Alex Baker's second round at Littlestone came apart inside four holes. From the 2nd through the 5th he dropped 12 shots to par. A triple bogey, then a double bogey, then another triple at the 4th, one of the hardest holes on the course. Then the 9 at the 5th, a quadruple bogey on one of the easiest. Four holes without a net par. Three Stableford points collected where eight were on offer.

That stretch accounts for the movement in the TEG 14 Trophy. Alex Baker had trailed David Mullin by three points after Royal Cinque Ports. He trails by nine now. Mullin did his part, going round in 85, his best score at Littlestone by seven shots on his only previous visit here.

At the other end of the table, the TEG 14 Wooden Spoon is closer than it was. Jon Baker is still the man holding it. His cushion over Gregg Williams has come down from four points to two. He has two rounds left to give it away, and on current evidence he is capable of it.

Littlestone, on its second TEG visit after TEG 13, gave the field very little back. The best gross round of the day came in at 14 over par. The worst came in at 29. The Trophy returns ranged only from 41 points down to 27.

Jon Baker had set the mark on the Championship Links in TEG 13 with a 79. On Friday he signed for 92. That is thirteen strokes worse than his first visit, achieved on the same links he had previously mastered. His most productive passage of the afternoon was two pars, at the 14th and 15th, the latter one of the easiest holes on the course. Two holes without dropping a gross shot was, on this day, a good stretch.

Alex Baker matched his TEG 13 figure of 100 exactly. He arrived there via a pair of quadruple bogeys: a 9 at the 5th, one of the easiest holes on the course, and an 8 at the 8th. Reproducing a round of 100 by an entirely different route is a kind of craftsmanship. Neither Baker made the slightest impression on David Mullin, whose TEG 14 Trophy lead grew from three points to nine.