Matharu leads at Templepatrick

England's Kiran Matharu carded a three-under-par 69 today to lead the Northern Ireland Ladies Open at Hilton Templepatrick Golf Club after the second round.

The 18-year-old from Leeds, who carded a level par 72 in the opening round, was on three under in total - one shot ahead of Joanne Mills from Australia, who had a 70 and Austria's Nicole Gergely, who had a career low 68.

Five players are on one-under - France's Gwladys Nocera (68), Libby Smith from the USA (72), Spain's Sara Beautell (71) and the English pair Lora Fairclough (68) and Lisa Hall (69).

Matharu led a professional tournament for the first time and was the outright leader entering the final round.

Matharu carded five birdies and two bogeys in total.

"I think I've got a chance tomorrow," said Matharu, who finished tied for third in November's Tour qualifying school.

"I feel like I'm hitting the ball well and I'm putting well. I think I've got a good chance of winning.

"I haven't been in this position before so I don't know what it's like but normally when I'm in contention I start to play a bit better. A couple under should be good enough tomorrow but it depends on the weather."

Mills, whose sole Tour victory was the 1997 German Open, benefited from having experienced former Tour player Sarah Bennett on the bag. Bennett now teaches at Highlands Golf Complex near Chelmsford in Essex.

"It was tough out there. We were just struggling in the wind and fortunately the rain held off until the very last hole. It was a lot of cross winds again just like yesterday. I kept it on the fairway and managed to get it on the greens," Mills said.

"It just started to rain on our last hole coming up the ninth and so we were fortunate. Yesterday we had the worst of the wind in the afternoon. I'm happy to be where I am on the leaderboard. I'm very happy to be under-par for two rounds in this wind."

Lisa and Leona Maguire, the 12-year-old identical twins from Co Cavan, bowed out of the tournament after the cut fell at seven over par.

Lisa tacked a respectable 77 onto her opening 82 to finish on 15 over Leona had a 79 to finish on 18 over.

"I started at the 10th and got off to a good start; but I just got unlucky on the back nine and I didn't play as well as I did on the front nine," said Leona.

"I'm going to take away a lot. I know I'm not that far away from that standard but I'm going to practise a bit more and hopefully come back another day."

Lisa added: "I need to do a bit more practise; probably on my pitching area."

The twins' next tournament is the Midland Girls' in the middle of June at Athy GC.

At the end of the second round overnight leader Nora Angehrn of Switzerland carded a 75 and shared ninth position with seven other players on level par.