Leader comment: Epic voyage honours firefighter's memory

So Scotland can beat Wales at one sport, at least. They may hold the bragging rights when it comes to rugby, but as for rowing across an ocean, Scotland officially has the faster team '¦ just.

Kris and Blair Elliot tackled 40ft waves and intense sleep deprivation as they rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic

Team Noble, consisting of brothers Kris and Blair Elliot from Dunblane, crossed the Atlantic in a time of 55 days, one hour and 54 minutes – half an hour ahead of Team Oarstruck, a four-strong Welsh crew.

However, such is the camaradery of the sport, it wasn’t really a competition. The Oarstruck crew had waited for them ahead of the final approach into Antigua so they could savour their arrival together.

They may not have broken the recently set world record of 29 days and 15 hours, but making such an epic journey in any time at all is a marvellous achievement.

And this was no gap-year jolly. The brothers are raising money for The Fire Fighters Charity in memory of firefighter John Noble, a friend who died in a road accident while responding to an emergency call at a local school.

In the final week of their journey, they said they were thinking of him and hoped they were honouring his name. They’ve certainly done that.