFC 2, Kowloon 2 and HK Scottish) sparred in a division two round robin competition with Valley emerging as the winner.

The “Best and Fairest” award in the Prem comp was presented to Hoi Ying Cheung of Tigers and to Aislin Wu of Valley 2 in the Div 2 comp.

Also featured during the afternoon were a series of girls mini and youth showcase matches at the under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age grades on pitch 2 and it was great seeing these younger players expressing themselves and adding age-diversity to the event.

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Hockey Summary

All six teams from the Hong Kong Hockey Association Women’s Premier Division participated in a modified hockey tournament - HKFC A, HKFC B, HKCC A, KCC A, Coyotez and Valley A.

The teams braved a very hot King’s Park pitch and each played three 24 minute games across the day.

Congratulations to Katy and the HKFC A team for a great win over Coyotez in the final. It was a close match with Coyotez leveling the score at 1-1 but HKFC A pulling ahead to finished ahead 2-1.

Well done to Jess B and Sophie P from HKFC B who shared the award for player of the day. Jess and Sophie were two of the youngest players in the tournament, playing against women in the highest level of hockey in Hong Kong, and both managed to score important goals to help HKFC B reach equal 3rd in the tournament.

Special mention to Frery from Valley who was tournament top scorer, and Evelyn from Coyotez who also received an award for her strong performance on the day.

Overall it was a great day played both competitively and in good spirit, and as the day went on and the sun went down the water requests turned into beer requests as the teams had a great time socializing together.

Thanks to those who helped out on the day (umpires and other helpers), the HKHA Women’s Section for their support of the tournament, Societe Generale and our other sponsors for the event, and finally the players for putting on some great hockey in tough conditions!

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Netball Summary

The SG FFF netball tournament was a hot but exciting afternoon of Fast5s fun. Eight teams entered the Women’s open round robin, with many teams playing back-to-back matches to battle for a spot in the finals.

Despite the heat and bright sunshine, more than 250 goals were scored with a lot of cheering for the 3-pointers scored from all the way outside the D! Special shout out to Valley’s Georgia Flower for setting the bar high by scoring three 3-pointer goals within the first quarter of the first game!

It was Valley Squad vs DB Pirates and Okay vs Valley Steelers battling it out in the semis. Both games were tight with lots of rolling subs keeping the energy high throughout. The all Valley final was won by Valley Squad beating Valley Steelers 13-8.

It was a great turnout with displays of sportsmanship throughout…teams sharing shade, collecting water for each other, and cheering from the sidelines through to the closing ceremony, where DB Pirates’ Alex Von Etzdorf was voted MVP of the tournament.

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Appreciation

The club wishes to thank all the teams, players, coaches and supporters that participated in this special event that we hope to continue growing, season by season.

Specific thanks though, too;

Our title sponsor Societe Generale for their unwavering support and backing
The Hong Kong Rugby Union for their support and providing such a wonderful venue for the event, as well as manpower throughout the day to keep us on track
The Hong Kong Netball Association and Hong Kong Hockey Association for their support
IBEL for supporting the Societe Generale Valley Bright Girls program
All the coaches that aided the clinics for the IBEL girls.
The King’s Park Clubhouse for putting on discounted food and drinks for the IBEL girls and providing food and beverage to everyone at the event
The broadcast team for outstanding vision
The commentary team of Sam Scott, Lindsay Varty and Kim Senogles for adding wonderful insight and colour across the action

We also express our gratitude for all the spectators that came to KP and supported the event and those that joined the livestream broadcast from around the world.

We hope to see you next year at edition 3 which will be faster and more furious than ever.