Darren Clarke may not have been on his best form at Adare Manor today but he still signed for a second round 69 to be just three shots off the overnight lead held by France's Michael Lorenzo-Vera at the midpoint of the Irish Open.

Starting at the 10th, Clarke bogeyed his second hole before reeling off four birdies in the next seven to reach the turn in three-under. On the from nine, his inward half, the 39-year-old traded one bogey for a birdie as he signed for 69 to be tied fifth on three-under.

"I'm very pleased with the score because I didn't play particularly well," said Clarke, who doesn't think an already very difficult course needs lengthened.

"Lengthening a course does not necessarily make it better - the greens are not designed for the sort of irons we're having to hit in.

"Would I expect to see it changed for the weekend? No. Would I like to? Yes."

In any case he finds himself three off the pace set by Lorenzo-Vera, whose second round 70, for a six-under total, leaves the Frenchman one ahead of Germany's Marcel Siem (71).

Last year's Challenge Tour winner admits big occasion nerves get to him as he struggles to control his emotions. So too, do big courses, like this Robert Trent Jones masterpiece in Limerick. After Wednesday's practice round the leader from Biarritz lamented: "God. How am I going to do that?" referring to the difficulty of the course.

Asked how many harder lay-outs he had ever taken on, Lorenzo-Vera replied:
"Zero."

Clarke was playing alongside Paul McGinley, who matched his partner's score to join Rory McIlroy (72) on two-under.

"There are a lot of positives but I'm disappointed with the way I finished and I need to be a bit tidier than I was," said McGinley after making bogey on two of his last four holes.

"The course was a bit easier for us (in the morning) because it was softer. Everybody thinks it is length that makes it tougher, but it's about firm greens."

McIlroy closed with a birdie on the par five 18th and both Irishmen are well placed - tied 11th - to make a challenge over the weekend.

Defending champion Pádraig Harrington is a shot further back after he too birdied the last for a 71 to be one-under going into the weekend. The tournament favourite played better than his score suggested as he got into numerous birdie positions, only for the putter to let him down.

Gary Murphy (70) and Peter Lawrie (75) were the only other Irishmen to make the cut from the 21 home players who started out. Murphy is level par while recent Spanish Open winner Lawrie finds himself two-over. 
 
Perhaps the biggest disappointment, or surprise, was witnessing Damien McGrane (72) and Graeme McDowell (75) both miss the cut as they finished four and five-over respectively. The recent tour winners missed the cut mark which fell at three-over.

Joint overnight leaders, India's Jeev Milkha Singh and Australia's Richard Green, both struggled after their opening 66s. Singh was 10 shots worse and his 76 left him two-under, while the left-handed Australian, playing alongside McIlroy, found trees at the 18th before signing for 74 to be four-under.

Collated second round scores & totals in the European tour Irish Open, Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, Adare Manor, Ireland

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

138Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 70

139Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 71

140Richard Green (Aus) 66 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 70

141Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 70, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 72, Peter Baker 72 69,
Darren Clarke 72 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 68 73, Bradley Dredge 68 73

142Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 66 76, Ross Fisher 74 68, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 76
66, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 71, Steven O'Hara 74 68, John Bickerton 72 70,
Anthony Wall 72 70, Rory McIlroy 70 72, Lee S James 69 73, Paul McGinley 73 69

143Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 77 66, James Kingston (Rsa) 75 68, Stuart Manley 71 72,
Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 72, Richard Finch 71 72, Alastair Forsyth 71 72, Edoardo
Molinari (Ita) 70 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 73, Padraig Harrington 72 71

144Gary Orr 71 73, Colin Montgomerie 75 69, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 74 70,
David Frost (Rsa) 74 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 72, Stephen Gallacher 73 71,
Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 72, Gary Murphy 74 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 69

145Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 72, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 74, Louis
Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 73, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 77 68, Julio Zapata (Arg) 72 73,
Simon Khan 71 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 74, Stephen Dodd 74 71, Lee Westwood
75 70, Ross McGowan 74 71, Barry Lane 73 72

146Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 71 75, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 73, Paul Waring
76 70, Luis Claverie (Spa) 73 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 72, Matthew Millar
(Aus) 73 73, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 69, Peter Lawrie 71 75, David Drysdale 74
72, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 74

147Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 73 74, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 77, Oliver Wilson 74
73, Oliver Fisher 72 75, Paul Broadhurst 73 74, Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 73, Pedro
Linhart (Spa) 71 76, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 75 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 77 70

------------------------Following players missed the Cut---------------------------

148Christian Cevaer (Fra) 75 73, Damien McGrane 76 72, Peter Whiteford 75 73,
Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 76, David Howell 75 73, Scott Drummond 74 74, Shiv Shankar
Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 69 79, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 73 75, Daniel Vancsik
(Arg) 74 74, Robert Rock 77 71

149Francesco Molinari (Ita) 74 75, David Carter 76 73, Anton Haig (Rsa) 73 76,
Graeme McDowell 74 75, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 78 71, Paolo Terreni (Ita) 74 75,
Pelle Edberg (Swe) 75 74, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 74 75, Carl Suneson (Spa) 71
78, David Dixon 79 70, Phillip Archer 78 71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 76 73

150Leif Westerberg (Swe) 75 75, Mark Brown (USA) 74 76, Mads Vibe-Hastrup
(Den) 74 76, Simon Dyson 76 74, Sion Bebb 75 75, Pat Murray 76 74, Damian Mooney
75 75, Sven Struver (Ger) 76 74, Jamie Donaldson 72 78, Sam Little 74 76, Robert
Giles 78 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 80, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 77 73

151Richard Bland 80 71, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 84 67, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 79
72, Garry Houston 75 76, Zane Scotland 77 74, David Griffiths 81 70, Benn Barham
77 74, Mark Staunton 77 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 76 75, Mark Foster 73 78, Michael
Hoey 74 77, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 76 75

152Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 74 78, Colm Moriarty 72 80, Christian Nilsson
(Swe) 76 76, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 76 76, Iain Pyman 81 71, Marc Warren 78 74,
Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 78 74, James Kamte (Rsa) 78 74

153Juan Abbate (Arg) 78 75, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 78 75, Alan McLean 74 79,
David Park 74 79, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 75 78, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 76 77, Sam
Walker 79 74, Paul Lawrie 76 77, Ian Garbutt 77 76

154Phillip Price 78 76, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 80 74, Florian Praegant (Aut)
78 76, Pablo Martin (Spa) 80 74, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 78 76, Simon Wakefield 75
79

155Lee Slattery 81 74

156Craig Lee 77 79, Brendan McGovern 79 77, Robert Dinwiddie 76 80, Peter
Fowler (Aus) 81 75, David Higgins 80 76

157 Peter Martin  76 81, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 83 74

158Dave Horsey 81 77, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 80 78, Peter O'keeffe 79 79

159 Glen Robinson 80 79, Leslie Walker 80 79

161Philip Golding 78 83

162 Michael Lavelle 81 81

164Tom Whitehouse 84 80

165 Eamonn Brady 85 80, Kyron Sullivan 80 85