Harry Nimmo, who runs Standard Life Investments� UK Smaller Companies vehicle, has now surpassed his own previous record-breaking run.

Harry Nimmo, who runs Standard Life Investments' UK Smaller Companies vehicle, has now surpassed his own previous record-breaking run at the head of The Herald's monthly table of top-performing asset managers with Scottish fund houses.

Nimmo broke his previous record by making it 11 in a row at the head of the Scottish top flight when the latest investment performances for the three years to August 31 were tallied by financial publisher Citywire. He also extended his run at the top of Citywire's UK-wide top flight to nine straight months.

David Clark, who runs Glasgow-based Resolution Asset Management's Smaller Companies fund, regained second spot UK-wide when the latest performance figures were calculated. He had, in the previous monthly table, seen a seven-month run in second spot broken with a slip to third position UK-wide when he was overtaken by Georgina Brittain, who runs JP Morgan Asset Management's UK Smaller Companies fund.

When the figures to August 31 were compiled, Brittain had to settle for third place in the UK again.

In the Scottish top flight, Clark has now been second for 11 consecutive months.

It was Clark who ended Nimmo's previous record-breaking, 10-month reign at the head of the Scottish top flight in the second half of last year. Clark swapped places with Nimmo for two months at that stage - before their roles reversed again.

Clark and Nimmo remained significantly ahead of the pack in Scotland when the latest rankings were compiled.

However, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's Rory Hammerson did surge into third place with some style . Hammerson, who runs SWIP's Pan-European Equity, Pan-European SRI Equity, and Pan-European Smaller Companies funds, saw his UK-wide position improve from 25th to 10th when the latest investment performance figures were compiled.

Audrey Ryan, who runs Aegon's Ethical Cautious Managed, Ethical Equity, and UK Opportunities funds, slipped from third to fifth in the Scottish top flight when the figures to August 31 were tallied with a deterioration in her UK-wide ranking from 14th to 24th.

Martin Lau, who runs First State's Greater China Growth fund, rose to fourth in the Scottish top flight as his UK-wide position improved from 34th to 16th.

John Dodd, manager of Artemis's UK Smaller Companies fund, slipped from fourth to ninth position in the Scottish top flight with a deterioration in his UK-wide ranking from 20th to 49th.

Colin McLean, of Edinburgh-based investment boutique SVM, plummeted 17th to 24th in the Scottish top flight with a further tumble in his UK-wide ranking from 88th to 140th. He was third in the Scottish top flight when the performance figures to June 30 were compiled.

The Herald-Citywire survey focuses on open-ended funds aimed at retail investors, and ranks the performance of those working for investment houses with a significant presence in Scotland. It does not cover managers of investment trusts or funds for which the minimum initial investment is more than £10,000. Rankings are based on three-year, riskadjusted performance against relevant benchmarks.

There were eight relegations from the Scottish top flight, and only one promotion, when the figures to August 31 were tallied. This chimed with a reduction in the number of managers with Citywire ratings throughout the UK, from 205th to 164th in the space of a month, amid tumultuous times in global stock markets.