WEATHER more akin to December than March greeted the 150 crews on Saturday morning as they left Cockermouth to contest the 27th Malcolm Wilson Rally.

The conditions in both the Whinlatter and Grizedale stages had a two to three inch covering of snow which initially caused more problems to the four wheel drive cars than the two!

After pre-event favourites Steve Petch/John Richardson in the Accent WRC and BTRDA leader John Perrott/Graham Hopewell failed to reach service, the event was thrown wide open.

Stuart and Steve Egglestone pushed Johnny Milner/Nicky Beech in the Corolla WRC all the way through the eight stagers and were eventually second by two minutes 11 seconds with Grizedale Stages winner John Thompson/Ian Oakey only a second behind.

Arnside's Wayne and Neil Sisson powered their way into fourth place in the Mitsubishi Evo 4 13 seconds ahead of Carnforth's Ian Joel/Graeme Wood who had to be content with fifth place after the condition in Comb and Hobcarton bit back and despite never being out of the top five stage times on the remaining five stages, Joel/Wood couldn't get the Chris Allen/Herriots supported Escort Cosworth any higher.

After being second after three stages, Morecambe's Phil Burton/Mick Fallows unusually had problems in the second stage in Grizedale and finished in thirty-fifth place, despite setting top 10 times on two of the remaining three stages in the BDS Fuels supported Escort Mk II.