10/04/2024

Apart from some incidental rugby, the highlight of the long weekend is the annual Doddie Weir charity dinner (AKA 'The Best Rugby Dinner in the World’) in aid of Motor Neurone Disease. On Wednesday 3rd April 480 attendees duly piled into the Grand Hyatt Hotel.  After they had been softened up with alcoholic beverages and a 40-strong bagpipe band, sports journalist and presenter Jonny Gould stepped up to do the classic auctioneer’s job of bullying, cajoling and shaming the diners into bidding far more money than they had ever intended for various auction items. As is now traditional, one of the lots was a special Hong Kong Sevens-themed Alex cartoon. Two well-known financial analysts vied to acquire this prized asset, with their their valuations of its worth varying only marginally. The final price was a heady HK$150,000 (£15,200 US$19,200), just HK$10,000 shy of the world record auction price for an Alex cartoon (also set at this dinner in 2019). The winning bidder modestly requests that his name be withheld, but proves that the adage about the Scots being mean is totally apocryphal.

Overall the evening raised a whopping HK$4.3m (£438,000 $550,000) for MND research and care. Afterwards the guests headed out into the night to continue their financial munificence in various bars and nightclubs, only to wake up the following morning with hangovers and a dread of checking their online bank statements.

Here's the cartoon