Excitement at last month's annual Manches Cup (where legal yachtsmen and women pit their wits against one another from Southampton to Cowes and back again) after one of the two boats from north-west firm DWF collided with another that was not taking part. The latter was responsible and its crew must have broken a mirror while impaling a black cat under a ladder because the DWF boat happened to be full of insurance lawyers. Thus liability for the £80,000 damage was quickly established, shall we say. DWF still managed to sail in the second leg of the event, finishing ahead of Slaughter and May. Being landlubbers, we're not sure what that says about the magic circle firm's crew, but at least they had the consolation of raising the most for the cup's charity, Sail4cancer. The four divisional winners were Ashurst, Shoosmiths, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Manches itself, with Freshfields winning the championship trophy as the only team to win all the races in its division. ABN Amro was named the best in-house lawyer boat.