Michael Johnston reviews last week’s Battle of the Codes Charity Fundraiser held in Hanoi which raised a total of $1,000 for two charities – Swim Vietnam and Little Tigers.

Faced with the sad news that JASPA’s Manager was unavailable due to illness on the night, 75 hardy souls decided to nonetheless press on with the Battle of the Codes Charity Fundraiser. Five Clubs were represented:

  1. The Hanoi Oi’s Netball Club
  2. The Dura Celts Gaelic Football Club
  3. The Hanoi Dragons Rugby Club
  4. The Hanoi Celts Gaelic Club
  5. The Vietnam Swans Australian Rules Football Club

The objective of the evening was to:

  1. Raise funds for Swim Vietnam?
  2. Raise funds for Little Tigers Orphanage?
  3. Bringe together 4 of Ha Noi’s ball-sports codes?
  4. Have a good time? or
  5. All of the above?
  • * See Footnote No. 1.

Following a welcome from the Ha Noi Swans Prez, Dan Hopkins, and quick chats about the charities being supported by the evening, MC Simon took over the mic.

Mind-taxing rounds of daunting questions included:

  1. General Knowledge;
  2. Netball;
  3. Rugby;
  4. Australian Rules;
  5. Gaelic Football;
  6. Vietnamese Sport; or
  7. All of the above.
  • See Footnote No. 2

In between the rounds, a number of raffle prizes were distributed and auctions conducted.  A special big thanks has to go to the organisations that donated the prizes, including JASPA’s, Green Mango Restaurant, Pots’n Pans Restaurant and the Intercontinental Hotel Hanoi.

For such a broad spectrum of questions covering many continents, sports and events, there was one popular generic answer of “F…’ed if I know”.  However, this was not the correct answer and the eventual winning team, Skowronski’s Sausages, established an early lead and was never headed.

  • See Footnote No. 3

At the end of the questions, the adjoining-table teams of Celts and Dragons were tied for 2nd (who was copying whose answers?), so a time honoured Boat Race was held to decide who took home the valuable 2nd-place handshake from Prez, cDan.  In a close fought race, the team that won had:

  1. The only female Boat Race crew member?
  2. The only shaven head male crew member?
  3. No Irish accents?
  4. Oval balls (including (1) above)?
  5. All of the above?
  • See Footnote No. 4.

After a great evening, Swim Vietnam and Little Tigers Orphanage will each receive $500 towards their programmes. Anyone who wants to learn more about these wonderful organisations can contact them via their web sites:

Special thanks must go to the staff at JASPA’s who did a great job without Jamie to keep the food, drinks and energy coming all night.

Thanks also to our anonymous Question-Meister, Matt Townsend, who kept everyone scratching their heads for 3 hours.

  • Footnote No. 5

Footnotes:

  • No. 1 = (5) All of the above.
  • No. 2 = (7) All of the above.
  • No. 3 = Protest Dismissed against winning team having more than 6 on their table: No provision in rules for maximum numbers on a team, and there is no guarantee that an extra embassy staff will raise the total IQ of a team.
  • No. 4  = (5) All of the above.
  • No. 5 = Protest Dismissed against Question-Meister for dubious round of rugby questions being NZ-centric rather than sports-focussed:  No Formal Agreement signed regarding strict question content, but QM will be under the microscope and BofTheC’s Management Committee may vet future offerings.

Photos

To view more photos of the evening taken by Michael Johnston, click here.