RALLY duo Bob Ceen and Alistair Douglas failed to capitalise on the difficult conditions faced by competitors on last week's Network Q Rally of Great Britain.

The South Wales stages were extremely slippery after heavy rain and this led to the retirement of many leading runners, such as Richard Burns and the early leader, world champion Marcus Gronholm.

Bob and Alistair, driving their Subaru Impreza 555, first hit problems as early as Special Stage Three (Trawscoed), when they slid off the road and down a bank. It took the best efforts of about 20 spectators to haul them back to the road, but 24 minutes were lost. This left them in last place and without any real chance of a recovery to the top 20 position they had aimed for.

Despite a catalogue of technical problems with the car, including losing the brakes, they managed to pass a few of the tail-end runners and it looked as though they might avoid the wooden spoon after all.

However, fate dealt another blow on Special Stage 16 (Rheola), when they had to stop for 20 minutes to repair a smashed exhaust.

The final disaster to strike them came within 200 yards of the finish of the Rally on Special Stage 17 (Margam), when a loose seal caused water to flood into the car as they hit a watersplash at about 60 mph. Despite being soaked in muddy water, they could only laugh at their predicament. They eventually finished 39th and last, although their achievement was underlined by the fact that less than half of the starters finished the gruelling rally.

They were presented with bottles of champagne on the finishing ramp as a reward for sheer perserverence!

Another local competitor in the rally was Michael Park from Much Marcle, who co-drives for Estonian Markko Martin in a Ford Focus WRC02. They led the rally at one stage and had an enthralling, event-long battle with winners Petter Solberg and Phil Mills (Subaru Impreza WRC02), eventually finishing in second place.

Bob and Alistair were carrying an on-board camera throughout the rally and their story will be featured in a television programme focusing on the amateur teams. The programme is due to be broadcast on Sky Sports 3 on December 8.

They are already making plans for the 2003 season and hope to compete in the National Championship, which kicks-off in February with the Sunseeker Rally in Bourne-mouth, before moving on to Wales, Northern England and Scotland. They have twice finished third in the National Championship, in 1999 and 2001, and hope to improve upon that next year.