BARNARD Castle pro Darren Pearce led the winning team in the first of the North-East and North-West PGA winter pro-ams in Portugal.

Hexham's Phil Waugh triumphed for the third year in a row in the individual pro event winning by ten shots with some superb scoring in glorious weather.

But Pearce's team of Simon Jones, Luke Neville and Neil Riddell were never out of top spot and won with a score of 510 with Penrith Golf Club pro Craig Goodfellow's team of Steve Brownlee, Simon Hayhoe and Chris Forrester Gill runners-up ten shots further back on 520. Westerhope's Michael Nesbit and his team of Tony Brown, Steve Dixon and Dave Lawson were third on 523.

Waugh staked his claim for a third title from day one with a 67 at Palmares followed up with 70 at Pinheiros Altos and another 70 back at Palmares. He held off the chasing pack with a cracking 65 at Pinta for a total of 272.

That was ten clear of Nesbit (74 69 70 69) with South Moor's Mark Ridley third (74 68 75 66).

That meant Goodfellow just missed out on adding another win to his late-season run of form as he had led the winning team at Archerfield just before the Algarve winter pro-am, organised by the North-East and North-West PGA in conjunction with Batty's North-East based Golfingholidays.org.

The regional pros will also be jetting out to Spain at the end of January for the second of their winter pro-ams playing some stunning courses with the indelible stamp of Newcastle-born Dave Thomas such as Almenara, La Reserva, San Roque and Ryder Cup venue Valderrama and staying in the four-star Hotel Almenara.

There are places available on the trip. Contact Kevin Batty on 01661 828021 or email kevin@golfingholidays.org or NE and NW PGA secretary Tom Flowers on 07958 043403 and on tom.flowers@nenwpga.co.uk.

NERGA held its club & Individuals Championships at Rudding Park – and the three zone league winners, Catterick, Crook and Kirkbymoorside, competed for the Club Championship.

After the early stages Crook held a good lead. However, with a strong finish, Kirkbymoorside won the 2013 Championship and retained the NERGA Club Championship Trophy.

Top scorer for Kirkbymoorside was Chris Knowles 41pts, Guy Stevens 37pts and Robin Cass 37pts.

Catterick’s Pete Lynch recorded 36pts, Dave Gray with 35pts and Colin Hawkins had 35pts. Crook’s Mark Collinson reached 39pts, Brian Harrison hit 37pts and Thomas Armstrong/John Bell claimed 33pts.

Kirkbymoorside only made the finals by one stableford point on the last Zone League match.

The top Individuals from all 23 clubs contested the NERGA Individual Championship and it was a very close affair with only six points separating the top 15 players.

On a cold windy day, with the course in excellent condition, the winner on the day was Peter Bollands from Easingwold on 38pts. The runner-up on count back was Martin Hill of Dinsdale Spa with a 37pts tally.

Rudding Park sponsored a couple of side prizes and the Catterick’s Abs Bhatti got the nearest the pin award while Romanby’s Rob Kitching hit the longest drive.

NERGA are looking for seven new Clubs to join them for the 2014 season. Anyone interested should contact martin_hill@live.co.uk or 01325 720943. Alternatively contact aidybernardbrak@fsmail.net or 07828256569.