HAMPSHIRE were crowned South East League Champions for the second year in a row, for the first time since 2002 after beating newly-crowned English County Champions Essex, in North London.

Captain Toby Burden, from Hayling GC, was still out on the course when Stoneham’s James Freeman came back from one-down with one to play to win the 18th hole.

His par after Essex’s Ross Dee made a bogey gave Hampshire the crucial point that ensured the reigning champions would lift the Daily Telegraph Salver for the 11th time since 1986.

Burden and Martin Young, playing in a record 10th South East Final for the county, were both level in the last two matches out of the eight singles, and agreed to call their games as halves to give Hampshire victory by 71/2-41/2.

Hampshire had famously lost to Essex when the final was played in 1996 at Southampton’s Stoneham GC when Justin Rose was a teenage amateur prodigy, who had helped the county become English champions for the first time in their history earlier that month.

So it was Hampshire’s time to turn the tables on the team who triumphed at the English County Finals seven days earlier.

Burden had expressed supreme confidence in his team after winning the South Division crown against Surrey, Sussex and Kent for a second-year running, and had sleepless nights picking his final eight-man team, even without his two US-based college stars Joe Buenfeld, and Charlie Forster, who earned both Great Britain and Ireland and England caps for the first time this summer.

Burden’s team raced into a 3-1 lead in the foursomes, and then played his singles match largely oblivious to what was going on ahead of him.

The inevitable Essex fightback came early as the North Division winners took the top two games as Botley’s former England U16 cap George Saunders could not add to his point from the foursomes.

But wins for Hampshire Order of Merit winner Robert Wheeler, from North Hants GC, Rowlands Castle’s former county champion Tom Robson, and Stoneham’s four-time county champion Ryan Henley, playing in his seventh final, left them needing just a half.

And Freeman, the University of Birmingham PGA graduate, promptly delivered after Hampshire Golf secretary Richard Arnold, the former Stoneham GC manager, told James on the 18th tee that if he could salvage his match Hampshire were champions again.

Burden, who took over the captaincy in May when Stoneham’s Lawrence Cherry took a job managing The Montgomerie Golf Club in Dubai, said: “To take the trophy back to Hampshire is a real honour as captain.

“To defend the title for the first time since 2002 is another great achievement. I love the fact the team are making more history for Hampshire.

“Beating Essex felt really good – we had all the pressure to go back-to-back. They had just won the English County Championship, so it was up to us to make sure we had some silverware to take home this year after finishing second to them in the South East Qualifier in July.”