After a day of weather delays due to thunder, the 34-year-old from Cleckheaton in Yorkshire teed off late in the afternoon and posted four birdies in fine conditions to lead on ten under par.

Still struggling with a cold, Simpson said: “I’m really pleased but I’m just full of cold and I’m trying to take whatever shot’s in front of me and deal with that and get round at the moment really. Obviously it’s having a good effect and I should probably take that to every week. I’m happy to be in and going to my bed soon and we’ll see what’s out there tomorrow.”

With two runner-up finishes on the Ladies European Tour, in Wales in 2007 and in Portugal in 2008, the ninth season Tour player was relishing the opportunity to contend for her first LET title, despite feeling decidedly below par. 

“This is what you work hard for and I’m hitting the ball better than I’ve hit it for a while. The putter is still working. It didn’t do too much on the front nine but on the back nine it started again. I’m just going to try and get round and stay well because we’re out for three weeks now. A nice finish tomorrow would be lovely but I’ll just take it one shot at a time.”

The first round leader Australian Kristie Smith, playing her first season on the Ladies European Tour as a ‘Henderson Rookie’, finished the day one stroke back in outright second place after a two under par round of 70.

The 21-year-old West Australian had established a two stroke lead after 14 holes but dropped shots at the 16^th and 17^th, before recovering with a birdie at the last.

“I hit the ball awesome; probably the best I’ve hit it in a long time, but I putted very poorly,” said Smith, who has won two events already in 2010, but none on the Ladies European Tour.

“I guess I can be happy with the way I’m hitting it but I’m not putting very well so I’m going to go and hit a few putts now ahead of tomorrow.

“I told myself it would be nice to be in contention going into Sunday and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve been there before and I’ve won before so we’ll see what happens.

“I felt a bit relaxed because the weather turned around quite nicely for us this afternoon. There was no wind whatsoever so you could stick it at pins. That didn’t hurt me at all.”

Scotland’s Vikki Laing (70) and South African Lee-Anne Pace (67) finished a stroke back in a share of third place at eight under par.

Earlier in the day, Laing had hit her drive on the 16^th hole when play was suspended at 12:08. Play resumed briefly at 2:00 before another weather delay minutes later.

The 29-year-old from Musselburgh said: “I’d hit my drive on 16 when I got called in and then I hit my second shot left of the green and chipped on and got called in again. I went back out and made the putt and finished up from there. I’m pretty happy to be honest.

“It’s been a really long day for us and we’ve been on and off the course a couple of times. I’d definitely take two under with all the weather that we’ve been having.”

Three players finished one stroke further back in a share of fifth place at seven under par. They were Australian Frances Bondad, Sweden’s Johanna Westerberg and Jade Schaeffer of France, all of whom will be in the hunt for the €78,750 first prize.

After the cut to 64 players at 145 (+1), the third and final round will begin at 8am on Sunday with a two tee start due to the possibility of more thunder storms. The leading trio will tee off at 9.50am.