As the rain clouds moved in on the penultimate 'a3crg' time trial for this summer, several of the top riders who had elected to start at the back of the field looked at the weather and decided it was back to the changing rooms.
However, the 39 riders who got the early start were able to contest the three competitions taking place over the 10-mile course.
For this event, riders were given a handicap time based on their best performance of the season. This was then taken off their actual finishing times to determine a handicap result.
RAF medic Tony Harvey not only won the event overall on actual time, but was quick enough to win the handicap competition and the 'bubbly'.
Harvey won by just four seconds from Lesley Allen of Portsmouth North End, closely followed by Alton CC's Carole Bather.
Geoff Whitby has made dramatic improvements in his times and took third place in the Rother Valley CC championship that was being run the same evening. First for Rother was John Hepper, now getting back to his winning form of three seasons ago. Hugh Broadhead came second.
Back at Greatham village hall, Rother's club secretary, Kathy Collard-Berry, presented the three riders with their championship medals and the vets medal to Ben Fielden.
Paul Forde of Liphook Cycles took part in Portsmouth North End's 10-mile open event at Funtington on Sunday. He is very new to the sport and this was his first Sunday morning event. He rode the testing course as hard as he could on the way out, having been briefed by his team on the severity of the route that starts at Funtington and winds its way to Chichester North Gate where it turns for the return.
Forde was at first disappointed by his time of 23-56, but was to find that he had beaten his nearest rival by nearly four minutes and many of the senior riders and taken the junior prize.
Handicap top 10: 1, Tony Harvey (RAF) 19-41; 2, Lesley Allen (Portsmouth NE) 19-45; 3, Carole Bather (Alton) 19-54; 4, Wayne Prevett (Sotonia) 19-59; 5, Keith Stokes (a3crg) 20-03; 6, Paul Jordan (Rother Valley) 20-06; 7, Paul Forde (Liphook Cycles) 20-10; 8, Roger Scott (Northover's) 20-12; 9, Tony Hart (Portsmouth NE); 10, Gary Buckett (Portsmouth NE) 20-17.
Overall: 1, Tony Harvey (RAF) 21-30; 2, Tim Melville (Cambridge Univ) 21-38; 3, Simon Berogna (Portsmouth NE) 21-58; 4, Ray Robinson (Fareham Wheelers) 22-07; 5, Gary Buckett (Portsmouth NE) 22-17; 6, John Hepper (Rother Valley) 22-22; 7, David Reid (Festival) 22-38; 8, Hugh Broadhead (Rother Valley) 22-50; 9, Tony Hart (Portsmouth NE) 22-51; 10, Paul Forde (Liphook Cycles) 23-08.
Rother Valley Championship: 1, John Hepper 22-22; 2, Hugh Broadhead 22-50; 3, Geoff Whitby 24-05; 4, Ben Fielden 24-08; 5, Patrick Brennan 24-13; 6, Paul Jordan 24-48; 7, Roger Lambert 28-07); 8, Mark Pyne (31-32).