LAST weekend's Plains Rally kicked off the long-awaited return of Welsh forests rallying after last year's storm damage, reports PAUL WILLETTS.

The Plains was a round of both the Welsh National and Fuchs British Historic Rally Championship, and attracted over 100 crews to the beautiful town of Bala.

Just over 40 miles of some of the best forestry roads in Wales were on offer, with stages in Alwen South and North, Aberhirnant and Dyfnant.

And it was a successful day for Ben Friend with regular Monmouth co-driver Cliffy Simmons, finishing fourth overall and first in the Historics class in the Allglass Anglia Escort RS1800.

It's been a frustrating start to the year for them, but this will hopefully get their championship campaign back on track.

Cinderford's Bob Morgan and Adrian Williams kicked off their Welsh championship campaign with a fine sixth overall and third in class in the Winner Garage Skoda Fabia R5.

And in the Interclub event, more silverware came the way of Newent's Geoff Phelps and Colin Jenkins in the Hartpury Farms Escort RS1800, with an excellent 18th and first in class.

Jeremy Harris and daughter Alexandra also blew the cobwebs off taking 39th and fifth in class in the beautiful Kilcot Garage, PJW Construction, Gurney Family Butchers, Country Construction Escort Mexico, although he did admit to driving the first two stages like Miss Daisy trying to get back into the groove.

Irish duo Andrew Purcell and Martyn Brady emerged victorious from the dust in their Ford Fiesta Rally 2.

Meanwhile, Bream co-driver Craig Drew partnered Philip Allen in round 2 of the FIA European Rally Championship in Hungary on an all-gravel track.

Day one saw the duo hold a top-15 place until broken suspension curtailed their day

With the car repaired on Sunday, under super rally rules, they set three fastest stage times and were never out of the top five times to climb back to 29th at the end in the Auto Assist Skoda Fabia Rally 2.