Once again I had teamed up with Alun Roberts from Machynlleth in his Peugeot 206 Supercup, this event is based at Newtown, Powys with Rally HQ at the College, I had arranged to meet Alun at 16:00, now normally I'am waiting for him but to my surprise it was the other way around as Alun was there (SHOCK!!) on time for once and waiting for me.

Having parked my car and walked over to greet Alun and his Dad, we proceeded to Noise and Scrutineering sailed through both then went to Sign on, at this point Alun asked where do we get the Day-Glo numbers from for the side windows, I replied from the chap before noise who was handing out packs, a vacant look from both Alun and his Dad, I said he was sat with a box with envelopes in, no replied Alun I never saw him, so I offered to run over and get the pack oh! And surprise, surprise Alun had driven straight past him!!!!

With all the stickers now on the car we went and signed on, that completed I checked the notice board for provisional start times etc and then went back outside where Alun and his Dad were enjoying their ice-creams.

The event starts on the Saturday evening for the Historics then they go into Parc Ferme, with the Moderns (us) starting on Sunday morning after the Historics had re-started in front.

With 5 stages to do, 1st stage of the day for us was Hafren South which was 6.00 miles long, this stage went well and we both felt the car was good, Alun as always giving 100% with his driving, he also has local knowledge of these stages, as they are not that far where he lives. Onto 2nd stage Hafren North 10.30 miler, there are quite a few fresh airs in this stage, we had been warned there was a few cars off in certain places, what we didn't expect was to come upon Joe Price who had rolled on a right hand bend with the car half blocking the track and you could just get by it (why it never got moved I do not know??) I think Joe was more worried that someone was gonna hit his car even though his co-driver was slowing us all down and telling us to keep over, sadly I also saw my friend Kevin their rally had ended early I could see them, but not their car!! discovered later it was down in a ditch, we completed the stage.

Service 1 as we waited at the Arrival control the weather turned really horrible, pouring with rain, up on the bank I could see friends Angela, Colin and Steve who had brought my Son Luke to watch, not that they could see much due to the weather, we found our service barge and the Tegid and Tim got to work, Ang pulled up and I saw Luke for a bit also Paul Willetts came over and checked I was ok, we had 40 minutes for this service, time was nearly there si I called Alun and we proceeded to the Arrival out control and onto our 3rd stage of the day, I had a headache when I woke up, not drink related! So after having a couple of tablets off Ang we were on our way.

Myherin was our next stage, now this one looked good on the DVD and as we got ready to go, this very strange man came and stood next to the car blowing me kisses, yes it was the lovely Mark Burndred who was doing Recovery on this 12.80 mile stage.

5,4,3,2,1 GO so another on for us to get our teeth into, at about halfway through it goes into the trees though all I remember saying is Oh S*** and Alun saying I can’t see trying not to put him off by saying I can't see anything either, due to fog which continued for what must have been a mile, with Alun still driving hard and relying on me to read the notes good and right otherwise we could easily have gone off, but as normal good teamwork between us and we got to the end, we did have a giggle about the fog part, as always Alun's Dad was doing a great job on Management for us.

4th stage was Elvis Rock based in the Sweet Lamb complex, this stage was 10.70 miles as we pulled up to arrival they gave us our time and we were both getting helmets etc on, as we proceeded to the start they said 30 seconds and I thought hell I haven't even got myself sorted before I know it I was counting down and off we went.

The first bit was quite long so it gave me a chance to tighten my belts and helmet as it was all a rush, this stage was quite hard and really rutted in places especially on a lot of the bends, and some of the hairpins had filled with water, we were proceeding downhill at quite a speed when we went around a 3L to be confronted with a driver and co-driver slowing us down as their car was nearly blocking the whole track (again why this one wasn't moved I don't know as we only just managed to squeeze by, god help any bigger cars!!) we had to literally stop and slowly edge by as all I could see my side was as very steep drop, I remember saying don't come over any more, we entered down into the bowl and through the water splash, talking off over the jumps we finished this stage and were both pleased as to date I had never completed a Sweet Lamb stage without breaking down and the last time Alun was rallying here in his Micra he visited the scenery, we actually went across the spot which is tarmac with ramps across but he kept his foot down and went really well across there, we both shook hands at the end and cheered for finishing this stage, in our class there were 32 so I was looking for a top 5 finish.

Back into Service 2 and at last the rain had stopped, Luke came over and accompanied me for a piddle stop, whilst he was outside waiting little did I know that someone had gone into the next door loo, when I appeared Luke shouted very loudly "Mum your driver is there having a wee" at that point Alun re appeared to find a few people laughing, back at our service barge the lads were doing a great job as always with the car but I still had this bad head and my throat was also very sore, more tablets, Ang was now slightly concerned as I had only taken the first couple of tablets about an hour ago, I was fine though.

Last stage Pikes Peak 2 just 5.20 miles long, we now knew we were up to 6th in class but I still wanted that 5th in class spot, deciding that we would go for it and push really hard, as we pulled up to the arrival we were greeted by two lovely ladies who I see quite regularly on events, always smiling whatever the weather!! helmets on, belts tightened and we off Alun drove really well, we were soon at the end of the stage, on the finish line was a very beaten up VW Golf who had rolled in stage and crawled out but fair play they got back to the finish at Newtown.

Back at the finish again very happy how the day had gone, I could have been better on some of the notes, with Alun and I clicking really well, also I enjoy sitting with him, although due to his work Alun and I will not be out until August.

After meeting back up with friends who had provided my Son Luke with a nice looking ice-cream, we waited for the provisional results to see where we had finally finished, as it was a very close thing between us and Jason Pritchard/Chris Ridge as to who got 5th spot and I was very pleased to see we had managed to finish 5th out of 28 in our class and 30th O/A.

Thanks to my sponsors Gibson's The Forest Trading Post and Cartork (Ireland) also to Tegid and Tim for keeping is going all day, plus Meirion Alun's Dad who did Management for us.

Lastly thanks also to Chris Huish for sending these pics, you can see more of his work at www.chrishuishrallyphotos.co.uk