Noren claims joint lead

Noren: Round of the week

Second round leaderboard
-6 L Westwood
-6 A Noren (Swe)
-5 A Canizares (Spn)
-5 T Jaidee (Tha)
-5 M Warren
-5 R Fisher

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Sweden's Alexander Noren joined Lee Westwood at the top of the leaderboard after the completion of the second round of the British Masters.

Noren picked up a birdie at the sixth - his 15th - before parring the final three holes to card a round-of-the-week 66 and join the Briton on six under par in the fog-delayed event.

The early morning mists once again delayed play on Saturday until 10.30am, with overnight co-leader Jeev-Milkha Singh immediately blotting his scorecard when play finally began.

The Indian, who aced the seventh on Friday, resumed on the 13th tee but hooked his drive out of bounds, and although he only dropped one shot he made another bogey at the next and remained two of the pace after recording a 71.

Darren Clarke made a bold bid to make the cut but his 68 was one too many following his opening round of 80.

The Ulsterman came home in 32 strokes, and birdied both the 13th and 14th on resuming his second round.

Requiring two further birdies to make the 'weekend', he missed out at the 15th after driving into a sand trap, but after capitalising on the long 17th his 40 foot putt from the fringe at the final hole stayed out.

"Missing the cut is not what I wanted," he said. "But I didn't want to go to Scotland next week on the back of another bad round."

There was also disappointment for Nick Dougherty, who had high hopes of playing his way into contention sitting on one under with three to play.

But he followed bogeys at the 16th and 17th with a catastrophic quadruple bogey eight at the final, which saw him slump to a 79 and out of the tournament.

Come down

Graeme McDowell scraped through to the final two rounds after being unable to reproduce his impressive form of last week in Louisville.

"I don't know how to deal with this 'come down' feeling. Lee (Westwood) has learned how to deal with things better than I have," commented the Ulsterman, who completed his second round on Friday for a three over par total.

"Physically, I'm probably not all there, but mentally, definitely - if last week was 11 out of 10 then I'm five out of 10 this week."

Saturday's late start means the third round is almost certain to spill over into Sunday, with Noren and Westwood not due to start their rounds until 4.05pm.