JAMES BYRNE BOOSTS SCOTS WITH
A 68 IN EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP

A fine four-under-par round of 68 - the best of the day - by James Byrne, pictured right, from Banchory lifted Scotland up the standings at the halfway stage of the European Nations Cup, which used to be called the Sherry Cup, at Royal Sotogrande Golf Club on Spain's Costa del Sol.
Coupled with a 74 from Glenn Campbell (Blairgowrie) and a 75 from John Gallagher (Swanston) that put the Scots in joint eighth place on 444 - 15 shots behind leaders Ireland for whom European individual champion Rory McIlroy from Belfast had a 70.
Byrne is now in joint fourth place in the individual standings on 143 - five behind Norway's Marius Thorp.
Germany are dominating the women's section with a seven-stroke lead from Spain in the team event and a four-shot advantage for Katharina Schallenberg in the individual standings.

HALFWAY SCOREBOARD
Par 144 (2 x 72)

MEN'S TEAM EVENT
429 IRELAND ( R McIlroy 70, S Lowry 72, S Ward 73).
432 PORTUGAL.
433 WALES (N Edwards 71, C Evans 72, L Matthews 73).
438 ENGLAND (P Waring 73, G Wolstenholme 74, E Richardson 74), DENMARK.
439 NORWAY, SWEDEN.
444 SCOTLAND (J Byrne 68, G Campbell 74, J Gallagher 75), GERMANY, FINLAND.
447 SPAIN.
451 SLOVENIA, AUSTRIA.
452 BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS.
454 ITALY.

MEN'S INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
138 M Thorp (Nor) 69 69.
139 R McIlroy (Ire) 69 70.
141 Xavier Feyaerts 69 72.
143 James Byrne (Sco) 75 68, T Rosendahl 73 71, M Veijalainen 72 71.
144 N Edwards (Wal) 73 71, R Nielsen 73 71, S Ward (Ire) 71 73, L Matthews (Wal) 71 73.
Other scores:
145 C Evans (Wal) 73 71, G Wolstenholme (Eng) 74 74 (jt 11th).
146 M Cryer (Eng) 72 74 (jt 17th).
147 P Waring (Eng) 74 73 (jt 19th).
148 S Lowry (Ire) 76 72 (jt 23rd).
150 G Campbell (Sco) 76 74 (jt 30th).
151 J Gallagher (Sco) 76 75, C Cousins (Wal) 75 76, N Kearney (Ire) 74 77 (jt 35th).
155 E Richardson (Eng) 81 74, S McEwan (Sco) 79 76 (jt 50th).

WOMEN'S TEAM EVENT
284 GERMANY.
291 SPAIN.
295 WALES (S Hassan 72, B Loucks 75), DENMARK.
296 ENGLAND ( N Edwards 75, K Smith 75).
297 NETHERLANDS.
303 BELGIUM.
308 FINLAND.
309 AUSTRIA.
310 ITALY.

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
140 K Schallenberg (Ger) 69 71.
144 C Masson (Ger) 73 71.
145 M Silva Zamora (Spa) 71 74, K Smith (Eng) 70 75.
146 S Hassan (Wal) 74 72.
Other scores:
149 B Loucks (Wal) 74 75 (jt 9th).
152 M Reid (Eng) 76 76, N Edwards (Eng) 77 75 (jt 16th).
157 T Davies (Wal) 75 82 (jt 26th).