A sparkling finish allowed New Zealander Michael Campbell to maintain his stranglehold on the English Open at the Forest of Arden yesterday. A European tour record six strokes clear after his opening day 63, Campbell birdied the last two holes for a 69 and will go into the third round of the £780,000 tournament on 12 under par, five ahead of Australian Peter O'Malley.

Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood are two shots further back in third place, along with local hope Steve Webster.

Darren Clarke left the course in foul mood. Standing on the 17th tee on four-under-par, and two under for the day, he proceeded to bogey the closing holes as his playing partners Campbell and Westwood slipped further ahead of him.

Clarke is now 10 adrift, and while Campbell will be happy to have the Order of Merit leader so far behind, he will miss one thing about him tomorrow.

"I gave up smoking in March and I've been smelling Darren's cigars," he said. "Every time Darren threw a cigar on the ground I was running and picking it up and every time he took a big puff I was asking him to blow it my way."

Campbell hit a three-iron over water to 15 feet and two-putted for birdie on the 511-yard 17th, then hit a four-iron to 10 feet at the 209-yard last and made his second successive two there.

"I had a bit of a glitch in the system early on, but that was a pretty good day - it's very hard to back up a 63," said the 31-year-old.

"I was a bit conservative at first, but walking down the sixth I realised that it just wasn't me." The change in approach immediately brought him a hat-trick of birdies.

Montgomerie, out early while the Kiwi had a lie-in, had visions of totally cancelling out his eight-shot overnight deficit when he birdied four of his first eight holes.

But a missed four-foot birdie putt on the 18th - his ninth - took the wind out of his sails and a succession of chances on the front nine all went begging.

A slow play warning did not help either. "We were running. Why we were I don't know, but we were and it does throw you a wee bit," said the Scot, seeking his third victory in five weeks.

"Generally I'm all for it. It's a good thing to speed up play - just not my group! I certainly didn't feel we were going particularly slowly, but we were rushing when we were on the clock.

"Things had been rolling along so smoothly and I was thinking of catching Campbell, but I lost a certain amount of momentum missing that putt on the 18th and then just didn't hit the irons shots close enough."

O'Malley too had a lightning start, with birdies on the first five holes and another at the seventh.

He did not waste it either. Two more birdies coming home meant a 65. "It's going to be hard to catch Michael, though," he said. "He's not going to falter."

Westwood sank a 45-footer for eagle at the seventh and had four birdies, but there were also four bogeys as he failed to make the progress for which he was hoping.

"I probably should have been three or four lower," he said. "I don't think they are the greatest greens we've ever played on, but there's no reason why you can't hole putts if you hit them half-decent."

Webster, from the small town of Atherstone less than 10 miles away, has had two runners-up finishes since winning the tour qualifying school in 1995, but is still waiting for his maiden victory. A 69, spoilt only by a bogey four on the 18th, has given him an outside chance again.