ABACUS KOWLOON RFC ANNUAL REPORT 2012/2013 21 Aug 2013 Annual report for 2012/2013 Season Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club Established 1976
ABACUS Kowloon RFC Annual Report 2012/2013 A MESSAGE FROM ABACUS INTERNATIONAL... 2 OFFICERS OF THE CLUB... 3 Official Officers of the Club... 3 Positions Elected by the Committee... 3 SPONSORS... 4 Official Sponsors of Kowloon RFC... 4 Secondary Sponsors of Kowloon RFC... 4 Associate Sponsors of Kowloon RFC... 4 CHAIRMAN S REPORT... 5 TREASURER REPORT... 7 DIRECTOR OF RUGBY REPORT... 8 CHAIRMAN OF THE NETBALL SECTION REPORT... 9 MINI AND JUNIOR SECTION REPORT... 10 ABACUS KOWLOON COMMUNITY FUN DAY... 11 END OF REPORT... 13 Page 1
A MESSAGE FROM ABACUS INTERNATIONAL Congratulations on an impressive and convincing win in the Hong Kong League Premiership! This was a testament to the grit and determination of the entire team and players! We are looking forward to another exciting season as you prepare to defend the championship and are confident that team captain Tom McColl and experienced veterans Eni and Cadu will help power the club to success. As Abacus Kowloon RFC s sponsor, Abacus is passionate about combining individual talent and skills to deliver exceptional team performance and strive for even higher goals and results. We wish Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club all the best for the 2013/4 season! Robert Bailey President and CEO, Abacus international Page 2
OFFICERS OF THE CLUB Official Officers of the Club Anson Bailey President Kevin McBarron Steven Baynes Gareth Page Ciara Waller Clive Hammond Koko Mueller Matthew Stockdale Brandon Huang Lisa Twinley / Alex Hickling Tom McCall Jason Conlin / Tom Jewers John Bruce Stan Christian Marco Ng Christine Gordon Chairman Secretary and acting Treasurer Director of Rugby Chairman (Netball section) Director of Tournaments Membership Secretary Corporate Liaison Officer Mini and Youth Development Officer Social Secretary 1 st XV Captain 2 nd XV Captain 3 rd XV Captain (Stingrays) 4 th XV Captain (Beavers) 5 th XV Captain (Barbarians) Ladies Captain (Barbies) Positions Elected by the Committee James Brooks Head Coach Paul Hunt Francis Leung Alison Stanbrook-Wallis Dermot Kane Aaron Smith / Jon Savage Kit Manager (Elected to Executive committee) Asset Liaison Officer Administration Assistant 1 st team Assistant Physiotherapy Manager Page 3
SPONSORS Kowloon RFC would like to thank the sponsors for the 2012/13 season. Official Sponsors of Kowloon RFC Secondary Sponsors of Kowloon RFC Associate Sponsors of Kowloon RFC Page 4
Chairman s Report The 2012-13 rugby season for Abacus Kowloon Rugby Club saw a new coach, James Brooks, arrive a few weeks before the season commenced. The late arrival proved no hindrance as we were crowned League Champions for the Premiership and Premiership A for the second consecutive season. The Prem A lads were unbeaten throughout the season until a dispiriting defeat in the grand championship final. We truly have some very passionate players at Kowloon and we should continue to be a force to be reckoned with next season as we embark on our next 3 year plan the aim of which is to build a strong club throughout all divisions Tragedy cast a pall over our season with the loss of our first team captain, David Tait, but the lads showed tremendous character, and as a club we appreciate all the support from all of the other clubs in Hong Kong which illustrates the beauty of our game, especial thanks to Valley RFC for offering to postpone the game immediately after David s passing. We really do appreciate the efforts of our entire coaching team led by our Director of Rugby Gareth Page who ensured new coach James Brooksy Brooks had a squad ready and waiting for him, thanks also to Brandon Huang, Fei Gai and So Jai, for their outstanding work with development and our women s team. In the community leagues it was more of a struggle this year due to league reorganisation, however we hope to bounce back in the coming season. The Kowloon Rugbyfest was the biggest show in town excepting of course the Sevens. This year as we helped to kick off the festivities leading up to HK Sevens with 24 teams enjoying some old-fashioned Kowloon hospitality here in Hong Kong and we welcomed a number of new teams to the Rugbyfest including teams from UK, Laos, Malaysia, Australia plus we welcomed back many of our old friends too including the PLA, Jakarta Komodos and the Rwandan National team. A special mention must go to Clive Hammond for allowing himself to be thrown back into the fray as the Rugbyfest Tournament Director! Kowloon is regarded as one of the best social rugby clubs in Hong Kong and a big thank you must go to our Social Secretary, Lisa Twinley for helping to arrange a number of mega events including Miss Kowloon this year won by a Scottish Bird. At Kowloon Rugby Club, we are passionate about doing the right thing on and off the field of play. That means supporting local community and also ensuring we reach out to those in need. All of our members from both the rugby and netball section got together for our end of season "Kowloon Community Rugby Fun Day" in early May to support a number of charities including Po Leung Kuk, Changing Young Lives and SoCO. It was great to see over 220+ underprivileged kids learning about the game of rugby with various ball drills plus also having a fun time on the bouncy castles and running around King's Park. We shall continue reaching out to the local community and at the same time, continue to welcome players and members from all walks of life and of all ages, colours and abilities. In addition over the years, the club has supported the Christina Noble Children s Foundation, Ben Kende Fund, Enlighten, Operation Breakthrough, Help for Heroes, the Laos Development team and the Rwandan National Rugby team and will continue to focus on this area. Success was just not on the rugby pitch but also on the netball courts with the Kowloon netball teams expanding their membership and also winning trophies too. Page 5
Also, a big thank you to our great sponsors including out Title Sponsor Abacus plus Sabre Travel Networks, StructureTone, O Melveny & Myers, UniGroup Worldwide UTS, AMP Control, Kane Tunnelling, Carlsberg and our official Kowloon watering hole, The Canny Man. We look forward to the new 2013-14 season ahead and look forward to seeing all of the other clubs both on and off the field of play. Kevin McBarron Chairman Abacus Kowloon Rugby Club Page 6
TREASURER REPORT We ended the 2012 /2013 season Cash positive. We operated in most cases to budget apart from Kit which cost considerable more than we budgeted for. We have also completed the outstanding payments of past seasons for items like flight tickets. KRFC income continues to be funded largely from our sponsorship. Our largest expenditure is on professional resources with an average run rate of over $100,000 per month. The Abacus Kowloon Rugbyfest continues to generate a substantial profit. The 2013 event is now approaching a profit of nearly $300,000. Unfortunately at the time of print we are still missing August and September statements as the bank deleted them during the upgrade of the account. This is the reason for some low numbers for Membership and Sevens Tickets. The 2012 / 2013 season has been one of upgrades and clean-up. We have upgraded the KRFC account at HSBC and now have access to better tools for payment and administration. The upgrade of the account also gives us a savings and current account which for the first time allowed us to track Seven s Ticket Payments from a separate bank account. We have also opened a HSBC account for the 9 dragons funds and have finally been able to bank the 9 Dragons funds.. We continue with our charity donations, making a donation to Enlighten for $30,000. We have over $100,000 in the KRFC account and over $100,000 in the 9 dragons account set aside for long term projects Looking forward to next season the employment of our new Administration assistant will be of great help and the Treasurer and Secretary position should be back to individual positions. We will also now be applying for a KRFC credit card. We have introduced a player match fee for all Premier games. 2012 /2013 Accounts are available to Full Members on request. Steven Baynes Treasurer and Secretary Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club Page 7
DIRECTOR OF RUGBY REPORT A difficult start to the pre-season training as we lost the services of our Head coach Joe Shaw who decided to join Saracens RFC in the UK. The coaching duties were later taken over by new head coach James Brooks. In the 2012-2013 season proved to be another successful year for the Premier and Premier A teams. The season started with a tour to the Philippines where the Nomads and Alabang Eagles were easily defeated by the Prem/Prem A squad The Kowloon Premier team won the league for the second year running, but were disappointingly knocked out by Valley in the Semi Finals of the Grand Championship. The Kowloon Premier A team won the league for the third year running, scoring 96 tries on the way and getting bonus points in all but one of their league games. Again the Grand Championship was a disappointment losing to HKFC in the final. The Kowloon 3 rd team and Kowloon Stingrays had a difficult campaign in CL1 due to the strength of the opposition and inability of the HKRU to form a competitive community league. Going forward we will need to improve and develop the coaching structure throughout the club. Over the next two seasons we need to build a 3 rd team who can be competitive in the 3 rd division (National league 2). And for the long term future of Kowloon RFC it is very important that we fully integrate with a feeder club (mini/colts). Overall a good year, but a lot of work to do to advance to the next level. Gareth Page Director of Rugby Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club Page 8
CHAIRMAN OF THE NETBALL SECTION REPORT The past season saw Kowloon netball section increase from 4 teams to 5 teams competing across division 6 up to division 2. With sapphires winning div 3 last season and moving up to div 2, finishing in 5th place really shows how the club has grown in spirit and skills on and off the court. Our longest standing team the diamonds made it to playoffs in div 4 which means we are hoping they will be well positioned to compete in div 3 this coming season. The movement of all teams we hope will be huge this coming season as we welcome our very first official coach. Kirsty has a very colorful netball resume, having been in Hk for 14years now (coming from South Africa where she competed to club level). She has been a player / coach for valley rfc, and has coach the HK national team from 6th to 4th place over the last few years. We hope that the calibre and skills Kirsty brings to the club will lead us into greater things. Of course we continue to be the social club that we built our reputation on and enjoy many nights out on the town. A mixture of girls from all teams went to Singapore cricket club's annual tournament in march and competed against teams from all round Asia. We hope to hold Kowloon's first Asia tournament right here in Hk next year. Massive thank you to Ciara Waller who is stepping down as chair lady after 3 years and good luck to Lisa Twinley who is moving across from Kowloon social secretary to fill Ciara's shoes. Lisa Twinley Chairman of the Netball Section Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club Page 9
MINI AND JUNIOR SECTION REPORT 110 registered players, approx. 85 boys, 25 girls Boys: three teams U14, U16 and U19 Girls: mainly U19 and U16 players Four coaches from Kowloon and one from Lions Trainings once a week, every Sunday at THT pitch all through the year except Christmas and New Year holidays Lions went to Shanghai last Nov. first time ever that we had three boys teams U14, U16, U19 and girls U18 going together Lions received 6 trophies altogether, not as many trophies as compared to previous years of 10 to 12 trophies. Lions is still regarded as one of the largest and best performed clubs for local Chinese Cary Tu Abacus Kowloon Rugby Football Club Page 10
ABACUS KOWLOON COMMUNITY FUN DAY The Kowloon Funday this year was held in early May with 200 children from schools throughout Hong Kong, coming together at Kings Park to join in with the fun and games organised by members of Kowloon RFC. With almost 20 members of the rugby club and more than 10 members of the netball team turning out to welcome the Children, the day was set to be a great event. On Arrival at Kings Park the Children were split in to different groups where they were then allocated mentors for the day. The mentors were set the task of arranging games and activities within a rugby setting. With most of the Children having never picked up a rugby ball let alone played the game, this was a task easier said than done resulting in a number of competitive games played but with a rugby edge. One such game, British Bull-dog, allowed the Children to use both speed and agility to dodge their class mates and reach the other side of the pitch. Each of the games was played with a large amount of energy and keenness, leading to a large number of water breaks for the Children and mentors alike. A highlight of the Funday was the Fun-zone. With the aid of the HKRFU inflatable, this area where the Children were able to win prizes through their ability to hook a duck or splat a rat! Marshalled by the Kowloon netball girls this was an area which all of the children enjoyed and was an opportunity for them to have their face s painted or cool off while playing with the water guns and slippy slide provide by some of the charitable donations which we received for the day. Page 11
However wet the Children (and mentors) may have been by the end of the day, the enthusiasm and eagerness of both the children and all those that were representing Kowloon RFC, was a clear representation of how enjoyable the day was. Seeing many of the children grow in confidence even when playing a simple ball game was a pleasure to see, with some of the teachers even being surprised by how out-going some of the children were being. With the success of the event in only it s first year, we can see a larger turnout from both the children involved and the support driven from Kowloon as well. Page 12
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