Royal Lymington Cup Day One

In Fighting Mood

Report: Sheila Jolly
Photograph ©: Peter Danby - Ian Williams & crew end the first day unbeaten

After a long windless grey morning, the wind freshened and Round One of the Royal Lymington Cup got underway with a tight tacking dual between Britain's Andy Beadsworth and Murray Jones to wake everyone up.

Britain's Andy Beadsworth lost his first two matches to Murray Jones and Luc Pillot before taking the third from New Zealand's Gavin Brady. Tomislav Basic, Croatia's one and only match racer, got off to a good start, winning his first two matches only to be beaten in the third by Luc Pillot the French number two, who won all three of his races and leads the field in Group A.

Due to the late start, Group A racing was stopped after three flights to give Group B a chance to perform. The long wait obviously had an effect on the racers who came out of the blocks with their dander up. Collision after collision brought penalty after penalty. One of the most spectacular happened when coming into the start, Murray Jones tried to go into a space he wasn't entitled to, between Tomislav Basic and the committee boat. The penalty he received as a result of smashing into the committee boat seemed light punishment for all noise and mayhem he caused.

Britain's Ian Williams stole the show in Group B with three straight wins. As Ian has spent very little time preparing for the Cup due to taking his Law Finals over the last few months, his result was especially satisfying.

Round Robin One will be finished tomorrow morning when both groups race two more flights each to decide which of the top eight boats will go through into Round Robin Two later in the day.

Results at the end of day one:

Helm             Country        Rank  W/L
-----------------------------------------
Ian Williams     Great Britain   28   3-0
Morten Henriksen Denmark         11   2-1
Tomislav Basic   Croatia         13   2-1
Francois Brenac  France          16   2-1
Murray Jones     New Zealand     19   2-1
Gavin Brady      New Zealand      2   1-2
Markus Wieser    Germany          6   1-2
Luc Pillot       France          14   3-0
Jes Gram-Hansen  Denmark         15   1-2
Andy Beadsworth  Great Britain   20   1-2
Sebastien Col    France          38   0-0
John Cutler      New Zealand    125   0-0

For more information, daily results and reports contact:
Sheila Jolly - Royal Lymington Cup Office
Email: sail@rlymyc.org.uk Website: www.rlymyc.org.uk