Another burst of glory beckoned for Philip Walton when he followed his ace-eagle-birdie finish of the opening round with a birdie at the first hole of his second in the European Tour Qualifying School in Spain yesterday.

Walton holed from 20 feet to be six under par for that four-hole stretch, but that was almost his last success as he slipped to a 73 at Sotogrande, and fell back to a three under par total of 141 after 36 holes.

He remains just inside the top 20 and is still the best of the four Irish contenders, but trails six behind Spanish leader Ivo Giner who has a one shot advantage over Scot Alastair Forsyth. Giner, with a 65, claimed seven birdies in a faultless display. Forsyth one of the Scots beaten by Spain in the final, had 71 at San Roque. They are followed by Englishmen David Lynn and Matthew Blackey on 137.

Walton was joined in the top half of the 168 strong field by former Irish champions Gary Murphy and David Higgins, but a second 73 by Peter Lawrie leaves him with some recovery work. Murphy shot an excellent 68 at San Roque where four of his seven birdies came in an outward 33 from the 10th. He got off to a good start by getting up and down from a greenside bunker for a birdie four, and made further progress with birdies from 20 feet at the 12th and 16th, before his pitch to the long 17th finished only four feet from the flag.

Murphy's only mistake of the stretch was to miss the 13th green with his seven-iron approach. But he paid dearly for being over-ambitious at the sixth (his 15th), topping his ball into a lake for a double bogey six.

He holds a share of 28th place going into the third stage at Sotogrande today. Higgins recovered from a poor outward 37 at Sotogrande to return 70 for level par 144.

A birdie that resulted from a good seven-iron to the 10th flag raised his spirits, and he had three in a row from the 14th where he almost sank his chip from just off the green. A six-iron to three feet, and a pitch to within four yards of the 16th brought him home in 33.

Lawrie has two more days to climb among the leading 75 who will go forward to bid for the 35 cards available.