England's John Parry took sole possession of the lead at the Vivendi Cup although the field is poised heading into the final round.
Field stacking up behind Harrogate rookie in France
England's John Parry took sole possession of the lead at the Vivendi Cup although the field is poised to attack heading into the final round.
Parry started the day alongside Jarmo Sandelin on 13 under par with the pair four clear of the chasing pack, and although the former fired a two-under par 70 he is now only one ahead.
The Harrogate golfer, who is in his first full year on the circuit, was confident he would have learnt from leading last week's Austrian Open at halfway and certainly kept his nerve after a stumble on the back nine to stay at the top of the leaderboard.
After going to the turn in 34 with three birdies and one bogey, Parry dropped shots at the 10th and 12th but regrouped superbly with birdies at the next two holes.
Denmark's Mark F Haastrup and first round leader Johan Edfors are his closest pursuers with Sandelin amongst a group of four players a further shot behind.
The Swede briefly led on his own after birdies at the eighth and ninth, but the former Ryder Cup player bogeyed the last two holes to fall back.
Earlier in the day, Padraig Harrington showed signs of getting his game in shape for next week's Ryder Cup with a third round of 69.
Harrington only made the cut right on the mark of two under par courtesy of three birdies in his last six holes.
But the Dubliner recovered from a shaky start on Saturday to card a total of eight birdies on the Marly course.
Harrington dropped a shot at the first and birdied the third, but then ran up a double bogey on the fourth and bogeyed the fifth to no doubt leave European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie a worried man.
However, the 39-year-old - one of Montgomerie's three wild cards for Celtic Manor - rediscovered his composure to par the sixth and then birdie four of the next five holes.
Further birdies followed at the 13th and 16th and, after a bogey on the 17th, Harrington finished in style with a birdie at the last.
At five under par the triple major winner still lies 10 shots off the pace.
