Blainey fired a sublime seven-under-par 65, while Lawrence impressed with a flawless 66.

The pair share the lead at nine under 135 and will start the final round with a one shot advantage over Englishman Martin Dewhurst, who rose to third with successive rounds of 68. They are two shots clear of joint overnight leader Wayne Stroebel, Matt Bright, Paul Boshoff and Coert Groenewald, but Blainey believes their toughest opponent will be the drama-inspiring closing stretch of four holes where anything can happen.

“I couldn't have asked for a better position to be going into the last round,” said Blainey, who reeled in a pair of birdies at 16 and 17 before he holed a gap-wedge for an eagle at the par-five closing hole. “Well, I'd like to be five ahead, of course, but I’ll take it.

“I feel under control and I'm enjoying it. It's a packed leaderboard with so many guys within five shots, so anything can happen. I really just need to go out there and keep my head down and see what we can do.”

Blainey had an opportunity to break his duck when he held a share of the 36-hole lead in last week’s Race to Q-School #15, but let himself down in the final round at Killarney Country Club.

“I got in my own way,” stated the 36-year-old from Wokingham. “I just got in my own way; I thought more about the win than playing and ended up going for shots that I thought I should go for, instead of hitting the ones I could go for. I make that mistake again.”

Lawrence hit the skids on the back nine on day one and dropped six shots in three holes. Needless to say, the 20-year-old was smiling broadly after handing in a pristine card on day two.

“My game plan was the same as yesterday, but I executed it better,” he said. “I took an aggressive approach, because the greens are receptive after all the rain. They took all the bunkers out of play due to the flooding, but that didn’t affect me much because all my shots into the greens were around the 100 mark and I was able to go for the tight pins.

“Being able to play aggressively around here helps me, because the rough is tough. The closer I can get to the greens, the better my chances of getting on the green in two. The course doesn’t run much, but the greens are fantastic. I’d say all my putts were inside 10 feet. And I was consistent on both days. I hit 14 fairways in the first round and 14 today; I just let too many slip in the first round.

“It’s nice to have a chance tomorrow. This is only my second start since I had laser surgery done on my eyes, so I am definitely pleased to be sharing the lead.”

Second Round Scores

135 - Gregg Blainey (ENG) 70 65, Thriston Lawrence 69 66

136 - Martin Dewhurst (ENG) 68 68

137 - Wayne Stroebel 67 70, Matt Bright 69 68, Paul Boshoff 70 67, Coert Groenewald 70 67

139 - Andi Dill 70 69, Jonathan Waschefort 69 70, Dean O'Riley 72 67, Christopher Van der Merwe AMA 71 68, Jacques De Villiers 72 67, Philip Geerts AMA (ITA) 69 70

140 - Leon Visser AMA 67 73, Alrich Labuschagne 70 70

141 - Quintin Crause 69 72, Justin Turner 72 69, Paul De Beer 69 72, David Ashley (ENG) 70 71, Joubert Van Eeden 74 67, JP Rousseau AMA 70 71, Estiaan Conradie 76 65, Kyle Barker 73 68

142 - Michael Dreyer 69 73, Clinton Grobler 71 71, Vaughn Van Deventer AMA 74 68, Gilson Filho (BRA) 73 69, Juan Langeveld 71 71

143 - Shaun van Tonder 71 72, Christian Basson AMA 74 69, Matthew Spacey 75 68, Dylan Docherty 74 69, Duane Keun 75 68

144 - CJ Levey 74 70, Michael Kok AMA 74 70, Aneel Kallan AMA 72 72, Bradley Van Biljon AMA 70 74, Shalan Govender 75 69, Ruan Conradie 77 67, Dwayne Coetzee 74 70

145 - Ruhan Van Dijk AMA 75 70, Divan Marais 69 76, Thabi Ngcobo 77 68, Mpho Mafishe 71 74, Jadrick Fourie AMA 72 73, Craigen Clough AMA 70 75

146 - Richard O'Donovan (IRE) 74 72, Chase Paton AMA 74 72, Stephan Du Toit AMA 73 73, Steven Jacobs AMA 75 71, Jabulane Mabilane 73 73, Ruan Korb AMA 72 74, WM Coetzee AMA 75 71, Norman Beggs 75 71

147 - Fanie Wolmarans AMA 73 74, Stephan De Beer 77 70, John McClean (NIR) 76 71, Michael Schutz 78 69, Gary Daoust (BEL) 73 74, Terence Boardman 74 73

148 - Reinard Vermeulen AMA 78 70, Arno Pretorius AMA 76 72, Shaun Barrett AMA 76 72, Bryce Myburgh 77 71, Niel Theron AMA 80 68

Missed the cut:-

149 - Brandon Lydon AMA 71 78, Marco De Beer AMA 77 72, Shane Irwin AMA (IRE) 76 73, Duan Nagel AMA 75 74, Vico Kuhn 76 73, JP Schmidt AMA 76 73, Sam Botham (ENG) 79 70

150 - Werner Van Wyk 72 78, Andrew Van Der Knaap AMA 76 74, Richard Tsai AMA 74 76, Sam Metcalfe AMA 75 75, Heinrich Penzhorn AMA 74 76, Jack Duthie AMA 77 73, Conway Kunneke 76 74, Matt Wollmann (ZIM) 78 72

151 - Nqobani Ndabambi 77 74, Pedro August 76 75, Dylan O'Leary 77 74

152 - Luke Brown AMA 76 76, Bradley Diggeden AMA 74 78, Clinton Cheia 79 73

153 - Dylan Morton AMA 77 76

154 - Adam Baker AMA 76 78, David Rebelo AMA 77 77

155 - Albert Visser AMA 81 74, Liam Bezuidenhout AMA 77 78, Stephane Van Neer AMA (COD) 77 78, Lincon Cele 78 77, Jihwan Yeom AMA 75 80

156 - Cameron Gunning 74 82

158 - Tristan Nel AMA 76 82

160 - Gareth Anderson AMA 80 80, Cameron Gurr AMA 82 78

162 - Dean Du Plessis AMA 77 85

165 - Donald Makhafola AMA 89 76

166 - Saishrien Rasen AMA 82 84

171 - Divan Van Der Merwe AMA 86 85

174 - Phillip De Waal AMA 91 83

WDN - Ruan Botha AMA 77 WDN

N/R - Pierre Le Roux AMA 89 N/R

WDN - Heinrich Bronkhorst AMA WDN

Written and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the IGT Challenge Tour.