Background: The general format was broadly the same as last year, using the Bournemouth Winter Gardens and promenade followed by Avon Park for the tarmac stages, and Ringwood, Hurn and Uddens/White Sheet forests for the gravel stages. The ramp in the town centre would be used three times, as would the seafront stage - everyone was desperately hoping that it would be possible to clear all the spectators off the beach.

The Special Equipment Service (SES) had made its base in Bournemouth several days previously. As scrutineering got underway at the Bournemouth International Centre, elite members of the SES were heaving crowd barriers around on the prom. In front of a crowd of admiring spectators, Neil Boxall leapt lithely over one of the barriers, only to crash to the ground heavily on the other side. As he lay groaning flat on his back on the seafront, it was up to the crowd to alert BP (Brian Price) to the problem: "Looks like your mate's in a spot of trouble."

About the time that Murray Walker was being interviewed for the television crews in scrutineering, Paul Smith was discovering an old hobby - sandcastles. Violent storms over the past days had blown so much sand onto the seafront from the beach that it was impossible to see the pavement in places. As Paul scraped away with one of BP's precious control boards, the competitors were exercising their right to check the pace notes of the seafront stage at walking pace. Several of them nearly got fastened to lamp-posts with rally tape as the SES constructed the stage around them.

With scrutineering over and the stages prepared, it was time for a pre-rally drinkie. Well, drinkies for everyone apart from Chrissie and the scrutineers who were still trying to find car 84. In a stunning piece of pre-rally preparation the navigator had managed to lock the rally car onto the trailer and drive off with the keys. They finally got scrutineered at... well, let's draw a veil over how tolerant our organisers can be sometimes.

The day of the rally dawned bright and cheerful (prompting many hardened Winter Rally enthusiasts to think they must have overslept by a day and missed it altogether). The SES went for a last sweep through the seafront stage - what kind of weirdo walks off in the night with two straw bales and two full 20-litre bottles of water? Meanwhile Richard Phillipson was assembling the list of equipment required for the start ramp - 2 time clocks, 1 flag, 4 tabards and 1 Lady Mayor. The excitement of being so close to someone so important seemed to go to his head (we knew it was a mistake to allow Ian Harden out) and for some inexplicable reason the entire rally managed to go over the start ramp 2 minutes late.

The Rick and Wug course-opening car got underway. Driving along the prom through the swirling sand they were very surprised to see a van coming in to the finish from the Boscombe pier end. The Winter Rally is very proud of the excellent relations it has with the police and the bobbies at that end of the stage got out of their nice warm van and into position remarkably quickly!

At the other end of the stage the drama was already underway as Bournemouth driver Stephen Hendy manage to break down before getting to the first stage. The seafront stage is always deceptively difficult, especially as it is done on stone cold tyres and brakes. Fastest through the stage was Brian Lyall in one of the seven Imprezas entered in the event.

The rally moved on through the day, up into the local forests. Mr Cooper, also known as "The Farmer Who Always Drives Out" once again exercised his right to have his local stage stopped for an inexplicably important drive to the shops. This is a small matter compared to the year Mrs Cooper got the stage stopped, drove out past one radio car and never got to the next one! Despite extensive searches of the woods, no trace of her or her car was found.

The top of the field were busy entertaining the crowds, with Steve Hill pirouetting round Avon Park and Marcus Dodd exhibiting a rather expensive piece of showmanship by rolling his Cosworth in front of the TV cameras. Back in the Kings Park service area it was barbeque time as Bambos Charalambous' Ford Sierra caught fire at the In control. Marshmallows were quickly passed round for toasting but the crew spoiled all the fun by using the built-in fire extinguisher to put the fire out.

The Rug and Wick show moved on to SS14 where arrangements had been made to put a policeman at a difficult turn out of the stage. 'Ello, 'ello, 'ello - no bobby - but four Specials were up at the next roundabout, all of 200 yards away. When careful reasoning (and head-butting) failed to get any of them to move, a coded message passed directly from the Chief Inspector produced miraculous results. Score 2 for the police.

At the end of a long day it was over the ramp for a third and final time. Richard had another list out - 2 bottles of champagne, 2 laurel wreaths, 1 beauty queen. The sizeable crowd which had gathered was heard to remark that they thought Julia Rabbett (co-driver for Steve Hill in car 1) was "a better bit of stuff" than Miss Bournemouth.