YET again, the 40th Tunnocks Tour of Mull lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest club rallies in the world.

After a day and two nights of flat-out rallying on the Scottish island, it was Calum and Iain Duffy who squeezed home just over a minute clear of second-placed James McGillivray and Ian Fraser.

Duffy, looking for his fifth win on the event, looked to be down and out on the opening leg, when a puncture relegated him down to 24th place.

But the Mull residents mounted an awesome climb back through the field in his Ford Escort Mk2 to claim a well-deserved victory.

Third place went to Daniel Harper and Chris Campbell, in the Mini Sport of Padiham BMW Cooper S, a further 35 seconds behind.

The 2002 winners mounted a last-gasp, last-stage attack on John Cope, overturning the Bury man’s three-second advantage to grab the final place on the podium.

Remarkably for such a technology-driven sport, two-wheel drive cars filled the top three places, leaving Cope and co-driver Rob Fagg with the award as top four-wheel-drive crew with their Subaru Impreza.

North West Stages regulars Tony Bardy and Reg Smith fifth in their elderly, but rapid, Nissan Sunny GTiR.

Sixth place was enough for Tristan Pye and Andrew Falconer to take the group N ‘showroom class’ ahead of Shaun Sinclair, who started at car 50.

Dougi Hall, one of the pre-event favourites and leader of the rally several times, had to be content with eighth place after two punctures at crucial times put paid to his challenge.

Rounding off the top ten was Blackburn’s Tugs Sherrington and Sam Bould after an excellent run in their Mitsubishi Evo4.

The pair won the award for the Top Lancashire Crew, claiming the Lancashire Telegraph trophy for the fourth time in a row.

The award for Best Clitheroe Crew went to Brinscall husband-and-wife John and Paula Swinscoe, who finished 11th overall in their Rallytech Mitsubishi Evo.

But just making it to the finish was the real achievement this year. From 150 starters less than half got to the finish ramp in Tobermory.

Last year’s winner Paul MacKinnon went off when he was in the lead, while his dad Neil crashed out on the third stage after sharing the lead with Paul and Dougi Hall following the two short, but memorable, opening blasts around Tobermory city centre.

Willie Bonniwell retired with gearbox failure and Dave Pattison was setting encouraging times till his fuel pump stopped pumping and his gearbox stopped selecting.

But thanks to the unique challenge of the Mull roads and the slick organisation of the 2300 Club of Blackburn, led by Neil and Clive Molyneux, the winners and losers of the 2009 Tour of Mull have all promised to be back again next year to contest The Best Rally in the World.