In March 1988, I came down from Wuhan and got a ticket for Sunday's Sevens. In the afternoon, I walked down to the hoardings to get closer to the action and started talking to a young Pom, as one does (me being a Saffa/Yank working in China and desperate to talk rugby). Little did I realise I was watching history in the making. That was the last time Australia won the Hong Kong Sevens. And guess who I met one year later at the Sevens? The same Pom. And watched the same final, but with the roles reversed.

This will be my 35th Sevens, but one that stands out is in the late 1970s when the old HKFC pitch flooded. The mud was like a swamp. Teams sat with the fans in the stands and I got a job cleaning the mud off the Australian team's boots. I remember the Ella brothers and Roger Gould, who was the typical unaffected good Aussie country bloke. Both Ella brothers seemed right at home at the Sevens and always had a smile. For a 12-year old, it was a great honour.

When I was planning my wedding in 1981 I had to make sure that we didn't double book or I might have had an empty church.

I met Zinzan Brooke at Kai Tak airport around 1987 when the New Zealand team were leaving. I still have the photo, as well as an old Sevens flag as treasured memories.

In the very beginning, everyone brought their own picnics of pickled eggs, chicken legs to be washed down by Mateus Rose and San Miguel. We used to stroll around the ground getting autographs as all the teams sat in the stands with everyone else while waiting for their next game.

In 1997 - the first time the city hosted the World Cup Sevens - I was living in Hong Kong and my now-husband was living in Beijing. We met on the Sunday in the South Stand, two complete strangers with no mutual friends. I asked him if he'd like to share my umbrella when it started to pour. He told awful jokes to chat me up. Apart from Hazel Black in her cat suit and a guy from Beijing wearing a white bikini, there was little dressing up then. And you didn't queue forever to get into the South Stand. We've been to around 18 Sevens. Last year I watched our seven-year old twins play. The Sevens is the cycle of life.

I was the first person to use the scoreboard to propose. It was 1993 and we were halfway through the redevelopment of the new stadium. The diamond screen in the South Stand was being used for the first time. I was tournament controller and took the liberty of proposing to Sheila during the march past. She was sitting in the referee's box and we all went down on our knees as we passed by. The was all over it like a rash. When Sheila said "yes", the stadium went mad. After that, we saw an opportunity to raise money for charity and charged HK$100 for people to use the scoreboard. I remember Bill Morrison's wife paying money to say she wanted a divorce, which, of course, never happened.

Does anyone remember the Hong Kong male Welsh choir planting a leek and a daffodil on the pitch at half-time of a match, then paying homage to them? I think Max Boyce may have been with them and it was around 1989. There were photographs of him in the crowd holding the leek and the daffodil. I also remember the year that Max Boyce sat with the Welsh choir. Someone had a keyboard that you had to blow into a tube to make it work. Max wrote a song about it, proving there is a place for Welsh crooners at the Hong Kong Sevens.

This year marks my 25th Hong Kong Sevens in a row. In the early '90s, spectators would wear matching rugby jerseys and afro wigs, but there was no real fancy dress. In 1996, a friend and I decided to wear cat masks and carry whips. It was so much fun that the following year I came in a bondage-style Catwoman suit. Three Kiwi guys met me on the Friday, and the following day they all showed up dressed as Elvis. The media in Hong Kong and further afield started to notice. The following year, I came with a group dressed as Batman, Robin, Penguin, The Joker and Zorro. The fancy-dress tradition had begun. I've varied the outfits over the years (Wonder Woman, pilot, nurse, French maid, devil, school girl). My favourite characters would probably be the Pie Man and The Melonheads. The Sevens is the biggest fancy dress party in the world.

I can't remember what year it was, but the tournament was still at the old HKFC stadium. It had been pouring rain all weekend and the pitch was flooded and the fire brigade was pumping water off the pitch. I had been in a swimming competition over the road at Morrison Hill Pool, and my mum told me not to bother getting changed from my swimsuit as it was so wet, so off I went to the Sevens in my swimsuit. I was dared by someone to swim through the goal posts, so I did. It was broadcast on the news that night.

I, along with a fellow 6th Gurkha officer, was the first ever streaker. It was in 1986 and it was in the break before the final. Naked apart from desert boots, we ran the length of the field carrying the Pirates Rugby Club (Brunei) flag. The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas were marching on to the pitch and, recognising me, gave an "Eyes Right" to me instead of an "Eyes Left" to the saluting officer. We hurriedly wrapped ourselves in the flag so as not to upset the Gurkhas and escaped later in the Bedford truck that the band arrived in. I later heard two RHKP constables gave chase, but were "reined in" by a mate of ours. The regiment commanding officer was seriously unchuffed. - Jonathan Titley

I delved into my music archives the other day and found a copy of on Hong Kong Commercial Radio on the morning of the 1985 tournament with my dad, Ian Gow. Dad, along with Tokkie Smith, came up with the idea of the Sevens in the mid-seventies. Dad sounds like Donald Duck due to poor tape quality. All these decades later they spirit me right back to the old Sevens. Among my other favourite Sevens paraphernalia is Kevin Sinclair's anniversary coffee table book, .

I went every year from 1977 with my parents when it was at the HKFC. It was easy to get in and the stadium wasn't packed then. We'd go early to get good seats and then they would keep an eye on us with their binoculars. I recalled that year when the fire department was called in to pump out the water. As we waited for them, an obviously inebriated fellow went on to the pitch and kept the crowds entertained with his antics, being cheered on. As we applauded and laughed, we suddenly realised it was our next-door neighbour who, the next day, could not recall a thing.

I had never seen people play rugby in bare feet before. Go West Samoa!

My dad was instrumental in getting the mini-rugby included as an exhibition. I, along with several other players, played the year the old HKFC stadium filled with water. We had to float the ball in order to attempt a conversion. A mean feat for a regular player, but not for me in Primary Six. We were all sitting behind the old scoreboard to get changed as only the players were allowed in the proper changing rooms. We were beside the Argentinians and I was given a pair of socks by one of their forwards, who was possibly the tallest man I have ever seen.

I was there for the first Hong Kong Rugby Sevens in 1976. After the first Saturday, I had no voice for the next couple of days. Whenever I went with my husband and our friends, they always left me standing alone by halfway as I'd made them deaf, screaming and yelling, "Bury the ref" and a few other choice words. The Sevens gets in your blood. It got in mine at that very first Sevens 40 years ago as a late teenager, and has never left.

The year was 1986 - France went to the Sevens for a jolly. After the initial pre-tourney drinks at HSBC, they popped down to Wan Chai for a few hours when we all went to bed. Come Saturday morning, they had missed the official transport, so had to go on the supporters' coach, bringing a live cockerel. They then proceeded to sing with a screaming cockerel flapping about, all the way to the stadium.

My father played for Hong Kong against New Zealand. His goal was just to touch the ball. My mother recounts that she was given permission to stand almost on the pitch and film it. She was so excited she forgot to take the lens cap off. My mum says there weren't many women at the early [Hilton Hotel] balls as overseas players didn't bring wives. She recalls a Papuan with a bone in his nose asking her to dance and speaking in a posh English accent.

As kids, we'd wait with the programme for autographs by the player's entrance after every game and then try to sneak into the players' entrance. I was given John Jeffries' boot. It reeked, but it was the best player souvenir ever, and I still have it. The Aussie players used to watch the games from the stands in the late '80s and early '90s. So I would run up and sit with them and get their signatures. Aussie Michael Lynagh was an awesome bloke.

A special memory was when the Springboks came out of their sporting isolation in the early '90s and they finally made it to the Sevens. Joost van der Westhuizen was an absolutely mesmerising player. The Saffas were used to playing on a dry and dusty veld and had probably never seen such muddy conditions before.

Back in the early years at the old HKFC stadium, I recall Ray Bruce keeping the crowd in stitches with his introductions over the sound system. Brucie was a fire officer. One year, play was halted as one end of the pitch flooded and he used contacts to call in fire engines to pump out the mini-lake in case players drowned. The captain of the Hong Kong team that year was Ian Duncan, who was a manager at the Hilton Hotel. He was delivered to home and away matches by hotel limo. Also in that early team was Jules Guerrassimof. He was a hard-as-nails loose forward who played at the top level. His fingers were like claws, he'd broken them so many times when he dived into rucks to rip balls out. He was great to play with but a terror to play against.

One year, they were about to rebuild the stadium, so we all ran on to the pitch and ripped up the turf. The parents would arrive at the crack of dawn so they could get a seat under cover while the kids just wanted to hang out under the scoreboard with their friends. My favourite Sevens photo is of Will Carling in the South Stand with us in 1994.

My dad says I was the youngest person at the first Sevens at three months old, followed by my cousin Myles, who is eight days older. I worked at a few as a runner for the commentary boxes. Another year, I was the wallah for the Spanish team. The players used to drink this concoction called Staminade, which was served in the same jugs as the beer. I was receiving a huge dressing down for drinking beer until [former HKRFU stalwart and now IRB sevens executive] Beth Coalter saw the sickly green residue inside and said, "It's OK, it's Staminade." I remember John Jeffries of Scotland turning out for Wales. And Hong Kong making the Cup finals and Ian Strange missing the penalty to beat Australia. I will never forget sitting in the South Stand with half the Wales team, who had all flown out for the party as much as the rugby.

When the Sevens were played at So Kon Po you could see all of the crowds walking around in front of you. One group had numbered plaques and gave a rating one to nine for each lady that passed by. The men in women's outfits also got rated.

I was at the final in 1980 between Fiji and the Scottish Co-Optimists in the HKFC, along with my colleague, the late Jack Beattie, who was covering it for . There was so much water on the pitch at one side that a conversion could not be placed and taken, and conceded. Fiji won 12-8 in a cliff-hanger and as Scots legend Andy Irvine trudged past on the way to the dressing room, he was in tears.

I was only nine, but my best memories are of my parents being there cheering madly. The beer was sold in jugs. I remember the incredible Serevi on the pitch and the constant chanting "Fiji Kiwi" in that final play. I still have my programme, I think it was 1990. It has Mike Teague's signature in it, as he sat behind us and watched the final.

At the first Sevens some of us kids would hang about on the Saturday to try to acquire some of the shirts that had been washed and left overnight to dry in the stadium. At one of the Hilton balls in the '80s, the French team smuggled a live cockerel into the ballroom and it escaped. I remember the early days of the mobile phone, and how much abuse people would receive if it rang. "Who's the w****r on the phone?"

After leaving school I went to work for Denis Evans, who was the administrative secretary of the HKRFU, and I would type out the original team invitation letters, getting the replies back in - all by snail-mail in those days. The first phone call I would make if I needed to reach any committee members was usually to the HKFC bar.

I was at the first tournament in 1976 and my husband played for Hong Kong in 1988. At the players' ball, Samoan players donned their skirts and wore bones through their noses.

It was in the year of the Big Wet - 1992 - which Fiji won with Serevi doing his stuff in the mud. I was running the line as a touch judge and one of the German players was side-lined for a blood bin injury. He wiped his injury with his shirt like any good player and then tried to return to the game. Unfortunately, he had been replaced by a substitute. I had to tell him "For you , the Sevens is over."

I have memories of 1979 when the pitch was a sea of mud. You could just pop down to the players' seats to get autographs complete with mud smears. Then the first Sevens in the uncompleted new stadium in 1993, and the next few years of the South Stand - Mexican waves ad nauseum, pass the inflatable sheep/woman/cow around the entire stadium, the Pie Man, six-foot blokes wearing the beer girls' skimpy costumes. The ticket sales weekend was an event in itself. Bar-hopping before joining the queue winding around the stadium and continuing the party.

I was a ballboy during the first tournament with a bunch of other Island School players. We marched around the stadium in front of the teams at some stage holding up signs. I had Papua New Guinea. We were "paid" in plentiful supplies of spaghetti and meat balls. The first tournament was a quiet affair, only 12 teams. The Football Club stadium was about half full and only with rugby tragics.

I had my boyfriend visiting for my birthday. It was at the first Sevens in the new stadium where they hadn't put the seats in . Some bloke next to me had flown all the way from the UK to streak. When I finally got my Kiwi boyfriend's attention, here I was holding a naked man's clothes. And only at the Sevens does a toilet roll entertain 40,000 people. A friend suddenly appeared with this industrial-size toilet roll and we started passing it along. It was weaving between people, up and down the stand. Every time it broke, the whole South Stand yelled "stop" and someone would tie it together and on it would go. It got most of the way round the East Stand.

One year, Kodak disposable cameras were handed out at the gate. At one stage, we all had to click our cameras in unison. It was heart-warming to see the whole stadium lit up like a Christmas tree with twinkling fairy lights. I miss the carnival atmosphere, the pitcher of sangria, and the renditions of "Who ate all the pies".

In the first tourney, Hong Kong won the Plate and my brother and some mates were the ball boys. The Baa Baas team of 1981 were immense, the first from the northern hemisphere to win it. This flag was the one that flew over the HKFC Stadium that very first tournament. A pal got the Kiwi one, although someone later lifted it from his bag. "Bloody thieves," he moaned, not realising the irony. In 1982, when the tournament moved to the Government Stadium I decided to boycott its moving from the HKFC. Come Sevens Saturday, I found myself wandering around an empty city. I ended up buying a ticket for the Sunday at the gate.

I remember having a drink with one of the Scottish players. As the night wore on I found myself with various stars of the game singing songs under the gazebo at HKFC. One song required that one's trousers should be around one's ankles. At that moment my dad was passing by and was heard to say with some pride, "That's my boy".

I used to be a San Miguel girl, wearing the red hot pants and giving away free beer. I've never been so popular in all my life.

I was fortunate enough to be part of the parachute display team that jumped into the stadium before the finals in 1993. As we flew from New Territories to the island the whole area was covered with cloud and we thought, "Oh no, we're not going to be able to do it". Then, as we approached the stadium we saw a big hole in the cloud above the stadium. It must have been all the heat and energy driving the clouds apart. So we went for it. I will never forget the roaring of the crowd as I turned in above the scoreboard lining up to land on the cross. I felt like I had just won a gold medal at the Olympics.