Drysdale beats downpour to go nine under

It was, of course, inevitable that the leaderboard at the Compass English Open was dominated yesterday not by Englishmen, who had their minds on other things, but by a Northern Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman. No distractions for the Celts in the heart of England.

In the media centre the scoreboard read "Clarke, Drysdale, Price", followed by another score: "ENG 1 ARG 0.''

Darren Clarke, the overnight joint leader at seven under par, advanced to 10 under in the second round, going to the turn in 33 at which point his progress was halted by a downpour, more severe than the steady rain that had previously descended.

David Drysdale, Edinburgh-born and a resident of Dunbar, was fortunate to avoid the worst of the weather, coming in with a 67 to stand at nine under par at the half-way stage. Drysdale is a keen footie fan. "Well, I would have been interested this week if Scotland were playing but this World Cup has been a bit of a dampener for me,'' he said.

The weather here has been all that and more and the clubhouse would have been busy even if the sun had got its hat on. The people in the bars and restaurants at this resort, glued to television sets, were standing on tables after England's victory over Argentina.

"It would be great if it kept raining and the tournament was called off and I was still there,'' Drysdale said. He turned professional in 1995 and in 1997 he won the Kilspindie Autumn Classic and a year later the Burntisland Centenary Assistants Championship. This, despite the rain and the distractions, is probably more to his liking. When asked about his boyhood golfing heroes, Drysdale commented "A difficult question, I would say Lyle. I remember him hitting that shot out of the bunker at the Masters and holing the putt which was just great. But I just admired all the players at that time: Lyle, Langer, Woosnam, and Faldo.''

We could do with some of them now. Lyle, grey-haired and bespectacled, is still swinging here, scoring 70 to make the half-way cut at three under par for the championship.

Andy Beal, making a comeback after losing his left eye to cancer, missed a cut, a 73 in the second round putting him at two over par for the tournament. Next week he receives a new artificial eye. "It will last me three years and is hand-painted to look the part,'' he said.

Beal finished two rounds, which is more than can be said for the three-ball of Nicolas Vanhootegem from Brussels, Massimo Scarpa (Italy) and Greig Hutcheon (Scotland). Vanhootegem was first to depart, retiring after nine holes with a wrist injury. He was soon followed by his playing partners.

Scarpa and Hutcheon were disqualified for 'discontinuance of play.' When play was stopped in mid-afternoon because several greens and fairways were under water, Scarpa and Hutcheon waited for five minutes but then decided to resume play. Meanwhile, everybody else was waiting for the official resumption. After 12 holes of the second round Scarpa was three over par, Hutcheon nine over. After play was suspended for 54 minutes, Clarke had a birdie at the 12th, which interrupted bogeys at the 10th and the 13th. He finished with a 70, bogeying the last to finish at nine under, sharing the lead with Drysdale.