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| Americas Cup: Could New Zealand Get a New Lead Singer?  I'll
bet there were some raised voices in the ETNZ headquarters last night.
Egg on their faces? Nahhh, just a large plate of spaghetti bolognese,
courtesy of Team Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia. In all the acts so far and coming so close to the final sprint for the cup, ETNZ has never looked so mediocre. The start was the usual cat and mouse game, with ETNZ definitely being handed the role of the mouse. Mascalzone pushed, shoved, feinted, threw in a few dummies for good measure and the New Zealanders couldn't do a thing about it. The race was all over, before the start gun was even fired. If this keeps up then we may be in for the surprise of this whole caboodle. What is for certain is that another result like that could see the ETNZ pop stars getting a new lead singer and what I do know is that a certain skipper from ACT13 is just itching to grab the microphone. What went wrong? Who knows, but they can't afford to let it happen again. Not only is a kick in the face like that damaging to their own team's morale, it's going to have everyone else pushing that bit harder as it's now clear that not only can they be beaten; it's even possible to give them a thrashing. Of the others, there was nothing much out of the ordinary. Shosholoza looked OK, but nothing spectacular. The Spanish have got themselves some impressive speed, in these light conditions, but they are still up to their usual tricks of playing too close to the edge in their tactical pre start decisions. They may be able to take penalty turns and still come out on top against a team like +39, who are still trying to get their boat back up to speed after that mast breakage, but trying those kind of capers against the big boys is only likely to earn them a good kick up the backside and a few late night hearings in front of the protest committee. All in all, not a lot of surprises, on a day where the wind, finally, decided it would put in a light and decidedly low key appearance except for one; the Italian Stallions of Mascalzone are galloping and they've cleared the first fence in spectacular fashion. Can they hold it all together into the home straight? There is still a long way to go, but they look promising to this punter. William Wallace/BYM News. 04/21/07 |