Niall TurnerNiall Turner. Photo Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie Niall Turner is the only Irish player inside the crucial top 24 and ties at the European Tour’s Qualifying School First Stage.

The Muskerry man added a four under 67 to his opening 69 at Golf d’Hardelot in northern France to share second place, four strokes behind South African Haydn Porteous.

Porteous shot a stunnng nine under par 62 to lead on 10 under par with Turner also impressive as he made five birdies and dropped just one shot.

Limerick’s Tim Rice made three birdies on his back nine to erase a double bogey at his eighth hole (the 17th) and another dropped shot at the next to shoot his second successive 71 and lie just two strokes outside the qualifying places on level par.

But the rest of the Irish have work to do in both France and at the other Section D venue, Frilford Heath in Oxfordshire.

In France, Banbridge’s Richard Kilpatrick fell 34 places to 57th in the 101-man field and a four over 75 leaves him six shots outside the qualifying places on four over.

Laurie Canter continued his impressive form at Frilford Heath, adding a 70 to his opening 65 to climb to nine under par and lead by one shot from his fellow Englishmen Jack Senior (68) and Curtis Griffiths (67).

The top 24 are two under or better and John Daniel Guiney is the best of the Irish, three shots outside those places on one over after a level par 72.

Headfort’s Brian Casey battled back from his costly opening 76, carding four birdies in a two under 70 to jump 26 places to 54th on two over.

He’s tied with Mike Kelly (71) but Shane Franklin (80) is out of it at 10 over with Thomas Conran (78) propping up the scoreboard on 15 over.

Second round scores from Golf d’Hardelot:

132 H Porteous (RSA) 70 62,

136 Niall Turner (Irl) 69 67, L De Jager (RSA) 65 71,

137 W Homan (USA) 65 72, M Pastor (Esp) 69 68, F Delamontagne (Fra) 67 70, G Houston (Wal) 68 69, S Campbell (Eng) 69 68,

138 R Furrer (Sui) 69 69, B Evans (Eng) 71 67, F Eriksson (Swe) 70 68, D Markle (Can) 71 67,

139 D Hupfer (Can) 72 67, C Batut (Fra) 74 65, D Antonelli (Fra) 69 70, P Couvert (Fra) 72 67, F De Vries (Ned) 69 70, S Surry (Eng) 70 69, S Gros (Fra) 68 71,

140 R Bechu (Fra) 71 69, O Loftsson (Isl) 73 67, J Mommo (Fin) 73 67, R Marguery (Fra) 69 71, R Busher (am) (Eng) 68 72,

<Top 24 and ties, above, to qualify for Second Stage>

141 T Sherreard (Eng) 73 68, G Watremez (Bel) 73 68,

142 R Quintana (Fra) 70 72, O Turnill (Eng) 72 70, Tim Rice (Irl) 71 71, C Garrido (Esp) 70 72, K Marques (am) (Aus) 72 70,

143 S Finley Ewing Iv (USA) 73 70, S Grewal (Eng) 73 70, J Grillon (Fra) 76 67, D Nouailhac (Fra) 71 72, P Doherty (Sco) 67 76, G King (Eng) 74 69, J Van Hauwe (Fra) 71 72, H Joannes (Bel) 73 70, K Staunton (Eng) 69 74, F Serghini (Mar) 72 71, J Gressier (Fra) 72 71, T Elissalde (am) (Fra) 74 69,

144 W Harmston (Eng) 69 75, S Yoon (USA) 72 72, C Tortuyaux (Fra) 72 72, R Neil-Jones (Eng) 69 75, K Nielsen (Den) 75 69, R Schneider (Fra) 73 71, T Tree (am) (Eng) 73 71,

145 D Perrier (Fra) 73 72, M Rocchi (Fra) 72 73, E Isasi (Par) 74 71, Y Benson (Can) 71 74, J Webber (Eng) 74 71, R Roussel (am) (Fra) 71 74,

146 M Johnston (Can) 77 69, J Kureluk (Can) 71 75, A Savolainen (Fin) 75 71, G Gilligan (Eng) 73 73, L Bangerter (Eng) 72 74, Richard Kilpatrick (Nir) 71 75, P Vejgaard (Den) 72 74, A Sagar (Eng) 71 75,

147 J Hiluta (Eng) 71 76, F Abadie (Fra) 77 70, D Callaway (Eng) 73 74, P Figueiredo (Por) 74 73, L Robinson (Eng) 73 74, R Saxton (Ned) 74 73, N Tacher (Fra) 71 76, T Adcock (Eng) 71 76, O Rozner (Fra) 77 70, J Ruebotham (Eng) 76 71, J Clément (Sui) 71 76,

148 J Maw (Eng) 77 71, O Withofs (Bel) 76 72, M Bush (Eng) 74 74, A Bihan (Fra) 71 77, J Little (Eng) 73 75,

149 N Floren (Swe) 78 71, B Parker (Eng) 78 71,

150 L Allen (Eng) 76 74, M Davenport (Eng) 74 76, S Grant (Eng) 74 76, T Le Flohic (Fra) 75 75,

151 T Briset (Fra) 79 72, B Houle (Can) 74 77, E West (Ber) 81 70,

152 T Merkx (Ned) 77 75, T Pfister (am) (Sui) 76 76, J Bordonado (am) (Fra) 82 70,

153 R Newman (Eng) 75 78,

154 D Thomas (Eng) 79 75, B Van Deijl (Ned) 77 77,

155 M Flores (am) (Arg) 75 80,

156 M Dechambre (Ger) 76 80,

158 S Daoust (am) (Bel) 76 82,

159 K Matou (Fra) 74 85,

163 S Chauffour (Fra) 84 79,

164 P Connell (Eng) 78 86,

** J Fuentes (Esp) RT 0

Second round scores from Frilford Heath:

135 L Canter (Eng) 65 70,

136 J Senior (Eng) 68 68, C Griffiths (Eng) 69 67,

138 L Bond (Wal) 71 67,

139 L Cornford (Eng) 71 68, R Brown (Eng) 70 69, J Colegate (Eng) 69 70, D Wood (Eng) 70 69, A Rai (Eng) 67 72,

140 D Skinns (Eng) 70 70, O Farr (Wal) 73 67, B Briscoe (Wal) 69 71, S Einhaus (Ger) 66 74, J Banbury (Eng) 73 67, D Whitnell (Eng) 72 68,

141 J Abbott (Eng) 75 66, B Stone (RSA) 72 69, M Jager (Aus) 69 72, J Rutherford (Eng) 71 70, G Hawkins (Eng) 73 68, R Kellett (Sco) 71 70, C Cossins (Eng) 71 70, R Evans (am) (Eng) 70 71,

142 J Dransfield (Eng) 72 70, G Cowan (Eng) 68 74, S Matton (Eng) 72 70, J Wilkinson (Eng) 72 70, J Jeong (Kor) 72 70, N Kimsey (am) (Eng) 71 71,

<Top 24 and ties, above, to qualify for Second Stage>

143 R Boyns (Eng) 72 71, J Watts (Eng) 71 72, K Crossland (Eng) 73 70, M Wallace (Eng) 70 73, J Day (Eng) 72 71,

144 Z Ouyang (Chn) 74 70, R Enoch (Wal) 71 73, C Harrison (USA) 72 72, J Bryant (USA) 71 73, T Burden (Eng) 75 69, P Newman (Eng) 75 69, J Zhao (Chn) 72 72, G Fairfax (Aus) 72 72, C Lidyard (Eng) 75 69,

145 J Scade (Eng) 74 71, R Laino (Eng) 70 75, J Clarke (Eng) 73 72, J Kaske (Fin) 71 74, J Campbell (Eng) 75 70, N Flynn (Eng) 72 73, J Sloan (Eng) 72 73, A Kirakossian (USA) 74 71, John-Daniel Guiney (Irl) 73 72, H Casey (am) (Eng) 72 73,

146 R Harrison (Eng) 73 73, Brian Casey (Irl) 76 70, P Shields (Sco) 72 74, Mike Kelly (Irl) 75 71, N Raymond (Eng) 73 73, L Joy (Eng) 71 75, N McCarthy (Eng) 71 75,

147 E Wainwright (USA) 72 75, S Garcia (Esp) 77 70, C Simpson (Eng) 73 74, J Doherty (Sco) 76 71, S Davis (Eng) 71 76, C Ford (Eng) 75 72, M McCormack (Eng) 73 74, W Wray (Eng) 76 71, T Bertoni (USA) 73 74,

148 D Salisbury (Eng) 75 73, M Smith (Eng) 74 74, M Mezei (Can) 75 73, R Fieldhouse (Wal) 73 75, O Tite (Eng) 72 76, D Jin (Chn) 75 73,

149 B Khor (Eng) 68 81, G Payne (Eng) 72 77,

150 T Wilde (Eng) 74 76, A Mansell (Eng) 77 73, G Guerin (Nzl) 73 77, N Roche (Fra) 77 73, D Timms (Eng) 78 72,

151 P Spraggs (Eng) 76 75, R McGhee (Eng) 74 77, L O’Neill (Eng) 77 74, D James (Eng) 75 76, B Storey (Eng) 75 76,

152 J Findlay (Sco) 80 72, R Mestre (Esp) 78 74, G Gancedo Onieva (Esp) 81 71, J Harrison (Eng) 77 75, Campbell (Eng) 77 75,

153 J Winer (Eng) 77 76, J Mumford (Eng) 77 76,

154 Shane Franklin (Irl) 74 80,

155 R Gurney (Eng) 79 76, M Okon (Pol) 76 79, B O’Dell (Eng) 80 75, A Forster (Eng) 77 78,

158 D Rickwood (Eng) 77 81,

159 Thomas Conran (Nir) 81 78,

** P Woodbury (USA) 76 DQ