"I played well in the second round and I backed it up today. I holed a few putts on the back nine, but I didn't hit my irons that well, so hopefully I can improve that tomorrow," said Brown, who tied for 16th in last week's Kolon Korea Open.

"It's a tough course, so you don't want to have to push too hard. There are birdie chances, but there are also some holes where you're happy to take par and get out of there."

Allan, whose victories include the 1998 German Open and 2002 Australian Open, birdied the par-five 18th to book a place in the final group and put himself in contention for his first OneAsia win.

"I played nicely, but nothing special. My putting was solid, but not spectacular," said the 37-year-old, who played on the European Tour before spending most of the past decade on the PGA Tour.

"It has been a while since I've won, so it's great to be up there competing. We play to win, that's what it's all about."

A strong chasing pack loiters behind the top three including the ‘Big Bang', who lies second on the Korean Tour's driving distance ranking but is still searching for his first win as a pro.

"It was a very nice round," said the stocky 23-year-old. "My putting was better today, but I did well because I was hitting most of the fairways. The rough is so thick here, so it's important to stay out of trouble. I'll try my best for a win, but I'm not sure how much chance I have."

Felton is also gunning for his first OneAsia win and his first title since the 2007 Victorian Open, his sixth victory in Australia.

"To win, I think I'll need to shoot another five-under round or even better to have a chance. I have a chance if the putter keeps working," said Felton, who also won on the Nationwide Tour in 2005.

The Midea China Classic is the eighth of 10 OneAsia events in the circuit's second season. The tournament purse has doubled to US$1 million on the OneAsia platform due to the continued sponsorship support from the Midea Group for the sixth consecutive year.

The Midea China Classic is being showcased on OneAsia's television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 260 million homes in more than 40 countries.

Full coverage of the event is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 and America One in the USA, ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.

Midea China Classic, OneAsia

Leading third-round scores – par 71

203 – Stephen Dartnall (AUS) 66-69-68

205 – Stephen Allan (AUS) 67-71-67, Mitchell Brown (AUS) 70-66-69

207 – Bang Doo-hwan (KOR) 71-70-66, Simon Yates (SCO) 70-69-68, Kim Felton (AUS) 70-71-66, Andre Stolz (AUS) 65-72-70

208 – Matthew Griffin (AUS) 65-74-69, Brad Kennedy (AUS) 65-72-71

208 – Kang Ji-man (KOR) 69-70-70, Wu Kangchun (CHN) 67-69-73

210 – Liang Wenchong (CHN) 68-71-71, Park Jun-bum (KOR) 69-74-67, Ashley Hall (AUS) 68-70-72

211 – Nicholas Fung (MAS) 70-74-67, Yuan Hao (CHN) 69-73-69, Panuphol Pittayarat (THA) 70-72-69, Steven Jones (AUS) 71-70-70, Wu Weihuang (CHN) 69-72-70, Henry Epstein (AUS) 67-74-70, CJ Gatto (USA) 67-70-74

212 – Li Chao (CHN) 70-73-69, Kim Yeong-su (KOR) 70-70-72, Bae Kyu-tae (KOR) 71-69-72, Steve Jeffress (AUS) 66-72-74

213 – Hou Jian (CHN) 71-73-69, Michael Long (NZL) 70-73-70, Daniel Fox (AUS) 68-73-72

214 – Kurt Barnes (AUS) 74-72-68, Guido Van Der Valk (NED) 72-74-68, Tsai Chihuang (TPE) 74-70-70, Jamie Arnold (AUS) 69-71-74, Matthew Millar (AUS) 67-72-75

Selected scores:

216 – Stephen Leaney (AUS) 71-72-73

217 – Michael Hendry (NZL) 71-75-71

221 – Zhang Lianwei (CHN) 71-73-77