It may have been a dramatic Network Q Rally of Great Britain at the front of affairs - with all but one of the World Rally Championship contenders crashing out - and a headline-making accident that put 13 in hospital. But for Wexford Motor Club's Eamonn Boland, it was one of his most-remarkable weekends yet, surviving a treacherous and testing course that knocked out the best, to finish 20th, having been seeded 74th. The Wexfordian may have come in half an hour behind rally winner Marcus Gronholm, but the fact that Boland finished - and the likes of Sainz, Makinen and McRae didn't - speaks volumes. The four-times winner of the Wexford Rally, accompanied by Anthony Nestor, started off by finishing 33rd of 117 on the opening spectator stage in Cardiff on Thursday night, traversing the 2.45 kilometres in 2 minutes 21.8 seconds. A night's sleep tackled, then it was out onto the roads Friday morning, with the second stage taking the drivers 14 kilometres through the St Gwymmo area. Boland had problems here, coming in 51st on the stage, 65 seconds behind stage winner Colin McRae. That result dropped him back to 46th overall. Boland's fightback began on the fourth stage in the Rhondda, in which he came home 35th, almost two minutes down on Marcus Gronholm, but still near enough to edge back up to 41st for the rally. A 37th placing on SS5 in Crychan kept him there, but the Wexfordian climbed four places up the GC ladder thanks to a fine performance on Special Stage Six, where he came in 32nd. Boland was showing tenacity in his Subaru, which he displayed by jumping a place at Brechfa, but it was the fact that he came in 33rd on SS8 at Trawscoed that really worked the oracle for the Slaneysider. That thrust him up to 31st at the end of day two in the decisive leg of the World Rally Championship, leaving him quarter of an hour behind leader Gronholm, but only eight seconds away from the top 30. Following the drama that surrounded Carlos Sainz's crash, stage 11 was abandoned and stage 12 cancelled, affecting the entire field. By the end of the second leg with one day remaining, Boland was lying 28th. A 33nd spot on SS9 in Resolfen gave him an overall classification on 32nd early on Saturday morning, but that figure jumped inside the top 30 when all drivers were given a time of one minute seven seconds behind stage winner Marcus Gronholm after Sainz's now infamous collision with spectators. Officially, Boland was given joint seventh on the stage - along with 70 others - to raise the Irishman up to 28th. Stage 12 in Trawscoed was cancelled, with the final stage of the day bringing the field to their second traversal of the spectator course in Cardiff. A respectable showing here maintained Boland's placing - leaving himself just a shade outside the top 25 going into the final day. The final day proved his best yet, with a placing of 22nd on Stage 14 in Rheola thrusting rising him six rungs higher on the leaderboard up to 22nd. From there, it was a matter of consolidation - the final three stages saw the Wexfordman come in 24th, 20th and - on the final stage in Margam - a creditable 19th. The timing of this year's calendar may have meant Eamonn Boland sacrificing the defence of his Wexford Rally crown in last week's Single Stage event, but the results have been more than worth it. Final positions after Stage 17 - 1 M Gronholm Fin Peugeot 3:23:44.8 2 H Rovanpera Fin Peugeot + 2:27.1 3 R Burns Gbr Subaru + 3:27.0 4 A McRae Gbr Hyundai + 6:48.8 5 A Schwarz Ger Skoda + 7:31.3 6 K Eriksson Swe Hyundai + 8:11.0 7 D Auriol Fra Peugeot + 8:21.1 8 B Thiry Bel Skoda +10:55.6 9 G de Mevius Bel Peugeot +14:17.7 10 T Arai Jpn Subaru +15:06.4 20 E BOLAND IRL SUBARU +34:22.9