Lisa Charles said the 15 women and one man all had good- luck

Lisa Charles said the 15 women and one man all had good- luck charms with them when beating Pact, right down to their underpants.CITIZEN CUP Final: Race 10: America3 bt Pact ‘95, 1min 08sec. By staging a world-class event on such a lottery of a race track, the concept of skill being rewarded has been effectively defeated.The Cubed skipper, Leslie Egnot, said they would all be praying for Pact to win yesterday. There would then be a sail-off between Pact and Cubed tomorrow on a sudden-death basis.That the position has arisen at all was a matter of bewildering confusion to the favourites (Pact); a source of some amusement to the man who has made a remarkable comeback (Conner); and frustration for those whose fate now lies in the hands of others (the Cubens). They would all be even on five points and, under the deal which allowed all three to continue, Conner, at that time placed third, would be the one to go. It was scheduled to go ahead despite a national day of mourning for the victims of the Oklahoma bombing, but had to be postponed for a day because of shifting winds.If Conner wins the rescheduled race today that will give him the right to defend; if he loses, that will give him a second chance against Cubed; and if he lost that, he would be the one to go out. Last night’s abandoned race between Conner and Pact should, therefore, have had significant implications.

Lewis made more impact with the ball, although he will need to if he is to justify his promise “to start the season so well that Ray Illingworth cannot afford to leave me out”.. SAILING

reports from San Diego
Obituaries were being ripped up in handfuls on Saturday afternoon as Bill Koch’s America3 won another life by beating Kevin Mahaney’s Pact ‘95 in a do-or-die race which went smoothly and conclusively their way on a glorious, sunny afternoon.The score in the three-way final to defend the America’s Cup for the United States next month stood at five points to Dennis Conner; and four each to America3 and Pact ‘95. In doing so, however, Twose had the bad luck to career into Mervyn Kitchen at square leg, completely obscuring the umpire’s view.How valuable those extra runs were to Nottinghamshire, especially after Cairns and Chris Lewis had both fallen cheaply to Alan Donald. Twose moved quickly to cut off Wayne Noon’s push to leg and clearly ran out Johnson, the non-striker. At the beginning of the last over 13 were required.Cairns had been responsible, too, for breaking a century second-wicket stand by dismissing Andy Moles but was pipped to the gold award by the reliable seamer Kevin Evans, whose impressive post-tea spell brought the downfall of Dominic Ostler, caught at mid-off for 87.In the circumstances Warwickshire probably felt more than a little put out over an extraordinary escape enjoyed by Paul Johnson, the mainstay of Nottinghamshire’s 230 for 6, when he had made 42 of his 70 runs. He rewarded Nottinghamshire with a run-out and two wickets, including that of Roger Twose for 54 when two blows from the left-hander, with three balls remaining, could still have settled the issue in his side’s favour. From the home side’s point of view, no contribution was celebrated more than that of Chris Cairns, whose return as Nottinghamshire’s overseas player follows a long period of rehabilitation from the knee injury that forced him to miss last year’s New Zealand tour of England.Cairns, who had confessed to lacking confidence about his bowling in pre-season matches, took responsibility for bowling the last over of Warwickshire’s innings, when the result was in the balance.

Having reached a position from which, last season, defeat would have been almost unthinkable, the treble winners began their defence of the Benson and Hedges Cup by throwing away victory in a way which will dent even their durable confidence.Everything went wrong for Warwickshire in the last 11 of their 55 overs, during which they collapsed from 172 for 2 to 224 all out to lose by six runs. Nottinghamshire 230-6

Warwickshire 224
(Nottinghamshire win by six runs)The theory that Warwickshire will vanish without trace in Brian Lara’s absence, reinforced by their defeat by an innings against England A last week, will not be diluted by this result. By now, though, batting was more straightforward and Adams, after getting a few inside edges out of his system, stroked the ball through the covers with an impressive mixture of power and timing.He survived a couple of awkward chances in the same area at 47 and 56 but by then Northamptonshire had sensed not only that the game had gone from them but that a return to the drawing board was necessary.. At times, some of his colleagues lapsed into a costly shortness, but by then Northamptonshire had found that it was one of those days when every error or lapse of concentration was punished.With so few runs to play with, Northamptonshire would have been disappointed to see Paul Taylor struggling to find his rhythm and opening with a flurry of wides and no-balls. Finding a tight, off-stump line and sometimes moving the ball late, he bowled an important, strangling spell.