have had their fair share of battles.

But when they meet again this weekend in the Bermuda Gold Cup, more than just national pride will be on the line. This time they're going for cash.

The pair have been drawn against each other in the second of two groups of unseeded skippers vying for a spot in the championship round of the $60,000 match-racing tournament.

Another Bermudian, Adam Barboza, has been assigned the first of seven spots in Group One of the draw, released this week. Top four finishers in each group advance to the championship round against the eight seeded skippers beginning next Wednesday -- which is when the cheque books start opening.

Just making it out of the qualifier is worth $300; advancing to the quarter-finals next Friday boosts winnings to $3,000 a team. First place takes home $17,000.

Defending champion Russell Coutts of New Zealand has been named top seed, as befitting the world's top-ranked skipper. The rest of the seeds also follow the World Match Race rankings, led by Peter Gilmour at number two and Ed Baird at number three.

"The Bermudians have a pretty good chance (of advancing),'' said Scott MacLeod, chief organiser of the Gold Cup. "It's their back yard.'' Bromby, who defeated Lewin in the final of the national championships in August, was seeded a year ago but lost to three-time Olympic gold-medallist Jochen Schumann.

They're in a tough group with Bill Buckles -- an American competing in the Gold Cup for the sixth time -- 42nd ranked Andy Green, David Whelan, David Bedford and Murray Jones, a tactician for Coutts in his 1995 America's Cup victory.

Barboza qualified for the Gold Cup for the second year in a row by placing third in the national championships. In 1994 and last year he advanced out of the qualifying round before losing to seeded skippers. The late withdrawal of Sweden's Johan Pedersen has left his group with just seven skippers, including a couple of up-and-comers in Gavin Brady and Andrew Nikolaev, plus the Gold Cup's second woman skipper in Helean Strang. Others are John Burnnam, Ben Cesare and two-time Canadian Olympian Nigel Cochrane.

Every victory in the round-robin is important, not to mention potentially profitable: The crew with the best record meets the number eight seed (Andy Beadsworth of Great Britain) in the championship, while the worst record means going against Coutts, who has won here four times.

Coutts was also the skipper of Black Magic , New Zealand's winning entry in the 1995 America's Cup, but was surprised by Gilmour at the world championships in July.

"It's a good, deep field,'' said MacLeod. "That's the one thing that jumped out at us when we sat down to do the draw.'' Eight of the world's top 18 skippers are confirmed, nearly all of whom are involved in America's Cup campaigns for 2000. The Great Sound course is the same as last year, with each race taking about 20 minutes.