British Seniors Open: Bland serves up a tasty round

The overnight leaders in the £501,000 MasterCard British Seniors'

Championship at Royal County Down are out later in the day with John Bland

the overnight leader at five-under-par one shot ahead of David Oakley and

Bob Charles.

First to finish their third round have be Ray Carrascoand Mike Miller but

they are playing for the minor placings and have returned scores of 70 and

76 - Carrasco now plus-7 for the tournament and Miller plus-13.

Nobody has made a big charge up the leaderboard with Jack Nicklaus starting

birdie-bogey but Gary Player has picked up a shot at the first hole to be

two-over-par for their tournament.

Amateur Arthur Pierce has lost five strokes in his 15 holes today to be

13-over, Eddie Polland has picked up one stroke to be six-over, Denis O'

Sullivan remains at six-over after nine holes Paul Leonard began with

back-to-back bogeys to be five-over and Kenny Stevenson has dropped three

strokes in three holes to be five-over. Only five Irish players from the 10

starters survived the cut last night.