Title favourite Bradley Moore of England fired six birdies in a four under par 68 to take a three stroke lead over compatriot Laird Shepherd into the final round of the Irish Boys Amateur Open Championship at Thurles.

Moore — who compete in last week's Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush, where he missed the cut by four shots — birdied the first and ninth and followed a bogey at the 10th with four birdies in a row from the 13th before dropping his second shot of the day at the testing 17th in what was the low round of the day.

Overnight leader Shepherd dropped four shots in his first six holes en route to a 75 but remained as Moore's nearest challenger on two under par with Athlone's Sean Doyle the best of the irish in third place on one under after hitting four birdies in a 71.

Antoin Auboin of France is alone in fourth on level par with Laytown and Bettystown's Thomas Mulligan firing the second lowest round of the day —  a 69 — to move up to tied fifth with Ring of Kerry's Tommy O'Driscoll (74), Limerick's Mark MacGrath (74), England's Thomas Jordan (75) and Tralee's Rory Hill (74).

The cut fell at 10 over par 226.

Final round tee times 

Irish Boys Amateur Open Championship, Thurles GC

After 54 holes

211 Bradley Moore (England) 70 73 68

214 Laird Shepherd (England) 70 69 75

215 Sean Doyle (Athlone) 69 75 71

216 Antoin Auboin (France) 74 68 74

217 Tommy O'Driscoll (Ring Of Kerry) 75 68 74, Thomas Mulligan (Laytown & Bettystown) 72 76 69, Mark MacGrath (Limerick) 72 71 74, Thomas Jordan (England) 72 70 75, Rory Hill (Tralee) 71 72 74

218 Ross Steedman (Courtown) 75 70 73, Jonathan Thomson (England) 72 74 72, William Enefer (England) 72 73 73, Thomas Murray (England) 71 76 71, Rob Brazill (Naas) 71 70 77, Paul Foulquie (France) 68 76 74

219 Jack Davidson (Wales) 79 69 71, Jamie Li (England) 73 73 73

220 Paul Tobin (Cork) 77 72 71, Conor Mooney (Black Bush) 74 75 71, Kevin Le Blanc (The Island) 72 76 72, Owen Crooks (Bushfoot) 71 72 77

221 Jack Healy (Westport) 74 73 74

222 Michael Cooke (Waterford) 76 72 74, Robert Shaw (England) 73 76 73, Ross Murray (Castle) 73 75 74, Patrick Brennan (Belvoir Park) 73 74 75, Colm Hughes (Galway) 72 75 75, Harry Hall (England) 71 74 77, David Brady (Co. Sligo) 70 77 75,

223 Peter Kerr (Royal Portrush) 75 77 71, Alistair Crunden (England) 75 76 72, Eric Byrne (Birr) 75 74 74, Dean Cafferty (Carton House) 75 73 75, Cian Feeney (Co. Sligo) 75 72 76, Jamie Fletcher (Warrenpoint) 73 77 73, Rowan Lester (Hermitage) 71 78 74

224 John Bolger (Jnr) (Courtown) 78 75 71, Marc McCormack (Ashbourne) 77 77 70, Marc McKinstry (Cairndhu) 76 75 73, Cathal Butler (Kinsale) 75 76 73, Alan Fahy (Bray) 75 72 77, David Carey (Carton House) 74 74 76, Kyle Harman (Wales) 72 79 73,

225 Jack Hermeston (England) 80 71 74, Clement Charmasson (France) 77 76 72, Andrew Magee (Powerscourt) 77 73 75, Oisin Devereux (Carton House) 76 73 76, Gary Ward (Kinsale) 76 71 78, Gavin Fitzmaurice (Balcarrick) 74 73 78

226 Thomas Bailey (England) 82 74 70, Barry Fitzpatrick (Castle) 80 70 76, Gabriel Naveau (France) 75 77 74, Gaelen Trew (South Africa) 75 73 78, Ronan O'Callaghan (Mannan Castle) 74 80 72, Ryan Long (Cairndhu) 74 77 75, Jonathan Doherty (Ballina) 74 76 76, Robert Browne (Castle) 74 75 77, Sean Walsh (Carton House) 74 75 77

Non-qualifiers

227 Lucas Koehler (Germany) 82 71 74, Jonas Eisold (Germany) 80 74 73, Philip O'Sullivan (Malone) 78 73 76, Max Jordan (England) 77 75 75, Michael Ryan (New Ross) 75 76 76, Marc Boucher (Carton House) 75 76 76, David Hill (Roscommon) 74 76 77

228 Karl Eccles (Clandeboye) 78 75 75, David Travers (Carton House) 77 76 75, Joshua Taylor (England) 77 73 78, Valentin Leblanc (France) 77 73 78, Alan Riordan (Blarney) 75 78 75, Michael Joseph Kennelly (Athenry) 75 78 75, Bill Murray (Waterford Castle) 75 78 75, Conor Purcell (Portmarnock) 75 76 77, Thomas Thurloway (England) 73 79 76, Shane Mc Dermott, (Co. Cavan) 70 81 77

229 Sean O'Regan (Edmondstown) 81 70 78, Dale Jackson (Hilton Templepatrick) 78 75 76, Harry Boyle (England) 77 78 74, Daniel List (Ghana) 77 77 75, Jamie Dunne (Borris) 76 78 75, Gareth Carr (Mullingar) 75 76 78, Jack Howard (Fota Island) 75 73 81,

230 Adam McCormick (Scrabo) 80 70 80, Declan Kelly (Hermitage) 79 79 72, Paul Kelly (Glasson) 78 78 74, John Gough (England) 78 75 77, Cathal Nolan (Galway) 78 74 78, Eoin Cunnife (United Arab Emirates) 77 77 76, Scott Campbell (Greenacres) 75 75 80, Niall Kennedy (Tramore) 73 77 80

231 Ryan Lumsden (Scotland) 82 74 75, Luke Cummins (West Waterford) 81 69 81, Edward Kennedy (Woodbrook) 80 73 78, Conor Harte (Castle) 78 79 74, Charlie Hendrick (Grange) 78 78 75, Adonis Asikian (France) 78 75 78, Eoin Leonard (Wentworth) 77 77 77, Andrew Mulholland (Castlerock) 76 74 81, Shane Mc Gagh (Claremorris) 75 72 84, Eoghan Collins (Laytown & Bettystown) 74 79 78, Ciaran Smyth (Greenore) 74 76 81, Ross Mohan (The Island) 73 82 76, Anton Brennan (Athenry) 73 79 79

232 Haider Hussein (England) 81 76 75, Michael Cooke (England) 80 76 76, Eoin O'Hehir (Naas) 76 78 78, Marc Norton (Belvoir Park) 75 80 77, Jack Brown (The Heath) 73 78 81

233 Peter Fleming (Galway) 81 77 75, Nick Moore (Monkstown) 80 75 78, Eric Rumley (Kinsale) 79 75 79, Conor Flanagan (Tullamore) 77 78 78, Glenn Fry (Greystones) 76 77 80

234 Thomas Boulanger (France) 79 81 74, Eoin Kelly (Co. Meath) 79 81 74, Luke Donnelly (Callan) 79 75 80, Paul Margolis (France) 75 80 79

235 Craig Bolger (Carlow) 84 74 77, Aaron Ryan (Thurles) 82 75 78, Joseph O'Neill (Tralee) 79 76 80, Ben Murray (Castle) 78 76 81, Darragh Smith (Castle) 76 86 73, Bruce Lancaster (Netherlands) 75 81 79, Quentin Saintillan (France) 74 83 78

236 Jason Conway (Donegal) 83 76 77, John Corbett Jnr (Thurles) 81 73 82, Daire Creavin (Killeen Castle) 80 77 79, Michael Shiel (Loughrea) 80 76 80, Matthew Fitzsimons (Ardglass) 76 86 74, David Burns (Cushendall) 76 77 83

237 Ross McKeever (Castle) 76 79 82

238 Ted Collins (Dun Laoghaire) 80 78 80, Felix Alnefelt (Sweden) 79 80 79, TJ Ford (Co. Sligo) 79 75 84, James McVicker (Knock) 78 81 79

239 Liam Grehan (Mullingar) 83 80 76, Fergus McCambridge (Cushendall) 80 81 78, Peter Cummins (Lurgan) 80 79 80

240 Garreth Hogan (St. Anne's) 80 82 78, John Cleary (Elm Park) 80 76 84

241 Greg Smith (England) 87 78 76

242 Rory Murphy (Dun Laoghaire) 78 81 83

243 Shane O'Connor (Castlebar) 86 80 77, Harry Duggan (Kilkenny) 83 80 80, Cian Hutchinson (Carton House) 78 80 85

244 Sam Sweeney (Seapoint) 83 81 80

246 Michael Culhane (Limerick) 84 81 81

250 Sean Bartlett (Wales) 89 81 80

261 Louis O'Hara (Athenry) 85 86 90

268 Darren Hall (United Arab Emirates) 86 93 89

RET/NR/WD

157 Jason O'Reilly (Tramore) 78 79

162 Jack Dempsey (Newbridge) 84 78

165 Cameron Mills (Shandon Park) 83 82

WD Gabriel Leacy (Dungarvan) 84 79 WD, Harry Walsh (Waterford Castle) 82 WD, Mark Healy (Bandon) 88 WD