THEY’RE calling Stuart Nixon “the crab” at South Moor, but he doesn’t mind because his new putting style has brought him the club championship.

Nixon now steps up for his third Journal Champion of Champions at De Vere Slaley Hall on Sunday and says: “I saw the US pro, Billy Mayfair, putting on TV with the shaft of his putter between his right forefinger and middle finger with and his thumb over the top.

“I tried his right-hand grip right away on the carpet at home and I liked it, the only difference is I use a conventional putter and he uses a belly putter.

“When it came to the club championship, it was our captain, Malcolm Kay, who said I looked like a crab, but I don’t care. I sunk a lot more 10-12 footers than I have ever done before and that’s what won me the title. “

A prolific gatherer of league points in the North Durham Union, Nixon scored 71 74 in difficult conditions to beat Paul Davison and Jon Paul Gilbert to the South Moor title.

A former county schools badminton semi-finalist, he has taken up the sport again “to keep fit” and has joined the St Aidan’s Badminton Club in Sunderland.