Portmarnock's Paul Byrne surrendered nine shots between his morning and afternoon rounds yesterday in the Mullingar Friends First Scratch Cup, but remained in touch with a congested overnight leaderboard.

The 23-year-old teacher from Sutton Park school in Dublin carded an excellent 67 in the morning session, the best of the day, before retreating to a 76 in the afternoon after a "really frustrating" round.

Only three players came in with sub 70 rounds.

Limerick's Tim Rice, Michael Barrett from Mitchelstown and Portmarnock's Adrian Morrow go into the final rounds today on three-under-par 141 leading total. John Curran, of Elm Park, with two sub par rounds of 71, chases on 142 with Byrne and a pack of five players chasing on 143.

Interestingly, the three leaders were in the same group and go out again today as the final threeball in the knowledge that it was 10 years ago that Darren Clarke picked up the title.

Byrne, a former Irish middleweight kickboxing champion, is, however, still in contention along with seven other players who going into today's action within two shots of the leaders. Amongst that group is Irish Close champion Ciaran McMonagle, who carded a par 72 and 71.

Having shot a 67 here two years ago, Byrne, a Portmarnock Senior Cup player, was in familiar territory. With seven birdies and just two bogeys, he recorded only 10 putts for the first nine holes and 23 in total for his first 18, before errors started creeping into his game.

Morrow, a former winner here in 1988 - and who, curiously, plays right-handed but putts left-handed - carded five birdies in his fine afternoon session, which yielded a 69 in conditions that were becoming increasingly windy.

The only ugly looking holes on the card of last week's South of Ireland semi-finalist were the par three 12th and 15th holes, both of which he bogeyed.

Michael Barrett, a 27-year-old Bank of Ireland official from Cork, also demonstrated a strong vein of consistency with rounds of 71 and 70, the same as Rice.

With winners such as Clarke, Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington, Raymond Burns and Phillip Walton, who holds the course record of 63 set in 1982, the trophy has a regal past.

But last year's winner, Patrick Collier, will not be amongst those hoping to take it home. The Lahinch player slipped just outside the the qualification mark with rounds of 79 and 74.