Craig Fort climbed to joint eighth in golf's Northern Order of Merit after defending the Trafalgar Trophy at his home course Nelson.

The former Harold Ryden Trophy winner capitalised on local knowledge and retained the Trophy by the same one-shot margin over Mark Young, who was also runner-up last year.

Nothing could separate the pair after their opening rounds of 68 but Fort edged ahead with a birdie at the long 15th to repeat his score as Young, from Longridge, followed up with a 69.

Fort is now 150 points adrift of current leader, Willie Bowe.