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The Hospitality Tent

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NAME: The Hospitality Tent.

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AGE: Recently erected.

FUNCTION: Plays host to the hordes of non-sports fans who descend on sporting events like golf tournaments, tennis events, the Cricket Sixes and the Rugby Sevens in search of canapes, lashings of free booze and, ultimately, oblivion.

BRIEF HISTORY: Evolved with sport in Hong Kong - and by that I mean sport outside the members-only clubs. There was always the Sevens, the great-grand-daddy of corporate hospitality, but once a year wasn't enough for the territory's liggers. So along came those boring tennis events featuring Michael Chang and a cast of equally big names lured by the big bucks on offer. Add golf, cricket and the suchlike and the Hospitality Tent developed into a staple of the winter social calendar.

INHABITANTS: (1) Mine host. The corporate type who invites a combination of mates and business associates to the company box or tent. He has to maintain a delicate balance between pouring booze down their throats and keeping a close eye on the speed at which the Bolly stocks are diminishing.

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(2) The Jardine Johnnies. The JJs turn up for the booze and to swap tales of prep school bashings and rugger scrum indiscretions.

(3) The Fishing Fleet. The overly made-up, over-dressed hordes of latter-day Sloane Rangers who prowl around looking to land a drunken JJ and secure a key to his palatial Mid-Levels apartment ... and his heart. They are always out in force at the Professional Sevens, lured by the promise of fat bank accounts in tight shorts.

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