The Irish competitors did not have such a fortunate time, with only three of the six representatives surviving the cut.

A round of 72 was enough for Lawrie to finish on two under par while Michael Hoey and David Higgins both scraped through on one over par.

Gary Murphy (two over par), Damien McGrane (three over par) and Stephen Browne (eight over par) will be packing their bags.

Roe’s second-round 65 at Barseback ended in amazing fashion with a birdie on the 18th despite snapping his club while playing his approach shot from behind a tree.

“I was about a foot away from it and if I hit the shot I wanted to, I would definitely have broken my arm or my wrist,” explained Roe.

“The other option was to aim 30 yards left and hit a big cut with a 7-iron but even that was risky. I knew the club would snap and it could come back and stab me in the arm.

“What I am trying to say is I’m incredibly brave and luck favours the brave. I hit it well and it landed about six feet from the pin!”

Holing the putt gave Roe a 10-under-par halfway total of 134 and a share of the lead with Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who carded his second consecutive 67.

Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson was two shots back on eight under after bogeys on the last two holes in a 67.

As for the incident back in 1995 which saw him disciplined by tour officials, Roe recalled: “I made an 11 at the 12th hole and a 10 at the 13th. On the 12th I hit a six-inch putt 45 yards back down the fairway – an emotional meltdown I supposed.

“I got fined £2,000 (€2,964) because I wrote to the tour committee and said in my defence it did hit the lip!”

Roe currently lies 144th on the Order of Merit and in danger of losing his card after 21 unbroken years on tour, but revealed he would happily retire if he failed to keep his playing privileges.

“I’m 43 years old and I never really intended to play this long,” added Roe, who was famously disqualified from the Open at Sandwich in 2003 when leading in the clubhouse during the third round due to a scorecard mix-up with playing partner Jesper Parnevik.

“I have beautiful twin daughters and I just miss them incredibly and want to see more of them. Emily said to me the other week ’Daddy, can you play all your tournaments at Effingham (my local club) and then you could come home every night and be with us.’

“When your kids start saying that it is time to take another look at it and this is not the most important thing in my life.

“Last year was a struggle and I had to do well in one of the last counting events to keep my card. I’ve played well on the odd occasion this season, every now and then I like to pop up on the leaderboard and give myself a bit of a buzz. Unless I am doing that I don’t feel like playing the game to be honest.

“If I do keep my card I’ll just play 12 events next year. If I don’t I’ll retire.”

Overnight joint leader Benn Barham – still playing with borrowed clubs after his failed to arrive from London on Tuesday – could only manage a 73 to drop back to four under.

“I’m still in a pretty decent position and hopefully no-one will go mad this afternoon,” said the 30-year-old from Kent. “The borrowed clubs are fine but the putter went a bit cold today.

“I played okay but just needed to hole more putts. Days like yesterday you see the lines, hit the putt and it goes in, but today I was a little bit indecisive and that made the difference.

“Even if the clubs don’t arrive now I’d still like to know where they are for the peace of mind. I don’t want to think I may never see them again.”

After a 77-minute delay due to a thunderstorm, Scotland's Marc Warren completed a second round of 69 to join Jacobson in third place on eight under.

Warren, who holed the winning putt in the 2001 Walker Cup, said: “I sat down during the delay and almost fell asleep. I didn’t realise how tired I was.

“Being in contention takes it out of you. You concentrate that bit harder and it could be down to that. It has been a long day but it was nice to finish on a pleasant note with a birdie on my last hole.”