Nailsea's Chris Wood staged a mini fightback on Friday to make the cut – and now bids to secure his European Tour card for next season.

The 22-year-old was teetering on the brink of the cut mark of one over par for most of his second round at the Celtic Manor Wales Open, but a round of 69 saw him easily make the cut.

A top-10 finish would give him a £35,000 (41,000 Euro) pay cheque, which would safely see him on the European tour again next year, while even coming in 20th would give him £20,000.

A level-par front nine of 36 meant that Wood was in danger of missing out, but birdies at the 10th, 11th, 15th and 18th holes saw him cruise into the weekend.

Wood said: "I played pretty solidly but didn't score very well out there today. However, I putted great and was holing from six and eight feet to make pars, which always has a good effect on your score.

"The weather is beginning to close in now and so it won't be very easy for those out there and it will certainly make the course play long over the weekend.

"I was looking at the weather over the last few holes and working out what I thought might be the cut mark. I thought that it might be around level par and so was hoping that the 18th hole wasn't playing into the wind.

"But when we stood on the tee, the wind had veered round which meant it was helping and I had a pretty good drive, which left me with 230 yards to the pin.

"I didn't hit my approach at all well, I was playing to fade it into the pin and ended up pushing it into the greenside bunker.

"I managed to get up and down out of the sand and one under par was good enough.

"I'm only six shots off the lead and if I have a good day on Saturday, who knows what might happen?"

For Chipping Sodbury's Trevor Jones, the Wales Open finished with a disappointing round of 77 to leave him 11 over for the tournament.

Jones, a pro at the Hambrook Golf Centre in Bristol, had secured his place in the tournament thanks to winning the Wales National title last year.