REIGNING champion Tom Leech fended off the challenge of Dorset’s ‘top two juniors’ to retain his county title at Ferndown on Sunday.

Leech, who landed his first Dorset championship last May, beat newly-crowned South West Four Counties junior champion Robbie Mabb (Weymouth) 3 and 2 in the final.

And in the first round, Leech was taken to the 19th hole by Ferndown club-mate Harry Mitchell.

“In my opinion, Robbie and Harry are the county’s top two juniors,” said Leech, who at 30, is 13 years older than his beaten opponents.

“They are definitely the future of the county. Robbie’s a very straight hitter, while Harry has greater length off the tee on his side,” added Leech, who has been a beaten semi-finalist on four occasions and lost his only other previous final in 2003.

Despite having to face two of the county’s hottest prospects, Leech also had to negotiate his way past a double champion and a county team-mate.

“I also had to beat Dorset legend David Cook (two-time winner) and an old adversary Jon Welch, so overall I was very satisfied to get the better of quality players along the way.

“The experience of winning last year definitely helped me against the younger players and I was better prepared mentally than my previous two final appearances.

“The whole experience of being a defending champion was a little bit surreal, but I never got ahead of myself and I thought about one shot at a time.”

In the final, Leech won the opening hole and raced into a four-hole lead by winning the third, fourth and fifth holes.

Despite being pegged back to just two holes at the 11th, Leech was never behind and had two putts from 20 feet to close out the championship on the 16th green.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game, as finals often are,” admitted Leech. “I think I must have been about level par when I won.”

Leech qualified for the matchplay stage in 10th place in the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier after rounds of 74 and 70.

After edging past Mitchell in the first round, Leech then took the scalps of Cook with a 2 and 1 success in the quarter-finals and a 3 and 2 win over Welch in the last four.

For full results round-up visit www.dcgu.org.uk.