So Confident American

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 9

So Confident American

(N.Z. Press Association) NEWPORT. Champions of hopeless causes were urged yesterday to hoist black crepe sails and head for Newport to cheer for Gretel II in the America’s Cup. The Boston “Globe” sports writer, Bud Collins, made the plea in a column describing the Australians as “a nautical light brigade charging into the jaws of oblivion.” “All who pulled for the Pharoah’s army against the Red Sea, Tibet against China and Caryl Chessman against the gas chamber are with Gretel II,” he said. Collins said the America’s Cup—“which is not, as some believe, a lingerie item”—would be won by the defender, Intrepid.

The America’s Cup was a floating fiasco presented in the great sporting tradition of “the men who gave us the St Valentine’s Day Massacre,” he said. Both French and Australian syndicate chiefs, Baron Marcel Bich and Sir Frank Packer, were men “afflicted with death wishes” who had spent money on their challenges as if they were counter- . fetters. After Gretel II beat France, Collins said, Sir Frank Packer received a cable from the South Vietnamese Army saying, “Good luck, soul brothers.” “This doesn’t bother the Australians. They are convinced they have at least as good a chance against Intrepid as the Titanic had against the iceberg. No Aussie asks for better

odds as long as the bold is loaded with beer.” Referring to the 20 previous unsuccessful challenges, Collins said the only place where an invader had done worse than Newport was Moscow. “It’s doubtful that Napoleon and Hitler spent more money than Sir Frank Packer has at Newport,” he said. “You’d think ihe Aussies would wise up because they are winners at everything else. “At Newport, the cognoscenti figure that the Aussies are no further behind than six years. That isn’t bad—if you don’t have to wait six years for them to finish. By the time they do, the Intrepid will have been sold for kindling wood.”