Castle's Alex Gleeson continued his excellent start to the season when he made an eagle and five birdies in a five-under 67 to lie fifth at halfway in the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Glendower Golf Club.

He's is just two strokes behind South Africa's David McIntyre, France's Edgar Catherine and India's Yashas Chandra on four-under par and now 26-under par for his first 10 rounds of 2018.

After finishing tied for fifth on seven-under in the South American Amateur Championship in Buenos Aires in January, he was 13th on 15-under par in last week's South African Amateur Stroke Play.  

Starting on the back nine, Gleeson went out in five under par by following birdies at the 10th and 11th with an eagle three at the 15th and a birdie two at the 17th.

He then bogeyed the par-five second and the fifth but finished well, picking up shots at his last two holes.

Dundalk's Caolan Rafferty is a shot further back in joint sixth after dropping just one shot in a 68 with Tramore's Robin Dawson 19th on level par after a 71.

Massereene's Tiarnan McLarnon got it around in level par 72 to share 24th on two-over with Kilkenny's Mark Power, who shot a 74.

Mallow's James Sugrue also shot 72 to lie 31st on three-over with Naas' Jonny Yates, who was three-under after three and signed for a two-under 70.

Royal Dublin's Barry Anderson shot 81 to lie 76th on 13-over and will be hoping to show a little more of his West of Ireland form.

The "Ireland 1" team of Gleeson, Rafferty,  Dawson and Power moved up to third in the team event, just two shots behind Team South Africa Jnr while "Ireland 2" — McLarnon, Sugrue, Anderson and Yates — is sixth.

As for the leaders, McIntyre, Chandra and Catherine lead by a shot from South Africa's James du Preez 70 with the top 18 covered by just six shots.

African Amateur Stroke Play, Glendower GC (Par 72)

Individual

RSA unless stated

138 David Mcintyre 70 68; Yashas Chandra IND 70 68; Edgar Catherine FRA 70 68

139 James du Preez 69 70

140 Alex Gleeson IRL 73 67

141 Coalan Rafferty IRL 73 68; Luan Boshoff 71 70; Byron Coetzee 71 70; Frédéric LaCroix FRA 67 74

142 Martin Vorster 73 69; Cameron Moralee 73 69; Nicholaus Frade 71 71; Louis Albertse 71 71

143 Ryan van Velzen 74 69; Christo Lamprecht Jnr 74 69; Jeremy Freiburghaus SUI 73 70; Malcolm Mitchell 71 72; Matt Saulez 70 73

144 Wilco Nienaber 79 65; Robin Dawson IRL 73 71; Dylan Kok 72 72; Clément Charmasson FRA 70 74

145 Luca Filippi 75 70

146 Jack Gaunt ENG 77 69; Euan Walker GBR 76 70; Keegan Mclachlan 74 72; Tiarnan McLarnon IRL 74 72; Chris Woollam 73 73; Jayden Schaper 72 74; Mark Power IRL 72 74

147 Jonathan Yates IRL 77 70; Andrew Wilson ENG 76 71; James Sugrue IRL 75 72; Calum Fyfe SCO 74 73; Deon Germishuys 73 74; Kartik Sharma IND 71 76

148 Alan Lones 79 69; Kyle de Beer 76 72

149 Neal Woernhard SUI 78 71; Darren Howie SCO 75 74; Guillaume Chevalier FRA 75 74; Sam Locke SCO 74 75; Gregory Mckay 73 76; Paul Waring ENG 72 77

150 Titouan Berny 77 73; Maximillian Boegel GER 75 75

151 John Paterson SCO 78 73; Siyanda Mwandla 78 73; Jordan Burnand 77 74; Loris Schuepbach SUI 77 74; Christopher van der Merwe 76 75; Keelan van Wyk 75 76; Jason Rossiter 75 76

152 Otto van Buynder 82 70; Romain Lanteri FRA 81 71; Hayden Griffiths 79 73; Aneurin Gounden 78 74; Sheoran Dhruv IND 77 75; Clayton Mansfield 77 75; Andrew Carlsson 75 77

153 Andre van Heerden (Jnr) 81 72; Casey Jarvis 78 75; Nicola Gerhardsen 78 75; Callum Mackay GBR 76 77; Theunie Bezuidenhout 76 77

154 Philip Kruse 77 77; Caylum Boon 77 77; Victor Veyret FRA 77 77; Keaton Slatter 75 79

155 Thomas Boulanger FRA 80 75; Charles Larcelet FRA 77 78; Varun Parikh IND 76 79

156 Darin de Smidt 80 76; Pierre Pellegrin 78 78; David Nortje 75 81

157 David Langley GBR 82 75; Antoine Sale 82 75; Jakub Hrinda 82 75; Samual Mckenzie 77 80; Barry Anderson IRL 76 81

158 Mandla Dlamini 80 78; Jacob Oakley ENG 75 83

159 Pierre Pineau FRA 83 76

160 Christian Verrougstraete FRA 80 80

162 Florent Toulet MRI 80 82

163 Loic Ettlin SUI 84 79

164 Alexandre Lasalarie FRA 81 83

170 Rakesh Channoo MRI 82 88

171 Ritish Venkamah MRI 83 88

174 William Dodds ENG 87 87

Team

Best 3 scores of 4 to count

422 Team South Africa Jnr 219 Jayden Schaper 72 Martin Vorster 73 Christo Lamprecht Jnr 74; 203 Wilco Nienaber 65 Christo Lamprecht Jnr 69 Martin Vorster 69

423 Team France 207 Frédéric LaCroix 67 Edgar Catherine 70 Clément Charmasson 70; 216 Edgar Catherine 68 Frédéric LaCroix 74 Clément Charmasson 74

424 Team Ireland 1 218 Mark Power 72 Robin Dawson 73 Alex Gleeson 73; 206 Alex Gleeson 67 Coalan Rafferty 68 Robin Dawson 71

431 Team South Africa 216 Matt Saulez 70 Malcolm Mitchell 71 Luca Filippi 75; 215 Luca Filippi 70 Malcolm Mitchell 72 Matt Saulez 73

436 Team India 217 Yashas Chandra 70 Kartik Sharma 71 Varun Parikh 76; 219 Yashas Chandra 68 Sheoran Dhruv 75 Kartik Sharma 76

439 Team Ireland 2 225 Tiarnan McLarnon 74 James Sugrue 75 Barry Anderson 76; 214 Jonathan Yates 70 James Sugrue 72 Tiarnan McLarnon 72

440 Team England 225 Paul Waring 72 Andrew Wilson 76 Jack Gaunt 77; 215 Jack Gaunt 69 Andrew Wilson 71 David Langley 75

440 Team Scotland 223 Calum Fyfe 74 Sam Locke 74 Darren Howie 75; 217 Euan Walker 70 Calum Fyfe 73 Darren Howie 74

443 Team Switzerland 228 Jeremy Freiburghaus 73 Loris Schuepbach 77 Nicola Gerhardsen 78; 215 Jeremy Freiburghaus 70 Neal Woernhard 71 Loris Schuepbach 74

468 Team Reunion 242 Christian Verrougstraete 80 Romain Lanteri 81 Alexandre Lasalarie 81; 226 Romain Lanteri 71 Antoine Sale 75 Christian Verrougstraete 80

488 Team Mauritius 240 Pierre Pellegrin 78 Florent Toulet 80 Rakesh Channoo 82; 248 Pierre Pellegrin 78 Florent Toulet 82 Rakesh Channoo 88