A WOMAN has become the overall winner of the Beamish Reliability Run for the first time in its 31-year history.

Eileen Bruce, of Blackwell Lane, Darlington, finally clinched the top spot with her 1937 Riley Falcon, after competing in the run for almost 20 years.

Together with her lifetime schoolfriend, Rose Brady, as navigator, the pair clocked up 103 points on Sunday, beating last year's winner, Andrew Raine, with his 1949 Alvis by only one point.

Mrs Bruce's husband, Allan, who bought her the car ten years ago as a birthday present, is also a veteran of the run, having competed for 26 years.

A three-times winner with a 1936 Austin 10 - which now awaits an engine rebuild - he now completes the 150-mile course through County Durham and the Dales in his 1925 Austin Chummy.

But for Mrs Bruce, who retired from her teaching post at North Cowton Primary School at Easter after 24 happy years, the news of her win on Tuesday evening came as a complete surprise.

"Rose and I have been a team for the last ten years and won the ladies' trophy and a class trophy before," she told the D&S Times, "but we have never won the Beamish Run outright.

"The closest we got was when we were joint winners with Tony Gray and his 1936 Bentley but the oldest car always wins the trophy in those circumstances.

"We always said it would be wonderful for a women's team to win it and now we have. It is just fantastic news, absolutely brilliant. Especially when, after lunch, the car kept conking out each time we stopped."

But Mrs Bruce will have to wait to tell her friend the good news.

"Rose went away on holiday on Tuesday and I can't get word to her. I can't wait to see her face when I tell her. She will be over the moon."

A total of 101 cars took part in the run and all but five finished the course.

Local trophy winners included.- Overall winner, Jolley Family Beamish Enthusiasts' Trophy: Eileen Bruce, Darlington. Delgarno Cup for best post-war car: Andrew Raine, Spennymoor. Bramwell Trophy for best post-vintage car: Tony Gray, Darlington.