LEADERS Waddington Red suffered a surprise defeat in the latest round of games in the Dorothy Southworth Indoor Bowling League at Roefield Leisure Centre Clitheroe.

However with only three weeks to go they still remain odds-on favourites to become the first champions of this newly-formed league as second-placed Sabden also suffered the jittters as they too lost unexpectedly.

Lowly Clitheroe White had a surprising 4 points to 2 victory over third placed Waddington Blue which could so easily had been a six nil whitewash but for an amazing blunder by the Clitheroe skip who accidently took his own wood out leaving Waddington with a match winning four shots on the last end.

The game between Sabden and West Bradford was a close encounter throughout with the latter taking control in the second half of the game and were only denied the maximum six points by Sabden counting a three on the last end to tie mat two scores at 15-15.

Champions elect Waddington Red however had a surprising defeat at the hands of Longridge Commodores! On mat one Waddington had a comfortable 31-13 victory and six points looked in the bag but they were in for a shock as Longridge's Hazel Woods, Dave Thompson and Steve Malley beat Jack Arthur, Jim Tierney and Ken Barker by 28 shots to 8 and with that the extra points for the aggregate, 39-41.

The final game saw Read take maximum points from luckless Hurst Green by 46 shots to 20 n Results: Waddington Red 2pts Longridge Comm 4pts 39-41 (31-13, 8-28), Sabden 1pt West Bradford 5pts 30-37 (15-22, 15-15), Hurst Green 0pts Read 6pts 20-46 (13-20, 7-26), Clitheroe White 4pts Waddington Blue 2pts 37-31 (21-13, 16-18).

Fixtures - Tonight: Waddington Blue v Clitheroe Blue, Read v Sabden.

Thursday: Longridge Commodores v Clitheroe White, West Bradford v Waddington Red.