AN EAGLE on the par five 17th hole helped put Southampton's Matt Blackey in contention going into today's third round of the British Masters.

Blackey, who birdied the same 516-yard hole on his way to an opening round 70 on Thursday, went one better yesterday.

Blackey had four other birdies and only two bogies in a superbly compiled round of 68 to move to six under par and within two shots of the joint halfway leaders - England's Greg Owen and Australian Richard Green.

Defending champion Justin Rose from Hook, three under overnight, slipped to a three-over-par second round of 75.

Five under with 11 to play, Rose survived the cut with nothing to spare.

Salisbury's Gary Emerson finished one shot in front of him after adding a solid level-par round to his opening-day 71.

But Southampton's Richard Bland shot a 77 to add to his opening 76 to crash out of the event.

Owen spoke about his "hard life" on the European Tour as he moved into contention for a £250,000 jackpot. The 31-year-old from Mansfield may be a member of the circuit's Millionaires Club already, but he does not believe that paints a true picture to outsiders.

After a second successive bogey-free 68 took him into the joint halfway lead with Green, Owen tried to open people's eyes to his profession.

"It's a damn hard job," he said. "There are 156 players in the field and only one person can win.

"It's well rewarded, but it's not as glamorous as everyone thinks it is. You look at the tour books where all the prize money is reproduced and people say 'Oh, he's got a great life. But you never get the money that's shown up there and it's just the agony you go through."

In Portugal in April Owen thought that after more than 150 events he was finally going to win his first title.

But, level with two holes to play, he missed a four-foot birdie putt and then bogeyed the last to finish fifth.

"I was absolutely gutted, I've never felt like that before. I didn't want to play and go through that again," he said.

"I should have won it comfortably and (afterwards) I just wanted to spend time with my little girl."

It took a heart-to-heart with coach David Ridley to put him back together and Owen is now on an incredible run of 68 holes without a dropped shot - right back to the fourth hole of his third round in the Wales Open last week.

"I'm trying to be patient instead of attacking silly flags. I'm not 100 per cent sure I want to play like that, but Faldo made a living out of it and the scoring shows that it works," he said.

"It can be pretty boring and you can get too conservative, but I'm not doing too badly."

Owen hopes he will attract a lot of home backing this weekend - and that they stay with him.

"You've got pressures from people wanting tickets and they turn up for two holes and then they go off and watch Monty! Thanks for the support, guys," he said.

Colin Montgomerie will not be a rival attraction in the final two rounds, however, after missing his second successive cut.

Left-hander Green moved alongside Owen with a 66 that was anything but boring.

Winner of the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic after a play-off with Ian Woosnam and Greg Norman, he holed his pitch to the 381-yard fourth for an eagle two and then finished with three birdies.

Owen and Green ended the day one ahead of David Lynn and German Marcel Siem, first day leader Peter Fowler dropping back to four under with a 75.

Pre-tournament favourite Darren Clarke is two under and Lee Westwood a disappointing one under despite a hole-in-one at the fifth. He had a 76.

At least he is still in the event. Montgomerie was not the only member of last September's Ryder Cup team to bow out.

Philip Price finished three over and Pierre Fulke two over, while Paul McGinley had to pull out after five holes of his second round because of a neck spasm.