RICHARD BLAND rubber-stamped his return to the European Tour with a battling fourth place in the Computacenter England Challenge Open at Donnington Valley in Newbury.

And he admitted he'll go back into European golf's elite league a better player than when he left it a year ago.

The 31-year-old Stoneham tournament professional confessed he'd had to dig deeper than ever to bring the toughest season of his career to a satisfactory conclusion.

"There's been no let up for the last few months so to keep on getting results to stay in the top 15 has been very rewarding.

"I've worked hard on my game. I'm certainly driving the ball better and although my short game has perhaps been better, overall I feel I'm a stronger player than a year ago.

"I needed to finish top three or thereabouts this week to make my card safe and I think I've just about done enough now. After the final event in Bordeaux next week I'll be off on holiday and I've never felt more like a break.

"It's been such a relief this week being able to travel from home for a tournament. If I'd had to stay in one more hotel, I think I might have crumbled."

Bland began the final round tied for second place with Sweden's Oskar Bergman and knowing that it would take a special effort to catch 29-year-old Matthew King from Lincolnshire, who was three ahead.

King, tall, composed and looking for his second win of the season, hardly put a foot wrong as he improved from 13 under to 16 under for a three-shot win over the Irishman David Higgins, whose finishing flourish of 65 swept him past Bland and Bergman.

At one stage Bland got within two shots of the lead, but down the finishing stretch, as King began to pull away, the Southampton player found himself head-to-head with the Swede.

Early on Bland had looked the better player as he opened up with a polished birdie at the first, missed a decent birdie chance at the par-five second then, after missing the green at the third and slipping back to ten under, he holed two monster putts to birdie the 444-yard fourth and save par at the 198-yard fifth after missing the green left by 20 yards.

He moved to 12 under after picking up a shot at the next of the par fives and although he three putted for bogey at seven, when Bergman hit his second shot out of bounds at the eighth and finished up with a seven, Bland was suddenly three shots ahead of him.

But whereas Bland only made one more birdie over the back nine, the Swede was picking them up willy-nilly and after the Stoneham man missed short putts at the 14th then the 17th, the Swede birdied the last to nip past him and take third place.

Bland still earned 6,600 euros and moved up to 12th in the order of merit, with the top 15 guaranteed a place on the European Tour in 2005.

Ernie Els won the HSBC World Match Play Championship for a record sixth time when he beat Lee Westwood 2 & 1 at Wentworth. Westwood led in the early stages and even after the South African pegged him back, it was nip and tuck right up to the end.

Spain's Sergio Garcia won the Mallorca Classic, in which Salisbury's Gary Emerson slipped back to finish 67th.