Early Arrivals at the Theatre Clwyd lunch halt parked outside the new building which offered a fine view of the hills opposite from the terrace on the first floor. The weather had improved again changing to sunshine just as it had during the coffee halt at Tower.

The Map based regularity 1.3 followed immediately after the coffee halt and was the section subject to the amendment issued at the start.  It understandably resulted in some mistakes given the limited time available to become acquainted with the changes to the route and the difference of the map based format to what had gone before. The route continued south, past tree filled slopes of Nercwys mountain, circling back north west to end at Llanarmon-yn-lal, only a mile before the beginning of Regularity 1.4.

For this, the rally quickly turned away from the Nant y Garth pass in favour of narrow lanes flanked by open fields and heathland, circling back to Bryneglwys before heading north east then east towards the Llantysilio and the Maesyrchen mountains - their broad open slopes splashed with purple heathers.   The longest regularity of the day at eighteen miles, the second part used a winding road clinging to the course of the River Eglwyseg valley before climbing the opposite side in shade from overhanging trees, that give way to more open heathland before crossing the Horseshoe pass and on to the section’s end outside Minera.

After the lengthy regularity, the next challenge was the third test of the day at Hartsheath, beginning and ending at cattle grids on roads crossing the estate surrounding this attractive, listed, nineteenth century house.  Built on the site of an earlier structure, the property was constructed in 1819 for the Welsh Iron and Coal Mining Company. They were obliged to sell it to recover the expense of its construction and the family of the original buyer still live there.

On leaving the test, a short six mile road section skirted Mold to reach theatre Clwyd and a stop for lunch, prepared by top flight chef Bryn Williams and his team, in the theatre's airy, modern building with a fine view of the Clwydian Hills, happily by this point bathed in sunshine.  There were some last minute changes here too, the pre-arranged parking for the rally in the adjacent car park proving impossible due to, of all things, a computer failure!  Some rapid impromptu signing took place to direct cars to an alternative location but the quality of the meal forgave a great deal of the inconvenience attending an otherwise relaxing stop.