However, no one was injured and the crew hastily cut away the mast as it threatened to punch a hole in a hull. The boat will now head for Chile under jury rig."We are disappointed beyond belief as we were getting so close to Cape Horn," said Edwards, who was chasing the non-stop record of 71 days 14 hours.The decision by Lawrie Smith to hug the coast was paying dividends last night as the British boat, Silk Cut, led the Whitbread Round the World fleet past Recife on the north-east corner of Brazil on day five of the sixth leg to Fort Lauderdale.WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE (sixth leg, 4,750 miles, Sao Sebastiao, Bra, to Fort Lauderdale, US): 1 Silk Cut (GB) L Smith 3,547.4 miles to finish; 2 Innovation Kvaerner (Nor) K Frostad 2.3 miles behind leader; 3 EF Language (Swe) P Cayard +17.9; 4 Chessie Racing (US) J Kostecki +20.4; 5 Toshiba (US) P Standbridge +23; 6 Brunel Sunergy (Neth) R Heiner +28.2; 7 Merit Cup (Monaco) G Dalton+29.5; 8 EF Education (Swe) C Guillou +31.2; 9 Swedish Match (Swe) G Krantz +53.. "About five minutes later creaking could be heard from the mast and the whole thing just crumpled and broke up as it hit the hull."The crashing mast set off a distress signal which was picked up by Falmouth coastguards. A May Day call alerted rescue services that the mast of the 92-ft catamaran Royal & Sun Alliance had crashed on to the twin decks, bringing to a dramatic end the first all-women attempt to sail round the world non-stop. The incident happened during the night as the yacht was being driven in winds gusting between 30-50 knots midway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, and 2,000 miles from the coast of Chile."A huge wave came up from behind, lifting the stern and burying both bows in the wave ahead, bringing the boat to a shuddering halt," the skipper, Tracy Edwards, said. A CREW of 12 women racing a giant catamaran in one of the most remote areas of the Southern Ocean came as close as they would ever want to disaster yesterday. Arsenal still have 10 League games to go - compared to Manchester United's seven - and now a new date for the trip to Liverpool, which was due to take place on FA Cup semi final day, must be found.Wenger believes there is still the outside chance of an extension to the League season - a subject over which he and Alex Ferguson fell out last term when the United manager objected to his team having to finish the campaign with four games in nine days. Wenger has no plans to make a similar application this time but said: "There could still be a case for it if it is fair to everybody.".

But one of those was in the Coca-Cola Cup which has no bearing on Premiership or FA Cup suspensions and another has been deleted under the experimental FA system which rewards players who complete five consecutive matches without a booking.Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira have already been fined by Arsene Wenger this season for dissent, and retaliation would seem to come under the same heading.Wenger's concern is that he will miss key players for the backlog of fixtures which is piling up at a frightening rate. But the pounds 7.5m striker is still in danger of a further ban. He is free to face Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury a week on Saturday but a booking then would put him on eight yellow cards for the season and incur another suspension for two matches.Bergkamp has been booked nine times already this term. However, if that match is drawn, there will be a silver lining. The suspension starts a week on Tuesday, when Arsenal visit Bolton Wanderers, five days before the semi-final, and a replay, if necessary, is already scheduled for the following Wednesday even though, in earlier rounds, police require a minimum of 10 days' notice from the Football Association to organize their match-day security forces. So Bergkamp could be free to return for the home game against Newcastle on 11 April. THE price Dennis Bergkamp will pay for his elbow in the face of West Ham United's Steve Lomas on Tuesday night became clear yesterday. They have a superb striker in Spain's Alfonso, who scored in the first leg, as well as the Nigerian Finidi George, and the Croatian set-piece specialist, Robert Jarni.A clean sheet would be quite an achievement in the face of such firepower..

The Dutchman's three-match ban will incorporate the FA Cup semi-final, against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Villa Park on 5 April. There must be no silly mistakes because there have been too many of those."Vialli is still without his left-back, Graeme Le Saux, and Zola, Di Matteo, Wise, Duberry and Nicholls could all be handicapped by the knowledge that a caution would mean missing the first leg of the semi-final.Betis are without the defender Roberto Solozabal and the midfielder Fernando, who are suspended, but are in good form after moving up to fourth in the Spanish league with a draw against Atletico Madrid and a victory over Salamanca. "We must still play our football and try to score with a counter-attack but above all we have to be concentrated and aware in defence. Tore Andre Flo scored both Chelsea's goals before Betis had found their stride that night.Chelsea's individually talented defence is collectively flawed, and Vialli's decision to play Ed de Goey only in Cup ties and Dimitri Kharine in the Premiership puts in question vital lines of communication in front of their goal. They have not kept a clean sheet for eight games."We cannot set out to get a draw with the Spanish team by being completely negative," Vialli said.