Published: Friday, 30th May, 2008 12:00pm

Jig of joy for jubilant Irish

Once again Irish Drivers, in their more powerful World Rally Cars, dominated the leaderboard throughout the two days of the Jim Clark International Rally - the main event of the five which comprised this year's Jim Clark Rally weekend.

At the Kelso finish on Sunday, after some 160 miles of flat-out motoring, it was Irish Championship leader Eamonn Boland who took the winner's trophy, having overhauled the first day front runner Tim McNulty in his similar Subaru Impreza WRC.

McNulty was to suffer another disappointment when he lost second place after being penalised 15 minutes for illegal servicing. Fellow Irishman Gareth MacHale inherited second slot in his Ford Focus WRC, with previous Jim Clark winner Mark Higgins third in his Subaru.

Leading Borderer, and Scot, in the International event was Dale Robertson from Duns, in his Mitsubishi Evo 6, who finished 14th, with St Boswells driver Gordon Nichol bringing his Suzuki Swift back to Kelso in 26th place.

Nearly 250 cars were out in the five events on the roads of Berwickshire - specially closed under Parliamentary Order to stage the annual rally which commemorates the late double world racing champion, who lived near Duns.

And it was a Duns driver who was top Scot in the National Rally on Saturday - Alistair Thorburn coming home in 4th place. But back out again on Sunday, he didn't have such a good run in the biggest event of the weekend - the Jim Clark Reivers Rally - where problems saw him trail most of the field.

However there was success for Coldstream's Des Campbell who, along with St Boswells co-driver James Braithwaite, took first place in the Challenge Rally in his Peugeot.

With good weather throughout the weekend, the rally saw crowds in their thousands once again, further enhancing its reputation as one the best events on the British rallying calendar.