Pattaya rugby festival 5-6 May 2007

[dirtydog]

CHRIS KAYS MEMORIAL
Pattaya rugby festival next weekend


Next weekend, May 5-6, will see the eighth staging of the Pattaya Rugby Tournament which was renamed as the Chris Kays Memorial Tournament to perpetuate the memory of the former Pattaya Panthers captain who was tragically killed in the Bali bombing in October 2002. This year the tournament has secured major sponsorship from Raimon Land so consequently the event will carry the name of Raimon Land.

Once again the tournament will be staged at the the Horseshoe Point Resort, run by Chainarin Srifuengfung and his staff.

There will be a 10's tournament for men and a Ladies Touch Tournament, which will be run concurrently. There will also be a demonstration of ladies full contact 15 a side on the Saturday afternoon.

Sixteen teams will play in the main 10's tournament and this year there will be very strong local influence from the British Club Bangkok, the Southerners and the Old Bangkok Bangers. Last year's champions the Royal Thai Navy will be defending their title and Kasetsart University and another newly formed team ''Nang Len'' RFC will add more local presence.

Old friends from abroad include Tanner De Wit Nomads from Hong Kong, The Vientiane Buffaloes from Laos and crowd favourites the Bangkok Japanese. Rumours are that the hosts the Pattaya Panthers led by Eoin Quirke have been training very hard and are sure to provide stiff opposition on their home territory.

There will be eight ladies teams participating and again the local teams are again leading the way. But the Nomads Bullettes from Manila have a very strong squad and one cannot discount the entrants from Singapore, the Bucks and the Blacks.

Players and friends will get together on Friday night for a ''welcoming party and training session'' at the Northpoint development of Raimon Land, followed by registration at Jameson's.

In addition to Raimon Land the tournament has also received significant support from MBMG International, Hamptons International and AGS Fourwinds. Tournament headquarters will be at Jameson's Irish Pub, which is the spiritual home of rugby on the Eastern Seaboard.

The action begins at 9am on Saturday May 5th and concludes around 5pm Sunday in what should be a memorable weekend festival of rugby.
''The weather is fine and the venue is in perfect condition so we have no doubt that this will be the best tournament yet,'' said chairman of the Pattaya Panthers, Jim Howard.

Bangkok Post

[ChiangMai noon]

I was trying to get time off work to go down for this.
The Oirish bar team in ChiangMai have a team playing.
They have stacked it with as many Thai players as they could because they theorise that the Thais don't have enough money to spend the whole weekend whoring and might actually be fit enought to play some rugby.

[klongmaster]

this year there will be very strong local influence from the British Club Bangkok, the Southerners and the Old Bangkok Bangers

The Bangers Post at their normal bullshitting best...the British Club has been taken over by thais, and all the real rugby players are now at the bangers...should be no-contest really...

[Marmite the Dog]

The action begins at 9am on Saturday

Disaster!

Luckily, I'll still be sleeping at 9am, as I'll be doing a not so live report from Phnom Penh.