Rhys Davies
Darren Clarke signed for a round of 69 on Friday in Morocco to head into the weekend sharing third place with eight other players on five under par, and just one stroke off the Trophee Hassan II leaders.
Over night leader Peter Lawrie suffered on the Golf L'Ocean dropping five shots in all, including a double bogey on the seventh to undo the good work of Thursday, to finish 3 shots off the pace in 18th place in a tight leader board
Paul McGinley signed for an eagle and a birdie in round two and made up for the double bogey on the fifth to end the day one under par overall.
Michael Hoey mixed birdies with bogeys in Agadir to end the day level par and also the same overall.
Damien McGrane ended his efforts with a colourful card, picking up a bogey, then a double and adding a triple, only to eagle the 15th and end the day 3 over par, finally making the cut on 2 over par.
Shane Lowry fought back to sign for a two under par 70 but after his opening round of 81 he was unable to finish on the right side of the cut, undoubtedly happy with the three birdies on the back nine and just the one bogey on Friday.
Defending champion Rhys Davies moved into a share of the halfway lead with Joost Luiten - but just two shots separate the top 17 players after a dramatic second round of the Trophée Hassan II.
High winds led to a day of mixed scoring in the Moroccan city of Agadir, where the field have been split over the Golf De L'Océan and Golf Du Palais Royal courses in a pro-am format for the first two days.
Davies' victory 12 months ago kick-started an immensely impressive rookie campaign that saw the 25 year old Welshman finish 18th on The Race to Dubai.
He has yet to record a top-20 finish in 2011, but Davies insists he is not under pressure to perform after shooting a one under 70 for a six under par 36-hole aggregate.
"I'm not feeling any pressure despite being defending champion this week," he said.
"It's a different golf course for one, and I just feel very relaxed. I'm enjoying the pro-am format and I had a great partner today - Mazamischi Ito. He's a great player and has a great future ahead of him in golf.
"I've been working hard on my swing with my coach, trying to match up my arm swing with my body swing, and it's getting there. The hard work is starting to come off. It's quite hard to do it in this wind though."
Overnight leader Peter Lawrie was amongst those blown away by the testing conditions - his scintillating opening 64 followed by a five over 76.
Whereas Davies was a model of consistency with two birdies and a solitary bogey, Luiten produced a more varied scorecard.
The Dutchman double bogeyed both par threes on the front nine, dropped a shot at the ninth, but carded seven birdies in a 69 on the Golf De L'Océan layout.
"I was good on the back nine with four birdies so that kept me going," said Luiten, who is searching for a maiden European Tour title.
"It was tough today, really tough, especially on the front nine. The holes coming into the wind are very tricky.
"On the back nine the wind was less but there are some really tricky pin positions, so overall it was a pretty hard day and you needed to be very straight off the tee. I'm pleased with the score I've come away with.
!It was one of those days for me when I just felt that I couldn’t do anything wrong,” said Ilonen, who has recently be sidelined by appendicitis.
“Everything went right for me today after having a frustrating day yesterday. I only hit a couple of loose shots yesterday and ended up signing for three over whereas today I gave nothing away.”
