WHEN Kris Rae approached his second on the 18th at Wearside Golf Club on Sunday, he was already on course for the biggest sporting triumph of his life so far. Not that the man from the village of Crawcrook knew it.

It’s a good job too. With one more group behind, Rae blocked his second shot into the trees and he was on his way to finishing with a bogey. In the end, courtesy of a confident five foot putt having placed a decent rescue on the green, he had done enough to become Durham’s County champion.

It didn’t matter that the talented trio behind him - of Juan Miguel Heredia, Richard Walker and Martin McCririck - still had a hole to close the gap because back-to-back 70s was worthy of winning the prestigious title.

“I don’t even think it’s sank in yet,” said Rae, whose biggest previous victory was the club championship at Tyneside in 2012. “I worked hard all Sunday to try to block out the scores, just to focus on myself, so I think it’s not really hit home yet.

“I didn’t feel the nerves down the last because I had deliberately not even looked at where I was on the leaderboard. It could have been a lot worse when I went into the trees and I was in GUR, but I chopped out and then played a nice shot into the green and putted out.

“Fortunately I had hit a couple of birdies on the back nine, as well as making birdie at the third and the sixth, which was a tough hole, so dropping one at the last didn’t matter too much.

“It’s fantastic because there were some really good players in that field, even in that last group there was Richie Walker who I thought was going to storm it after shooting four-under 69 in his first round at his own course.”

Rae posted scores of 71, 74, 70 and 70 to finish on a 285-total; three ahead of Seaton Carew’s 16-year-old Cameron Wallace. “I had to come off at the tenth in the last round because of lightening but it didn’t affect me,” said Rae.

Then it was back to the day job for Rae, who is in the final year of an electrician apprenticeship with SCA Hygiene and Gateshead College. The victory has whetted the appetite for more, having appeared for the County team six times during the last few years.

“Consistency has been the thing with me,” said the plus-one handicapper, who started playing at Ryton aged ten and has played out of Tyneside for the last 12 years. “I’m hoping this will be the start of more and I have already had a call from the county captain to play in the next match.

“There will be the County Champion of Champions at Woodhall Spa later in the year too, so I just want to build on this because it should give me the confidence that I can compete at that level regularly.”

While Rae turned on the style in the closing two rounds to complete the impressive win, Wallace’s performance is worth noting too. The Seaton Carew teenager will only turn 17 at the end of the next month yet he left much of the field behind to finish two shots clear of third placed Heredia of Brancepeth Castle.

Wallace holed a lot of 10-15 foot putts during the first and second rounds to give himself the perfect platform. He shot a three-under 70 in his opening round before finishing in 75, 72 and 71.

“I hit a few loose shots but overall it was a great performance, I can’t really ask for anything more,” said Wallace, who is being coached by Sharpley’s Simon Robinson and mentored by Seaton Carew pro Cliff Jackson.

“It was a fantastic couple of days and more great experience for me. It was both mine and my caddie’s (Nik Procter) aim to get into the top ten in such a big men’s event in the Durham Union, but I smashed it and I had the opportunity to win.”

County Championship leaderboard

Kris Rae (Tyneside) +1

Cameron Wallace (Seaton Carew) +4

Juan Miguel Heredia (Brancepeth Castle) +6

Richard Walker (Wearside) +7

Martin McCririck (South Shields) +7

David Vest (Wearside) +8

Richard Aisbitt (Brancepeth Castle) +8

Stuart Brown (Castle Eden) +11

James Wilson (Tyneside) +12

Gavin Nesbit (Boldon) +15

Rhys Thompson (Boldon) +15