Moriarty leads in France

IRELAND'S Colm Moriarty fired a five-under-par opening round of 66 yesterday to hold a share of the lead at the St Omer Open in France.

Moriarty, who turned 31 last week and has made just two European Tour appearances this season, made an excellent start by taking a birdie at the par-four first and he gained shots at the sixth, ninth, tenth, 12th and 13th, before a bogey at the penultimate hole took a little bit of the shine off his round.

He is tied with Austria's Martin Wiegele who bogeyed the second but recovered strongly to post six birdies of his own.

The pair lead a quintet of players two shots further back at three under par.

One of the more recognised names in the field, France's Michael Lorenzo-Vera, is joined by England's Andrew Marshall, Sweden's Joakim Backstrom, Australia's Wade Ormsby and another Frenchman in Charles-Eduoard Russo.

Lorenzo-Vera at one point looked set to be the overnight leader after being five under through 11, but bogeys at 12 and 17 dropped him back into the pack.

England's Charlie Ford is joined by Jordi Garcia, Alessandro Tadini, Mark Tullo and Michael Bothma at two under.

Ford's compatriots Ben Evans, Matt Haines, Lloyd Kennedy and Marcus Higley are part of a large number of players at one under after the opening day's play.

Steven O'Hara and Callum Macaulay finished the day as the best-placed Scots with 73s.