Farnham Road Club's open 25-mile time trial, promoted last Saturday on the Bentley-based course, will not be forgotten in a hurry.

On an afternoon of torrential rain, almost half the field of 120 decided against starting, and two of the 64 who did start failed to finish.

But the real sensation was the solo ride of Steve Walkling, the Portsmouth North End CC member, who broke the course and event records with an astonishing time of 50mins 57secs.

Many other starters found the conditions, rain apart, favourable to fast times. Chris Brooking, the pre-race favourite, asked for an early start when conditions were probably at their worst, yet still finished second in 52-30.

Third place went to Wayne Levet (Hemel Hempstead CC) in 52-53. Charlotteville's Steve Leonard finished seventh in 54-40 and Peter Pickers (Northover's Vets), who also requested an early start, recorded 55-02 for 10th place.

In all, 33 riders completed the course in under the hour.

These included Farnham RC riders Rob Pennell (59-21) and Ian Howard. The latter started first on the road and struggled through rain for the entire ride to finish under the hour for the first time in 59-24.

Rob Clark of Farnham recorded a very creditable 1-01-57 and Ian Windall 1-06-04.

Andy Dibnah was not so lucky. He punctured during his ride, borrowed a wheel from wife Deana, who had just finished, and eventually recorded 1-08-19. Deana herself was later spotted by a passing motorist, walking the two miles back to race HQ, and was rescued by club officials ... and that after finishing the event in 1-17-50. What was later said in the Dibnah household has yet to be revealed.

Fastest lady rider was Sandra Holder (Hemel Hempstead CC) in 1-01-20. The tandem event was won by Rob Richardson & Mark Silver (Hounslow Wheelers) in 50mins 57secs. Ray Hughes (Clarence Wheelers) rode a solo machine in the absence through injury of his tandem partner, and his time of 53-24 on a fixed-gear machine, would have earned him fifth place. Don Hunt (Farnborough & Camberley) took the award for best veteran rider, coming home in 1-00-07 and beating his standard time by the huge margin of 21-07.

Event secretary Jim Parker paid tribute to race marshalls Graham Abbott and Peter Dibnah, together with Heather Dibnah, Michael Rice and Greg Harding, who braved the rain throughout, as did Nick Parker who helped at the start. Timekeepers Dave Wright and Jim Brown, assisted by Lawrie Bollini, kept track of the starters and non-starters, as well as recording final times.