Hong Kong Cricket Club, one of our overseas reciprocal clubs, visited Melbourne in early-February with an 80-strong touring party of players, partners and club officials.
The group played MCC in a series of cricket, golf, hockey and netball matches, including an ‘official/trophy match’ as well as ‘social’ matches against MCC and several other local clubs. The 10-day tour concluded with a match on the SCG.MCC also hosted the touring party at a dinner in the Members Dining Room on February 10, at which the clubs exchanged gifts and continued the strong relationships that have been formed between the two clubs in recent decades.
On the field, MCC came out on top in the netball, cricket and golf trophy matches, before lowering our colours on the hockey pitch.
Our netballers triumphed 73-17 in the trophy match and 34-30 in a more tightly fought social clash. HKCC triumphed 2-0 in the hockey encounter and our cricketers scored a hard-earned, two-wicket victory at the MCG in the “main” match.
The MCC XXIX Club also played a 35-overs-per-side cricket match against the visitors at the Albert Ground, winning by seven runs.
The golf trophy match consisted of 24 players per side playing 12 matches of four-ball, best-ball at Kingston Heath, with one point being awarded to each winning pair. The final result was MCC narrowly winning 7-5.
The club was delighted to welcome our reciprocal friends and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Hong Kong CC, which commenced in 1983, well into the future.
In addition to Hong Kong CC, MCC has formal arrangements for its members to have reciprocal rights with a number of sporting clubs and stadiums in Melbourne, interstate and overseas. To find out more, visit www.mcc.org.au/my-mcc-membership/reciprocal-club-rights.