[CentOS] NTP and hardware clock

Hi,

I had the following problem today. Because of a misconfigured 
network switch one system suddenly didn't have any network.

After a reboot (with the network still unavailable) NTPD refused to start. 
Most likely because the initial ntpdate failed to work. I find this 
troubling, because when the network was restored, NTPD could have resumed 
working (like I'd expect from a true daemon).

Now, what was more peculiar was that the hardware clock was completely 
off. I also had assumed that somehow the hardware clock was kept in sync, 
but now after rebooting without network, the system clock was skewed.

Is there some way to:

 + Make ntpd run, even when no ntp-server could be contacted
 + Make ntpd synchronise the hardware clock automatically

PS Yes, I know I can run ntpdate from cron or run hwclock to synchronize 
my hardware clock. But shouldn't this be part of the infrastructure 
(either ntpd or the initscripts) ?

Maybe this is useful to have fixed upstream, but I prefer to hear second 
opinions before trying to be smart :)

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]