Flashback: Katayaburi won the Bauhinia Challenge in April 2023

Katayaburi, a quadball team based in Tokyo, travelled to Hong Kong to compete with two local teams, Hongkong Hydras Quidditch Club and Victorian Dragons, in the “Bauhinia Challenge” quadball tournament organised by our Association on 29 April last year. Katayaburi won both matches in the Preliminary Round and advanced to the Final, in which they beat Victorian Dragons and was crowned Champion.

The Bauhinia Challenge is the first international quadball match in Hong Kong since the exhibition match organised by the “Fly for Equality” Project in January 2018, which was played between HKU (the University of Hong Kong) and Seoul Puffskeins from South Korea. It is also the first time a quadball team from Japan visits Hong Kong.

Katayaburi was the third-best team in the Asian-Pacific Quadball Cup 2022. A total of 10 Katayaburi players travelled to Hong Kong for the match, including Naoki UESAKA, Shogo HASHIMOTO, Mayu NAGAYAMA, Natsuko SUZUKI, Tanvi PATIL, Taiki IDE, Genta SEKINE, Akari OTSUKA, Hidekazu KATO, and their captain, Ryochi ISHIKIRIYAMA.

Players from the other two teams include:

Hongkong Hydras QC: Toby LAU TIng Fung (#3), Jay HOLMES (#10), Gigi LAM (#22), Rachel LI Hiu Ching (#23), Rebecca WANG (#42), Thomas PICKERING (#44), Martin LAW (#44) (did not play), Kait MACDONALD (#67)

Victorian Dragons: Tsz Fung TAI (#6), Yoyo KU (#11), Thomas AU (#21), James YAM (#22), Chris LAU (#26), Peony LAU (#38), Aakash SRINIVASAN (#41), Queenie WONG (#99)

Bauhinia Challenge started with the Preliminary Round, in which Katayaburi played Hongkong Hydras QC and Victorian Dragons in two matches. The match winner will be awarded three points, and the Champion of the Hong Kong Quadball Cup 2023, a local tournament held in the morning on the same day, has three points. Among the three teams, the two teams with the most points advance to the Final.

Katayaburi beat Hongkong Hydras QC with a score of 230*-30 in the first match of the Preliminary Round, then went on to beat Victorian Dragons with a score of 160*-80 in the second match. After the Preliminary Round, Katayaburi has 6 points, Victorian Dragons has three, and Hongkong Hydras QC has none. Katayaburi and Victorian Dragons thus advanced to the Final. Katayaburi defeated Victorian Dragons in the final with a score of 130*-20. Impressively, Katayaburi won all three matches and caught the snitch in each of them, becoming the Champion of the Bauhinia Challenge. You can now revisit these games on our Association’s YouTube channel!

Katayaburi’s key player Naoki UESAKA, who would go on to represent Japan in the 2023 World Cup after the Bauhinia Challenge, expressed excitement about winning the tournament in Hong Kong, saying the day “is definitely the best moment of my quidditch life”. The captain of Victorian Dragons Queenie WONG, who would go on to represent Hong Kong in the 2023 World Cup, said it was an honour to play with one of the best teams from Asia.

Unfortunately, this is the last quadball tournament played by Thomas PICKERING, who sadly passed away in November 2023 in an accident. Our Association completes this late tournament report with him in mind.