ANDY Samuels embraced his mother, Meriel, on the 18th green after clinching the Harold Ryden Trophy at Burnley Golf Club last night.

The 43-year-old Burnley member won the Lancashire Evening Telegraph-sponsored title for the second time after a titanic scrap with Shaw Hill's Nick Hopwood and then dedicated his victory to his father, Les, who died last year after suffering from Alzheimer's .

"Sadly, my father cannot be here to see it but I think he will be watching somewhere and I'm sure he'll be happy," said Andy, who used to captain Colne Dynamoes at football. "We're a big sporting family. My dad played a lot of golf and he was twice a beaten semi-finalist himself in this competition.

"But he brought me up in the way he used to play and that's to play fair, to play honest and, most of all, to enjoy it.

"That's what it's all about. My mum is over the moon now and so are the rest of my family.

"It's a lot harder to win this competition away from your home course but to win it in front of your home supporters is absolutely tremendous. I still can't take it in."

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