The 73-year-old chairman of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation, which was bought out by British American Racing in November, stepped down yesterday along with his son, Bob, the business development director.. THE SKIPPER of the British yacht Silk Cut, Lawrie Smith, spent his 42nd birthday guiding his boat into Ushuaia on the southern tip of Argentina yesterday to take on the extra food and diesel which will enable her to complete the fifth leg of the Whitbread Round the World race. Silk Cut had been sailing under jury rig for 10 days following the loss of the top section of her mast “We hope to be in port less than 12 hours,” Smith said. “We are still racing.”
Smith, however, will not be aboard when Silk Cut puts to sea again. He and five of his crew will fly the remaining 2,000 miles to the finish at Sao Sebastiao in Brazil to prepare a new mast.The all-women crew of EF Education are also heading for Ushuaia, but are still 680 miles from Cape Horn.Brunel Sunergy duly moved into second place after their audacious decision to sail around the eastern coast of the Falkland Islands.

The truth is that being a well-paid driver is a privileged position, but successful drivers make things happen. He said: “He knows this year he’s got to perform if he’s going to stay at a top team. We’ll be letting him know about our timetable.”Frentzen’s inconsistency last year disappointed the team, Williams describing him as a “frustrating individual at times” Head made it clear they demanded better this year. They are equally aware the Canadian will seek evidence of the operation’s potential before committing himself and may prefer more time than they are prepared to permit him.Head said yesterday: “We would want to be sorted with the drivers we are running with in 1999 in the middle of the year We won’t be strung along waiting for Jacques.

THE NEW Formula One season is still a fortnight away and already Williams, the world champions, are contemplating their driver line-up for next year. Incumbents Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen are on the teams’ list of candidates for 1999, but both will have to meet requirements spelled out yesterday.
Villeneuve, who won the title last year, must decide by the middle of the season if he wants to stay at Williams, while Frentzen has to improve his level of performance if he wishes to be retained.Frank Williams and his partner, Patrick Head, are conscious Villeneuve is wanted by his manager, Craig Pollock, to lead the British American Racing team, which is to be launched next year. Ben Hollioake epitomised England A’s determination by bowling Avishka Gunawardene with the first delivery of the innings.England had suffered an equally disastrous start after being put into bat by losing Knight, Andrew Flintoff, Hollioake and Darren Maddy inside the opening 21 overs.Sri Lanka A won tossENGLAND A*N V Knight run out 29A Flintoff c Gunawardene b Palliyaguru 10B C Hollioake b Palliyaguru 3O A Shah c and b Bandartilleke 65D L Maddy st Dassanayake b Bandartilleke 4D J G Sales c Jayawardene b Bandartilleke 18M A Ealham st Dassanayake b Chandana 12A F Giles c and b Chandana 10D R Brown st Dassanayake b Chandana 9C M W Read not out 4D A Cosker run out 3Extras (b3 lb9 w7) 19Total (48.3 overs) 186Fall: 1-22 2-27 3-63 4-86 5-132 6-139 7-155 8-166 9-169.Bowling: Boteju 7-2-19-0; Palliyaguru 7-1-30-2; Hathurusinghe 3-0-17- 0; Jayawardene 3-0-16-0; Bandartilleke 10-1-28-3; Chandana 9-1-30-3; Kalpage 9.3-0-34-0.SRI LANKA AA Gunawardene b Hollioake 0U C Hathurusinghe c Knight b Brown 16R P Arnold not out 88D R M Jayawardene c Read b Brown 4P Hewage c Read b Hollioake 19*R S Kalpage st Read b Maddy 9U D U Chandana lbw b Maddy 5R Palliyaguru c Cosker b Maddy 3P B Dassanayake not out 30Extras (lb4 w12) 16Total (for 7, 48.5 overs) 190Fall: 1-0 2-40 3-54 4-107 5-128 6-134 7-140.Did not bat: N Bandartilleke, H Boteju.Bowling: Hollioake 10-0-39-2; Brown 10-1-30-2; Ealham 9-0-31-0; Giles 9.5-0-46-0; Cosker 4-0-22-0; Maddy 6-0-18-3.Umpires: T M Samarasinghe and I Anandappa.. England A 186; Sri Lanka A 190-7 Sri Lanka A win by three wickets

ENGLAND A fought against tour fatigue to fall to seven balls short of claiming a memorable victory and levelling the series in yesterday’s second one-day international against Sri Lanka A.
Needing victory to draw level in the three-match series after their 142-run defeat in Moratuwa on Wednesday, England A made a determined attempt to defend a disappointing total of 186 but were unable to prevent Sri Lanka A succeeding in the penultimate over.However, despite their failure to reach a challenging total, England bowled and fielded superbly and pressured Sri Lanka to such an extent that they needed 47 off the final 10 overs with three wickets remaining.”We’re very disappointed because we have lost the series but it was a magnificent effort in the field and we felt 186 was a bit short of a good total,” Nick Knight, the captain, said. If, like Ramprakash, he still has aspirations of adding to his tally of caps, it is a mistake he will not be wanting to repeat over the next couple of days.. It’s my first competitive match since September, so I’m not expecting too much, just to spend some time at the crease.”Pressure or not, the pitch at Everest looks a far better surface than any of the Test pitches England have so far encountered. But if that perhaps offers a degree of unreality, the fact that 80 per cent of the overs in these first-class matches is bowled by spinners, as opposed to about 10 per cent or less in the Tests, means that runs here will not be worth their usual value as a currency of comparison.Apart from that, the opposition, who will be captained in Carl Hooper’s absence by Shivnarine Chanderpaul, is strong, and contains the fast bowler Reon King, a previous acquaintance from the West Indies A match earlier in the tour, as well as the prolific left-hand opening batsman Clayton Lambert.If England are dwelling over who might bat at No 3, calls in several local newspapers for the inclusion of the 36-year old Lambert to replace Stuart Williams in the Test team, reveals the serious lack of batting depth currently afflicting West Indies cricket.A stalwart for Guyana, Lambert played his only Test match against England in 1991, when he was one of Phil Tufnell’s six victims in the first innings.

But if the responsibilities of fatherhood and the Middlesex captaincy have helped ameliorate his fiery disposition, the temptation to be gung-ho about the next few days must still be fairly strong?”You could look at this as your big chance,” said Ramprakash, who scored a century in the corresponding fixture four years ago “But that would be putting too much pressure on yourself. Yet even when he plays well, as he did in the thrilling win against Australia at The Oval five months ago, fate always seem to conspire against him.”I must admit, I came here expecting to start in the Test team,” said Ramprakash, an assumption that appeared to be backed up when two of the selectors Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch, phoned earlier in the tour to enquire why Crawley had been preferred.Ironically, in view of Butcher’s subsequent role, he would probably have played instead of the Surrey man in the last Test, had flu not struck him down the night before.Frustration, particularly on this level, was not something the young Ramprakash would approach with equanimity. While Angus Fraser and Dean Headley take a well deserved rest – as does Graham Thorpe who has flu – there will be fierce competition, especially among those who have yet to play a match, to catch the selectorial eye.Depending on the pitch expected at the Bourda, where the fourth Test starts on Friday, the places most under pressure are at No 3 and 6 in the batting order, though a second spinner may also be an option.However, with Mark Butcher having taken his 11th-hour opportunity in the previous Test, it is John Crawley, the man in possession, who faces the sternest challenge from Ramprakash, though Adam Hollioake, providing his back has recovered, will also be in the shake-up.Since his debut in 1992, Ramprakash’s Test career has been a series of false starts and disappointments, a fact his average of 17.2 indicates. The combination does not prevent the people here from dreaming about cricket, and although the place has done for one or two illustrious careers – Craig McDermott, the Australian fast bowler, ended his career when he twisted his ankle while jogging along the sea wall – others such as Mark Ramprakash, whose father comes from these parts, will be looking to restart theirs.
Over the next three days, England, who will play all those not involved in the last Test, take on Guyana at the Everest Cricket Club.