Woodsome Hall's Slater ignores tough weather and sits sixth in English girls' open

Slater, who is tied sixth, made light of the appalling conditions at the Kent course to be three under through five holes, but stumbled at the sixth.

She added a fourth birdie of the day at the 159-yard par-3 ninth to be out in three-under 34.

Hole 10 cost her a bogey, as it had on the first day, and she also dropped a shot at the last, but her second two of the day - at the 131-yard par-3 14th - meant she came home in one-over 37.

“I just stuck at it,” said Slater, who recently won the North Region ladies’ title at Alwoodley. She admits she is not a great fan of links golf, but is enjoying adapting to the challenge, adding: “I think the weather distracted me, I didn’t focus too much on the score. I just played it as it came.”

Girl international Bel Wardle holds the halfway lead on six under. She, like Slater, was round in two-under 71.

“It has been awful, just awful," she said of the conditions. "The wind has been so strong and the rain has just been lashing down on the back nine.” Wardle (Prestbury) negotiated the front nine in two under, but faced a real challenge coming home. “When I went into the back nine I knew I needed to hang on. I was either playing into the wind or cross winds. I don’t think there was a downwind hole, it was just playing long.” Thursday's forecast is for winds strengthening to 40mph. Wardle is two shots ahead of fellow international Amelia Williamson (Royal Cromer) who was round in level par on Wednesday. A further stroke back, on three nder, is Martha Lewis (St George’s Hill). At the end of the second round, the field was cut to the leading 40 players and ties, with a total of 42 going forward to Thursday's final 36 holes.