South of Ireland Championship It was a day of some surprises and narrow escapes for a number of the fancied players in the second round of the 103rd South of Ireland Irish Shell-sponsored championship at Lahinch yesterday.

The weather was equally varied, starting with a near gale-force crosswind off the Atlantic, which made conditions very difficult for the earlier competitors. By mid-day the wind moved to the northwest which brought in a cold sea mist.

The first surprise came in the early afternoon when Headford's Pat Dempsey, a 32-year-old employee in a Cavan plastic plant, beat Walker Cup player Noel Fox of Portmarnock by 2 and 1. Fox seemed to have the game in hand when he won the first three holes, but Dempsey had the match squared with a birdie three at the sixth.

Fox went one-up at the eighth, but Dempsey squared it again at the 13th where he was allowed to win the hole with a par.

Because he found himself straying from the fairway, into the heavy Lahinch rough, Fox exchanged his driver for a fairway wood at the 14th. However, this did not help as Dempsey went on to win the 15th and 16th and a half was sufficient at the next hole.

The other surprise was the defeat of Dunmurry's Darren Crowe by James Barton of Ballinasloe, a member of the Irish Youths team. They were all square after nine, but the Connacht youth won the 12th and 16th for the match.

The top seed, Irish Close champion Brian McElhinney of the North West club, had a lucky escape against the 1997 champion, 27-year-old local member Pat Collier, a Limerick doctor based in Cork. Collier was one-up playing the last and looked certain to win. The Ulsterman was in deep rough off his drive, while Collier was well down the middle of the fairway.

But he then blocked his fairway wood into heavy rough, had to hack out for three into a greenside bunker and lost the hole to a par five.

McElhinney then claimed the math at the first tie hole.

There was another near surprise when Stackstown's Mark Campbell, the recent winner of the East and the 1999 winner at Lahinch, was taken to the last green by 17-year-old Pat Sheehy of Newcastle West. Campbell was out of bounds from the tee at the 17th, after five holes had been halved, but held on to his lead to the end.

The holder, Mervyn Owens of Mallow, was first off the tee at 7 a.m. and successfully started his defence against Eddie Power of Kilkenny, a three-time winner of the Irish Close Championship. They were out in the worst of the strong crosswind and played on greens which were lightning fast, where three-putting was a serious risk.

It was a tight struggle with the holder winning by 3 and 2. Power went one-up after six, but by the 12th Owens was two up, having won the ninth, 10th and 11th, where Power four-putted on the new undulating green.

Owens won the 16th for the match when Power visited a bunker.