Andy Beadsworth has won a record fourth RYA National Match Racing Championship title in Weymouth - despite determined opposition from 1997 RYA National Match Racing Champion Ian Williams.

Beadsworth and his Soling crew of Richard Sydenham and Barry Parkin, plus bowman James Stagg, sailed a virtually flawless series over the final three days, winning 18 out of 19 matches.

Beadsworth's win reaffirms his authority over the British match racing scene and makes him clear favourite to win the Soling class trials for next year's Sydney Olympic Games. With Parkin and Sydenham, he has won the ISAF Dubai Match Racing Regatta, finished second at the Hyere Olympic Classes Regatta and sixth at the Pre-Olympics and then won the Soling European Match Racing Championship.

"It was epic out there," said Beadsworth. "I thought it was all going to go pear-shaped after Ian won the first race as he was looking a lot faster than us but it was team work which made the difference. I had the best guys in the boat with me."

Beadsworth secured his slot in the best-of-three finals which were sailed in a building breeze and difficult wave pattern after he disposed of Joe Llewellyn 3-0 in their best-of-five semi-final while Williams kept his top form to make short work of Gerry Mitchell in the second semi-final match with an identical scoreline.

In the third and fourth play-off, Llewellyn beat former Silk Cut W60 and Admiral's Cup crew Mitchell of Hamble, in his first attempt at the title, in two straight matches to claim third place.

Although Mitchell was disappointed not to make third and possible funding, it was a promising start.

"It's been a good week but today we fell down on all the things we have got away with all week," he said.

"The biggest issue is we weren't fast around the track and we were getting some penalties that were close calls. I really need to go away and read up a rule book." Results:

Overall: 1, Andy Beadsworth, Barry Parkin, Richard Sydenham and James Stagg, 2 Ian Williams, Mark Nicholls, Stevie Mitchell and Mark Williams, 3 Joe Llewellyn, Nigel Wakefield, David Munge and Gerd Jan Poortman, 4 Gerry Mitchell, Jim Turner, Mark Sheffield and Brenden Darrer.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.