Green eclipsed by dashing Dickson

While the would-be rising star, in the form of Britain's Andy Green, was forced to endure frustration in the wings, the old master, Chris Dickson, took centre stage in the Steinlager Cup here yesterday.

Dickson turned in a vintage performance with four wins from four starts to lead his group of eight at the end of their first round-robin of the Swedish Match Grand Prix series with a score of 6-1.

Green must wait until today to see if he can match that. Yesterday he was forced to wait three hours for the wind to fill in before squaring up to Cameron Appleton of Team New Zealand. Having won his three races on the opening day, Green lost. "It was very irritating," he said. "But we have every chance to get back into a winning rhythm."

The only unbeaten skipper of the 16 in the event, Dean Barker, defeated his fellow Kiwi Phil Douglas yesterday. Dickson and another old stager, the Australian America's Cup skipper Peter Gilmour, brought the winning run of Paul Cayard's heir apparent, Gavin Brady, to an end.

Brady, an Aucklander representing the San Francisco-based AmericaOne, came back to post a 5-2 for his round robin and just behind him was another former world champion and current Cup skipper, Bertrand Pace, of France, on 4-3.

SWEDISH MATCH TOUR (Auckland, NZ) Line 7 Cup (after day two): 1 C Dickson (NZ) 6 wins 1 loss; 2 G Brady (NZ) 5 2; 3 D Barker (NZ) 4 0; 4 B Pace (Fr) 4 3; 5 A Green (GB) 3 1; 6 C Appleton (NZ) 3 1; 7 P Holmberg (US Virgin Islands) 3 4; 8 M Weiser (Ger) 3 4; 9 P Gilmour (Japan) 3 4; 10 J Gram-Hansen (Den) 3 4; 11 M Holmberg (Swe) 2 2; 12 B Hansen (Swe) 2 2; 13 P Douglas (NZ) 1 3; 14 J Spithill (Aut) 1 3; 15 L Nordbjerg (Den) 1 6; 16 L Pillot (Fr) 0 4.