COLIN CLARK

“Neuville nearly had his collar felt by the boys in blue”

Did you hear the one about the year that the World Rally Championship was decided by a bobby from Blaenau Ffestiniog? Well OK, you haven’t, and you probably won’t, but remarkably, you very nearly might have.

It’s Saturday afternoon and we’re waiting at the stop line of Myherin for the drivers to complete their second passes. And so is our friend from Blaenau Ffestiniog. Captivated by a flying Ott Tanak and engrossed in the hammer-and-tongs battle for the podium places, Blaenau Bobby in his immaculate traffic officer’s uniform appeared. On the face of it, to be just another interested spectator.

But then into the stop line rolled the mud-splattered and slightly battered Hyundai i20 WRC of championship leader Thierry Neuville. And while we were listening to the Belgian talking of his struggles to tame the finest stages in the world, Blaenau’s finest was on the prowl.

Thierry had experienced a bit of a difficult morning and his car was showing the evidence of it. An excursion into a ditch and one or two other heavy impacts had dislodged the rear bumper, destroyed the left-rear light cluster and basically left the rear of the car looking somewhat second-hand.

Our friend, with his high-powered Volvo and blue flashing lights wasn’t happy. Having asked Thierry to demonstrate that his indicators were working adequately, and they were (but only just), he then decided that the rear-end damage could render the flying Hyundai unroadworthy.

And this is where things could have got very interesting indeed. Neuville left the stop line and headed onto the public highway and towards the next stage. A couple of minutes later, Blaenau Bobby jumped into his Volvo and headed off, apparently in hot pursuit. At this point, the gossip, speculation, rumour and conjecture at the stop line hit meltdown levels.

The infamous Marcus Gronholm run-in with South Wales’ finest in 2003 was mentioned more than once. He only had three wheels on his car. “I know I can drive, but you just won’t let me go!” was the two-time world champion’s unforgettable quote at the time. Was history about to repeat itself? Had Neuville been ordered to stop, his title aspirations would probably have been dealt a fatal blow.

And for a tense few minutes, it looked as if that might well happen. Thankfully common sense prevailed and Neuville was permitted to carry on, albeit with a safety escort on the road sections.

I had a fair degree of sympathy for the predicament that Blaenau Bobby found himself in. The police do a magnificent job ensuring that traffic moves smoothly on the roads of Wales during Rally GB. They keep the boy racers in check and we all feel safer because of that.

So, should we expect them to turn a blind eye to competing cars? Absolutely not. This was a situation that could have had far-reaching consequences. The fact that it thankfully doesn’t is down to conscientious policing with a pragmatic approach.

Bravo mid-wales Police and bravo Blaenau Bobby.