The two biggest protection-and-indemnity (P&I) clubs this week recorded what, superficially, appeared to be very different results but, when closely examined, was rather more aligned.

Gard delivered another market-leading performance, ringing up a surplus of $89m, while the North of England Club only had a break-even bottom-line result.

But the underwriting performance of the North of England produced a surplus of $20m and there was an investment return of $13m.

The