LEVEL pegging put York’s Simon Dyson into a healthy position going into today’s second round of the Dubai World Championships – the last tournament of the 2010 European Tour.

Dyson carded an even-par 72 on the Jumeirah Estates complex, where only two of the Race to Dubai’s top players managed to truly tame the course.

Aiming to sustain the excellence of last week’s four rounds in the UBS Hong Kong Open where he missed out on victory by a solitary shot, the 32-year-old Dyson carded six successive pars before he then weighed in with his first birdie, a four on the par-five 572-yard seventh.

But that inroad was almost instantly wiped out by a dropped shot on the par-four ninth.

Again back into the groove, Dyson racked up a flurry of five pars before picking up a shot on the par-fourth 15th.

But hopes of that sparking a dramatic finish to the first round evaporated when the world number 63 suffered his second bogey on the next hole to finish in joint 25th place.

However, Dyson was the area’s most successful representative.

Harrogate GC’s John Parry carded a three-over 75, in which three birdies were erased by four bogeys and a double bogey.

Yorkshire’s Danny Willett, coached by Graham Walker at The Oaks GC in Aughton, finished on 74, which included a brace of double bogeys on the ninth and 16th holes.

The first round leadership was held by Sweden’s Robert Karlsson with a seven-under 65, one shot clear of South Korea’s Noh Seung-yul.

Dyson was today paired with Holland’s Joost Luiten, with Parry playing alongside former Ryder Cup ace Thomas Bjorn and Willett partnered by Peter Hanson.