Warwick on edge of rare home ‘national’ win

Monday 18th July 2011, 2:29PM BST.

Tom New, winner of Round 20, is about to make the dash to collect his trophy through a shower of champagne from Marc Maubec. (1160522)

WHERE’S the rain when you most need it?

Darren Warwick needed it at five o’clock on Saturday afternoon as he sat on a sensational possible win in the second of the day’s two top-12 national run-offs.

All day it had been a day for ducks at Le Val des Terres, but as the climactic run-off started the road was finally drying.

And for most of the contenders, that included locals Warwick, Geoff Guille and Nick Saunders, that meant off with the wets and on with the slicks as, at last, the hill offered a level of grip that had been found wanting under the steady rain of earlier.