Sabden took full advantage of Waddington Red’s free week to regain top spot in the Dorothy Southworth Indoor bowling league at Roefield Leisure Centre Clitheroe.

They took the maximum six points from their match against Clitheroe White who at present are rooted at the foot of the table.

Sabden’s Roy Isherwood, Jim Maher and John Boocock winning comfortably by 23 shots to 12 on mat one but the game on mat two was a much closer affair with the result in doubt right upto the final end with Sabden getting home by 18-14.

The game of the week however was played out between Hurst Green and Clitheroe Blue. On mat one the Clitheroe triple of Jeff Cowling, Ray Black and skip Carol Sutcliffe gelled well together and after a very even start gradually asserted themselves over Hurst Green's Richard Wilkinson, Michael Flaxman and Michael Embery and ran out comfortable winners at 22-12 with Carol playing particularly well at the back - not only by drawing winning shots but also by reducing Hurst Green's count on numerous ends.

Mat two was just the opposite with Hurst Green’s Bernard Riley, Barbara Flaxman and Bernard Holden proving just too strong for Clitheroe’s Muriel Wilson, Olga Black and Bob Warburton. Amazingly, as the final ends began, the aggregate scores were 32-33 in favour of Clitheroe Blues making it a tense finale to the game. Fortunately the ‘Blues’managed a two on both mats to give them the extra two points for the overall aggregate.

Longridge Commodores had a very comfortable win over luckless West Bradford while the game between Read and Waddington Blue illustrated perfectly the importance of playing as a team. With only 20 minutes left to play, Read’s skip Gavin Ward, finding his trio 18-4 down, checked the score on the other mat only to find his team-mates 13 shots up giving an aggregate difference of just one shot!

Encouraging his team on both mats for a final effort proved the vital spark needed to pick up the required shots and win the game by 4-2.

n Results: West Bradford 0pts Longridge Commodores 6pts 15-48 (9-17, 6-31); Sabden 6pts Clitheroe White 0pts 41-26 (23-12, 18-14); Read 4pts Waddington Blue 2pts 40-29 (27-10, 13-19); Hurst Green 2pts Clitheroe Blue 4pts 32-37 (12-22, 20-15) Fixtures - Tonight: Clitheroe White v Waddington Red, Longridge Com v Read. Thursday: Clitheroe Blue v Sabden, Waddington Blue v Hurst Green.