The groupings have been set for the Swedish Match Cup, the eighth and concluding stage of the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour.

Ed Baird (USA) and Peter Gilmour (AUS), tied for the Tour championship, head the two groups. Gilmour, the Tour’s reigning champion, heads the eight-team Group A and Baird is atop Group B.

Joining Gilmour in Group A are Philippe Presti (FRA), Staffan Lindberg (FIN), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Lars Nordbjerg (DEN), Bertrand Pacé (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN) and Peter Holmberg (ISV).

Baird is joined in Group B by Russell Coutts (NZL), Ian Williams (GBR), Björn Hansen (SWE), Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Dean Barker (NZL), Kelvin Harrap (NZL) and Iain Percy (GBR).

Baird, of America’s Cup champion Alinghi, and Gilmour, of Pizza-La Sailing Team, are the final contenders for the sixth Swedish Match Tour championship. Whoever wins the championship will win $60,000 of the $200,000 bonus purse awarded by the Tour, a BMW 545i Touring, provided by Tour partner BMW (valued at approximately $85,000), and the official Swedish Match Tour championship trophy, from Tour sponsor Wedgwood. The runner-up wins a $40,000 bonus.

Heading into Sweden Baird and Gilmour are tied with 102 points, but Baird faces a more daunting challenge. To win the championship Baird must finish fourth or higher with Gilmour in his rear view mirror. For Gilmour to win, he just needs to finish ahead of Baird, no matter where they place in the standings.

As the groupings are set, Gilmour and Baird would meet for the championship if they win through. But that’s a challenge unto itself. Each group sails a single round robin. The top crew in each group advances to the quarterfinals and the worst crew is eliminated.

The 12 remaining teams that finished 2nd through 7th in each group advance to Stage 2, each match a head-to-head knockout series where the first to win 2 points advances to the quarters. The quarterfinals also are first two score 2 points, but the semifinals and final are first to score 3 points.

Swedish Match Tour scoring regulations count a skipper’s six best events. Depending on the number of events they’ve raced, that allows them to discard as many to two events (not including events marked as “Did Not Compete”). If a skipper competes at all eight stages he’s awarded two discards. If he does seven events he’s allowed one discard.

Since Gilmour, the Tour’s career victories leader with seven, has sailed in all seven stages of the 2004-’05 season he discards his worst finish, a 5th at the Portugal Match Cup. The loss of 10 points created the tie for the championship, each with 102 points.

At the conclusion of Sweden, Gilmour will get a second discard (for competing in all eight stages) and Baird will get one discard (for competing in seven stages). Currently they’d both drop a 5th place. The tie remains with the additional discards and is why Baird must finish fourth or higher with Gilmour behind him to win the championship.

If they both finish worse than fifth (which would become their discards) the tie would remain. In the event of a tie at the conclusion of the season Tour scoring regulations count the number of 1sts, 2nds and 3rds in a skipper’s scoreline for the season to break the tie.

Each skipper has won two events. But Gilmour has one 2nd-place finish to none for Baird, giving him the tiebreak advantage.

None of the other skippers factor into the battle for first, although they’ll certainly look to play the role of spoiler. In particular Coutts, of Coutts Racing, is third, 32 points behind. He won his second Swedish Match Cup last year, and has won more Tour events (6) in the fewest starts (9) than any other skipper.

Coutts is fairly assured of finishing no worse than third and wining the $25,000 bonus. After that, however, there’s a mad scramble for fourth through eighth, which are separated by 11 points but represent a difference of $10,000.

Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) is placed fourth with 45 points, but likely will slip from that spot. He and his Danish crewmates will crew for Coutts in Sweden and can’t earn any points.

Presti, of Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge, is fifth with 44 points, followed by Lindberg in sixth with 38 points. Pacé, of BMW Oracle Racing, is eighth with 34 points. Each is entered in Sweden and could improve their winnings for the year with a solid showing.

James Spithill (AUS), of Luna Rossa Challenge, is seventh with 35 points, but isn’t entered in Sweden.