[Hamton]

Are there any casual football groups around?

I'm really interested in either joining a casual team/league, or starting up a casual weekly 5-a-side type thing.

There's a team I occasionally play with once every few weekends, but it's quite infrequent (it's a full team, grass pitch thing) and I'd be interested in more of a weeknight 5-a-side thing. Preferably on HK island but Kowloon's ok too. I know the biggest problem is getting the pitch, you have to book weeks or months in advance, and need a steady 10 man group at least...

But anyone who's interested, chime in. It's be a friendly casual thing.

[killahbad]

count me in dude.

[Mat]

would be interested too

[sunniefaith]

Let me know. Hubby would be interested

[Hamton]

Ooh, at this rate we might be able to get a couple of 5-a-side teams together.

A big problem currently is booking the pitch - I was checking the EDS Life website ( http://w1.leisurelink.lcsd.gov.hk/index/index.jsp ) and every evening from now until the last bookable date (the next 30 days) is fully booked. I guess every day, either around midnight or some time in the morning, they refresh the site and make the new day available (ie; currently you can book up till May 7th, tomorrow it will be May 8th)...

I guess the key is to be one of the first people in Hong Kong to get the available slots for that newly released day! There are only 3 slots for each weeknight evening And only one is very good (8pm-9:30pm).

If anyone's really up for joining in, feel free to check out the ESD Life website and keep hammering refresh around the time it updates (I guess early morning), to see if you can get a bookable evening slot for the 30th day...

I'd say the ideal setting would be;

Min. Football Pitch (Astro Turf)
Quarry Bay or Quarry Bay Ph II or Happy Valley
Weeknight Evening (8pm-9:30pm being best spot)

Chances of getting that: slim!

Getting a team together sounds promising though, even if we can't get a pitch for at least 30 days.

[phil2004]

Why don't you join the Diadora Indoor League in September ? its on HK Island and week days. Check Diadora Football League for more infos. Phil

[Hamton]

Phil - I did email you about that Diadora league a week or two ago, but no reply

Also, September is years away.

[phil2004]

Wow...very strange..did you email me at aafc88@gmail.com ? in any case the league is over mid-may and we should have friendlies every week after that..email me if you can. Phil

[dipper]

We tried to run something like this a while ago using the pitches you mention but we only managed to get a booking about once a month so it was difficult to get any momentum going, although we did have enough players for the 3 or 4 times we played. If you are more disciplined than I was in checking pitch availability every morning then you may be able to get more bookings - booking opens at 7am for 30 days ahead as far as I remember so you need to be up early every morning to be the first one to get the booking if a pitch is free.

If you do get something going let me know and you can also contact the players from last time, the old thread is here:

Looking for a kickabout

By the way the pitches you mentioned are designed as 7-a-side pitches rather than 5-a-side. 6 or 7 is OK but if you play 5-a-side on them you'll need to be a bit fit.

[Hamton]

Yeh I'll have to start checking it every morning. Maybe we can get games more frequently, though I doubt we'll be able to have the first game for at least a month due to the obvious 30 days fully booked pitch schedule.

If anyone else is interested, again post here and feel free to hammer the http://w1.leisurelink.lcsd.gov.hk/index/index.jsp every morning