ANNE LAING'S 10 LEAVES FELLOW SCOT
CLARE QUEEN IN HELEN HOLM LEAD

From the sublime to the ridiculous. That was how Anne Laing described her second-round afternoon slump to a 10-over-par 85 after equalling the Troon Portland course record of eight-under-par 67 in the morning in the Helen Holm Scottish women's open amateur stroke play golf championship today.
The 28-year-old lecturer at Elmwood College, Cupar and a member at Vale of Leven made her comment as she surveyed a scoreboard which had earlier shown her three strokes clear of the good-class field and now put her in joint eighth place on two-over 152.
The consolation for home fans is that a Scot still leads the field going into Sunday's final round over Royal Troon.
Clare Queen, a Strathclyde University student and a 20-year-old Drumpellier member, sagged to a 77 in the brighter, drier but windier conditions for the second round but a first-round 70 was a good score in the bank and her one-under-par total of 147 gave her a two-stroke overnight lead from France's Peggy Frayse from Fontainbleau (75, 74).
Another French player, Nathalie David from La Baule shares third place with Rachel Lomas (Hallowes) on 150.
The wheels came off in the afternoon for the Anne Laing at the third hole. She had just run up a double-bogey 7 at the second and was looking to repair the damage at the 407yd par-4 third. Instead she nosedived to a catastrophic 10, taking five shots in a bunker, including a two-stroke penalty when her second recovery attempt from the sand came back and hit her.
Clare Queen, runner-up to Becky Brewerton in last year's British women's open amateur stroke-play championship and a former British girls champion, could have had a comfortable four-shot lead but she bogeyed the 13th and 14th and couldn't birdie any of the remaining four holes downwind in her second-round 77 (38-39).
The shot of the day came late in the proceedings when Faye Sanderson (Heworth) holed her tee shot at the 127yd 8th hole. That helped her to return a 76, an improvement of seven strokes on her morning score. It was her first ace in a competition.
Clare-Marie Carlton, the 16-year-old Fereneze junior who became one of the youngest winners of the Renfrewshire women's championship on Friday and was called in as a late replacement to the "Helen Holm" field, was, after all, unable to make her debut in what would have been her biggest tournament todate.
One of her ankles swelled up after the strenuous, three-day Renfrewshire programme and she was advised to rest over the weekend rather than aggravate the condition by playing three rounds over the tough Troon links courses.