Even the politicians got involved in the 1930s when England bowlers took the art of professionalism to new heights in the infamous 'Bodyline' series.

Whichever side of the fence you sit on, the Pommies versus the Aussies is a mouth-watering clash where national pride comes bursting to the fore. And now another chapter in Anglo-Australian rivalry has been written. The sport? Sailing.

The Easter weekend saw a crew from the Medway Yacht Club head to Australian waters for the first time to take on their rivals, the Sydney Flying Squadron, for the Australian Challenge Shield.

The result was an emphatic 4-0 whitewash for the home crew who keep the shield for the first time, but Medway Yacht Club can still take consolation from the fact they still lead the overall series 2-1.

Although the match has been held only twice before, it is a contest steeped in history and tradition. You may remember reports of an unusual international yachting match which took place on the Medway just over two years ago on a weekend in September 1998.

The contest was between a crew from The Medway Yacht Club, based at Lower Upnor, and a team from Sydney, Australia. It was sailed in replicas of historical 18 foot Skiff boats and was won for England by the Medway Yacht Club.

That race was itself a return match of an event that happened 100 years previously, almost to the day. And, uncannily, the results were exactly alike.

In 1898, match races were held on the River Medway between an English boat the 'Maid of Kent' who beat the Australian Challenger 'Irex' with three straight wins.

Maintaining the historical association, in 1998, two replica vintage Australian sailing skiffs were brought over from Australia by members of the Sydney Flying Squadron.

The Medway Yacht Club team again won the first three races. Australian honour was upheld by winning a superbly sailed last race, but it was not enough to take the Australian Challenge Shied home which has remained proudly on the wall of Medway Yacht Club .... until now.

Michael Wallis, from Rochester, runs Wallis' Florists in Dartford when he is not fulfilling his duties as Commodore of the Medway Yacht Club and was one of the crew who came off second best to their Australian counterparts which also included Chris and Joan Sayers from Lee.

He said: "It was certainly very interesting. The boats were replicas which are about 18-foot long and take around 12 people to crew, so it was a tight squeeze."

At least 23 people travelled to Sydney for the races which saw the Medway yacht Tangalooma capsize in the second of the four-race series. The remainder of the races saw fairly comfortable wins for the Australian team, despite good starts by the Brits.

The boats were faithful copies of the original designs, and vary in size and shape. But what they all had in common was a complete lack of modern equipment.

"It's almost like drag-racing," Michael said, "Because, when the start gun goes there is a sprint up to where the course is marked out and then he head straight back to where we started from. It is an hour-and-a-half of extremely hard work and you are usually panting very hard at the finish.

"It did not surprise me we were outgunned this time," he said. "When you consider they are just coming to the end of their summer over there and have been sailing regularly for a number of months now, whereas we are just coming to the end of our winter season and were a bit short of practise. Nevertheless, we gave it a good go."

And he also noted a "dirty tricks" campaign by the Aussie squad, who arranged a number of pre-race functions for them to attend - not exactly the ideal preparation for the four-race series.

Michael said: "The functions left us with only two days practise in the boat before the racing starts. Let's just say, I think they planned it all out very well. They were probably thinking 'We are going to beat these lot one way or another'.

"Seriously though, we were beaten by a good bunch of guys. There was rivalry and we went there to win, but there is nothing too vicious about it."

Chris Bently, spokesman for Medway Yacht Club, added: "It was a very bruised and fairly exhausted crew of Brits who took to the water in the final race. But the hospitality has been fantastic and everyone is keen to repeat the challenge at regular intervals in the UK and Sydney.

"There is already talk of the Australian team coming to Medway for a re-match in 2002."