BRITISH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP:PAUL CUTLER is keeping Irish hopes alive in the 115th British Amateur Championship at Muirfield after splendid displays yesterday.

The 21-year-old Lytham Trophy winner from Portstewart had to pull out all the stops to get past highly-rated former Scottish Boys champion Michael Stewart on the home green.

Walker Cup hopeful Cutler was two up at the turn, lost his lead at the 14th, but clinched victory with a birdie three at the last where his six-iron approach shot finished two yards from the pin.

Then the Northern Ireland star powered his way to a 3 and 2 win over Japan’s Yuki Usami.

This this morning he meets South Korea’s Jin Jeong, one of the leading players in the world amateur rankings, in the last eight.

Cutler was one down early on against Usami, but won the fifth and sixth holes to take a lead he was never to lose.

Still one up at the turn, Cutler canned a 50-foot putt at the 11th to win a hole he could well have lost, and then he captured the 13th as well.

A hiccup at the 14th cost him a hole, but he regained his three-hole advantage at the 15th before closing out the game with a half at the next.

“It was solid matchplay golf,” said Cutler who has cemented his place in the St Andrews Trophy team with this week’s series of performances. “When I came here there were no real expectations – I had my mind on qualifying first and foremost and after that it has been a case of taking one game at a time.”

Alan Dunbar, the Irish strokeplay champion from Rathmore, faced fellow countryman James Fox of Portmarnock in the third round, and after a great battle Dunbar came through 2 and 1 after being two down at the turn.

Then Dunbar met Frenchman Edouard Espana for a place in the quarter-finals and it was a ding-dong tussle, but in the end the Irishman slipped to defeat at the 19th.

Dunbar looked as though he might prevail when he was one up with four to play, but lost the 15th.

He sank a tricky five-footer at the 18th to keep the match, alive but Espana, using an iron off the tee at the extra hole, had pin-point accuracy and squeezed home.

Unusually, the last eight comprises players from each of the Home countries as well as representatives from France, South Korea and Italy.