But the former Yorkshire county star, who won the English amateur stroke-play championship in 2003, went mighty close to repeating last season's victory.

This time Lupton, who is attached at Middlesbrough, had to settle for the runners-up spot and a £3,000 pay day after shooting a two-under- par 214, four strokes short of East Berkshire's Guy Goodman who picked up £5,000.

Goodman was one-under going into the final round, a shot ahead of defending champion Lupton.

The pair were in the last group and Goodman said: "Jon missed a couple of good chances around the turn which would have put some real pressure on me so it could have been different.

"Because he missed I was able to keep the momentum up which was really important."

Lupton said: "Conditions were tough last year when I won but not as tough as this. The wind made it so difficult."

Leading scores: 210 – G Goodman (East Berkshire) 77 66 67. 214 – J Lupton (Middlesbrough) 73 71 70. 215 – M Mulryan (Ireland) 78 67 70. Others included: 222 – P Bradshaw (Spaldington) 78 74 70. 228 – F Kelley (Malton & Norton) 81 74 73. 230 – L Shepherd (Willow Valley) 76 74 80.

Missed 36-hole cut: Ben Field (Selby) 78 78. P O'Donnell (Cookridge Hall) 77 82. J Kelly (West Bradford) 83 78. A Cranston (Willow Valley) 84 78. C Green (Cleckheaton) 88 79.

Elsewhere, Cleckheaton's Georgina Simpson, attached at Huddersfield, tied third on 210 with rounds of 66 74 70 to earn 27,584 euros in the S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe at Machynys Peninsula.

Kiran Matharu (Cookridge Hall) shot 67 75 71 to win 6,488 euros for her share of 11th place in the Ladies European Tour event and Doncaster's Rebecca Hudson tied 37th on 217, after posting 70 73 74 worth 3,057 euros.

English amateur stroke-play champion Jodi Ewart, made the cut on her debut with a sponsor's invite.

The Curtis Cup player, birdied the 36th hole to complete rounds of 72 and 74.