JEREMY Robinson collected a pay cheque worth £11,000 on Sunday but it could have been so much more, writes Mervyn Collins.

The 35-year-old Evesham golfer produced his best form for many months to tie for 16th place at the Compass Group English Open at the Forest of Arden where, but for a most unfortunate incident, Robinson could have snatched a rare top ten finish and an extra £4,000.

Standing five under with nine holes to play of the final round, Robinson followed a bogey at ten with a nightmare seven at the 543-yard 12th.

The Evesham ace made his usual approach down then middle - just like the majority of his shots in a fabulous four-day display from tee to green.

However, his third to the flag spun back and rolled agonisingly into the lake guarding the green.

"If I the shot had been five yards either way then I would have been alright," Robinson, who took a sand wedge, ruefully recalled.

However, a drop and a fifth on to the green left him at two under for the event and it is with great credit that he managed to keep his game together and play par golf over the remaining holes.

Players were dropping shots all over the place - Justin Rose took a 79 - apart from winner Peter O'Malley and Ryder Cup stars Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke and only six players bettered Robinson's score at the turn.

However, lady luck took a most unfortunate turn and the same watery hazard almost conspired to bring more misery at the penultimate hole.

Robinson again laid up in admirable style but then sent his third to the 511-yard 17th way beyond the back of the green.

However, his chip rattled the cup and a neat ten-footer back and a tremendous second on the final green - a putt of some 70 feet - brought a par three to cap a fabulous four days.

"The shot on 17 was exactly the same yardage as the one on 12," Robinson recalled. "I took a club more but hit it too hard."

The Evesham player was delighted with his form at the Warwickshire venue and is in good spirits - and 19 places up the Volvo Order of Merit to 144th - ahead of the Great North Open at Slaley Hall next Thursday.

The event didn't start too well last Thursday in difficult conditions but a round of 75 was only spoiled when he bogeyed two of his last three holes.

It was different story the next afternoon when Robinson produced a birdie blitz to easily make the cut after a round of 67 - bettered only by France's Marc Farry.

He found the hole from a bunker on the 13th to collect his only birdie on the outward nine but a 15-foot putt at the fourth hole - his 13th - was the pick of a quartet of birdies testimony to some tremendous fairway play.

However, he missed from four feet and ten feet at the sixth and seventh respectively but a magnificent 45-footer downhill at the last left Robinson in the top ten Friday finishers at three under par.

Saturday started with a slight hiccup and a five at the first but birdies at nine and ten made up for a number of misses on the greens elsewhere as a round of 71 left him well poised for a final day flourish.

A tilt at the title didn't materialise as he carded just one birdie in his open ing eight holes until a peach of a second at the ninth saw him roll in a 12-incher only to slip up at the next and then suffer a watery grave on the way home.

Robinson wasn't the only player to incur a two-stroke penalty in the same hazard but Raymond Russell's error was even harder to swallow.

After landing safely n the 17th green, Russell tossed his ball to his caddy only to see him miss it and disappear into the lake.

Rules require that players finish a hole with the ball that he started with. The caddy waded into the water but failed to come out with the ball and another £4,000 went begging as a 73 left Russell tied alongside Robinson.