Cronje took nearly four hours to score his half-century off 189 balls as South Africa scored at

Cronje took nearly four hours to score his half-century off 189 balls as South Africa scored at just over two runs an over.Embarrassingly for the SCG authorities, play started 30 minutes late because the inexperienced groundsman overwatered the square.Gary Kirsten was the only wicket to fall in the shortened first session of play. He was beaten by movement off the pitch in Glenn McGrath’s seventh over and edged to Mark Taylor at first slip to be out for 11 with the score on 25.Bevan removed the recalled Herschelle Gibbs and Brian McMillan to end with figures of 2 for 41 off 20 overs.Gibbs, who displaced Daryll Cullinan, who has a terrible record against spin and Warne in particular, scored his first Test half-century, making 54 before he was caught by wicketkeeper Ian Healy while slashing outside the off-stump late in the day.Bevan then lured McMillan into hitting a full-toss straight to Matthew Elliott at mid-off.Gibbs put on 97 for the fourth wicket with Cronje. One thing is for sure, there will be no easy points waiting in Auckland.WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE (third leg, 2,250 miles, Fremantle to Sydney): 1 EF Language (Swe) P Cayard 9 days, 8hr, 9min, 20sec; 2 Swedish Match (Swe) G Krantz 9:9:14:28; 3 Chessie Racing (US) G Collins 9:9:15:21; 4 Merit Cup (Monaco) G Dalton 9:9:17:37; 5 Innovation Kvaerner (Nor) K Frostad 9:9:19:18; 6 Toshiba (US) P Standbridge 9:9:30:40; 7 Silk Cut (GB) L Smith 9:9:35:01; 8 Brunel Sunergy (Neth) R Heiner 9:10:00:04; 9 EF Education (Swe) C Guillou 9:10:47:32. Standings: 1 EF Language 302pts; 2 Innovation Kvaerner 267; 3 Swedish Match 253; 4 Merit Cup 228; 5 Chessie Racing 213; 6 Silk Cut 208; 7 Toshiba 207; 8 EF Education 80; 9 Brunel Sunergy 66.. Collins has not only persuaded John Kostecki to stay for the next leg, but will have top match racer Gavin Brady along as well. “It will be quick and hopefully we will have plenty of breeze,” said their skipper, Lawrie Smith. “We have to do well – we have something to prove.”The new dark horse is George Collins’ Chessie Racing, where Paul Svan Dyke replaces the injured Rick Deppe.

EF Language is a good, all-round boat, whereas, for instance, Dalton’s Merit Cup is best at light to moderate off-the-wind work. Dalton has dropped the Italian Paolo Bassani and replaced him with Tom Dodson – the crew’s 10th New Zealander.The crew on board the British boat Silk Cut are determined to reach New Zealand first. However, after being third on the second leg to Fremantle, Standbridge was sixth out of nine in the tight finish to the third leg to SydneyConner will not be the only new face aboard Toshiba now that the Australian Barney Walker, who had a disagreement with Frostad in Fremantle, has been recruited for his helming talents.Frostad, meanwhile, having been unable to persuade Torben Grael to do a second leg, welcomes back to Innovation, Robbie Naismith, who sailed the first leg, and another Kiwi, Tony Rae.With two leg wins under his belt, Cayard is now the clear favourite to win the race. He had earlier said that he did not want to disrupt the crew if they were doing well, nor did he want any move on his part seen as a criticism of Standbridge. Dickson’s successor, Standbridge, is now listed as co-skipper.The 55-year-old Conner, Toshiba’s syndicate chairman, has monitored progress by computer, but no longer. A veteran of the 1993-94 race, in which he co-skippered Winston on just two legs, he kept his hands-on involvement quiet until the last moment. They ought to be paying me.”There’s long been a symbiotic relationship between surfers and the photographers who immortalise their ephemeral aerials and off-the-lips.

The irony is that just as the tow-in heavy mob have been seeing off potential rivals, so too Merkel – the champion of the open society where Jaws is concerned – also has his own final solution to the population explosion problem among photographers: “There’s way too many goofballs these days Real Men Used to Focus Now they’re all using automatic. If this leg hardens the trend, then the struggling syndicates are going to look more like desperate football clubs than dashing ocean racers.There is not only a gap opening up between the top four and the other five boats, but also between the top two, Paul Cayard in EF Language and Knut Frostad in Innovation Kvaerner, and the second pair, the quietly quick Gunnar Krantz in Swedish Match, and Grant Dalton in the weather- sensitive Merit Cup.By the time the fleet arrive in Auckland after a five-day, 1,270-mile sprint from Sydney they will have covered half the total of 31,600 miles and accounted for 45 per cent of the points, which is why Conner, the four-times America’s Cup-winner and Olympic bronze medallist, may have thought it is time to make his move.His boat, Toshiba – in seventh place after three legs – was initially captained by the New Zealander Chris Dickson, who quit after a disappointing first leg to Cape Town led to a falling-out with Conner. Dennis Conner is tired of seeing Toshiba among the also-rans, but as Stuart Alexander reports, it will take all the American’s skill to make an impression on the outcome of the fourth leg from Sydney to Auckland which starts tomorrow.
Speak it softly, or the words will come back to haunt you, but, as Dennis Conner adds his presence to his Toshiba campaign, taking the helm away from Paul Standbridge, there is a pattern emerging in the Whitbread Race. As soon as I get my big wave pictures in, I’m going to send them to the magazines for free It’ll burn out the opposition This time next year, the beach’ll be empty, you’ll see I’ll have the place to myself.”. The biggest name in ocean yacht racing has decided to show the rest how it is done in the Whitbread Round the World Race. “I’m never going to pay anyone a cent for putting them on the cover of a magazine Their sponsors are already paying them.