Williams wins battle of the Brits in Stena Match Cup

(LORIS VAN SIEBENTHAL)

Scalps do not come much more highly prized than that of Ben Ainslie, four times Olympic medallist, including a hat trick of golds, and skipper of the Team Origin America's Cup challenge.

But his was just one of four, including former world champion Peter Gilmour of Australia, that Ian Williams, himself a double world champion, managed to knock off before lunch on the opening day the Stena Match Cup, the fifth of 10 in the World Match Racing Tour.

The familiar bogey of a sail handling error, though, this time, perhaps compounded by some gear malfunction, cost Ainslie his well-won lead. Williams swept by as free-flapping spinnaker wrapped itself around the bow and caused problems Ainslie's Team Origin crew all the way up the second windward leg.

Ainslie had been 10 seconds ahead the first time round; he was 22 seconds behind the second time and even his legendary downwind helming skills could not close that gap.

He also beat Johnie Berntsson of Sweden and the 2009 runner up Torvar Mirsky of Australia but, despite topping the table with a 4-0 scoreline immediately went into a de-brief which concentrated on starting. "Our starting has not been good enough and we need to improve because this is a track on which is it always difficult to overtake."

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