Even in a tournament lacking a single member of the world's top 100 the Great North Open came up with a shock winner at Slaley Hall on Sunday.

Miles Tunnicliff, who last November finished 137th out of 168 at the European qualifying school, captured the £100,000 first prize in fairytale fashion.

The 33-year-old Marbella-based Englishman, who had never previously finished higher than sixth and has not held a tour card for three years, shot a best-of-the-day closing round of 69 for a nine-under-par total of 279.

He finished four strokes ahead of German Sven Struver - and now has a place on the £60million circuit for the rest of this season and two more.

There was real emotion attached to his victory. Two weeks ago, just before she died of cancer, his mother told him to go out and win a tournament.

"It's very, very hard to speak right now," he said. "She gave me the strength and inspiration to do what I did today.

"My concentration was very good. I tried to stay within myself and didn't look at the leaderboards until the 12th." He was three ahead by then.

Tunnicliff was playing only his second tour event of the season and his fourth in two years - and until last week he had not touched his clubs for a month.

"I had a wrist operation two years ago and last year I almost felt like packing it in. But I plugged away and here I am."

There did indeed appear to be a touch of destiny attached to his performance.

Twice on the front nine he chipped in for birdies and even when he was four clear of the field with three to play he narrowly escaped hooking into the trees on the 16th and holed a 20-foot putt for his par.

He was in trouble at the last as well, but saved par again from 12 feet.

The previous biggest cheque of Tunnicliff's career was £16,830 for eighth place in the 1997 Scandinavian Masters.

Welshman Bradley Dredge and Sheffield's Malcolm Mackenzie shared third place.

Struver was trying for his first win in four years and was joint leader with a round to play, but went to the turn in 39 and after birdies at the next two ran up a six on the long 12th.

"I couldn't get close enough to put any real pressure on him," he said.

Former Ryder Cup player David Gilford also shared top spot overnight, but managed only a 78.

A month ago Mackenzie won the French Open for his first success on the European tour in 509 attempts and when he moved into second place with five to play there was still a chance of the 40-year-old triumphing again.

But he bogeyed the short 14th and missed birdie putts of four feet at the next and six feet on the last.

"It's nice to know that I can still get into contention," commented Mackenzie. "I didn't look at any leaderboards until the last and didn't know how I was doing."

Dredge, who fell from joint leader to fourth last year with a double-bogey six at the last, was delighted with his finish this time.

The 28-year-old from Tredegar's 70 was the second best score of the final round.

"I seem to play well round here for some reason," said Dredge. "There's a bit of what could have been, but I'm really pleased with that because I really struggled in the third round."

Collated final totals in the Great North Open, De Vere Slaley Hall, Northumberland, England (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

279 Miles Tunnicliff 72 70 68 69 (£100,000)

283 Sven Struver (Ger) 71 65 74 73 (£66,660)

284 Bradley Dredge 68 71 75 70, Malcolm Mackenzie 72 72 69 71 (£33,780 each)

286 Diego Borrego (Spa) 66 71 78 71, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 72 73 69 72, Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel) 68 73 71 74, Brian Davis 75 68 68 75

287 Rolf Muntz (Ned) 72 69 71 75

288 Roger Wessels (Rsa) 69 69 74 76, David Lynn 74 68 69 77, David Gilford 73 70 67 78

289 Ian Garbutt 73 72 73 71, Jon Bevan 72 67 78 72, Simon Dyson 71 75 71 72, Garry Houston 73 70 72 74, Paul Casey 70 69 74 76

290 Stephen Gallacher 74 72 73 71, Gary Emerson 71 73 72 74, Gordon Brand Jnr 70 75 71 74, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 70 73 77, Gary Murphy 72 69 71 78

291 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 75 72 72 72

292 Mark McNulty (Zim) 75 72 74 71, Paul Broadhurst 72 75 73 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 73 73 73 73, Yngve Nilsson (Swe) 74 73 71 74, Jesus Arruti (Spa) 73 74 69 76

293 Johan Skold (Swe) 76 71 74 72, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 73 74 72 74, Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 74 74 75, Gianluca Baruffaldi (Ita) 71 70 76 76, Dennis Edlund (Swe) 72 71 73 77, Andrew Coltart 73 72 70 78

294 Elliot Boult (Nzl) 71 69 81 73, Adam Mednick (Swe) 71 73 76 74, Peter Baker 72 73 74 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 78 71 76, Richard Green (Aus) 70 75 72 77

295 Gary Clark 74 71 78 72, Paul Dwyer 71 73 76 75, Alberto Binaghi (Ita) 74 73 73 75, Sion Bebb 77 70 72 76, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 74 71 77, Greig Hutcheon 74 68 75 78, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 73 73 79, Jonathan Lomas 75 70 70 80

296 Roger Chapman 72 74 76 74, Benn Barham 74 67 78 77

297 Shaun Webster 73 73 77 74, Matthew Blackey 72 75 76 74, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 73 72 77 75, Gustavo Rojas (Arg) 73 72 75 77

298 Peter Lawrie 71 73 79 75, Graeme Storm 73 72 76 77

299 Magnus Persson (Swe) 70 75 78 76, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 72 73 75 79, Ilya Goroneskoul (Fra) 72 72 75 80, Stuart Little 71 70 77 81

300 Neil Cheetham 73 74 77 76, Mark Davis 73 71 79 77

301 Kenneth Ferrie 72 74 76 79, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 73 73 75 80, David Drysdale 74 73 72 82

302 Andrew Beal 74 72 75 81

303 Barry Lane 71 76 80 76

306 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 75 72 76 83

307 Joakim Rask (Swe) 73 74 77 83