SURPRISE Western Premier Division pace-settters Dumfries tasted their first defeat yesterday as Uddingston lived up to their billing as one of the title favourites.

The Lanarkshire side posted 189-8 in a match reduced to 40 overs-a-side at Nunholm, with their effort based around a composed 80 from Sri Lankan professional Ras Priyadarshana.

Dumfries may have fancied their chances of reaching a revised D/L target of 182, but visiting captain Calum MacLeod proved the match-winner, claiming 4-33 as the hosts fell 25 runs short.

Meanwhile, West of Scotland and Greenock battled through 31 hard-fought overs at Hamilton Crescent before rain forced a long delay. Having opted to bat first, Greenock were indebted to Sailesh Prabhu's 47 as they moved to 89-4.

However, West's John Blain gave his side the edge with a superb eight-over spell during which he claimed 3-8.

On the resumption Greenock skipper Ryan Begley hoisted his side's tally to 135-8 with an unbeaten 41.

However, set a revised target of 163, West cruised home thanks to 66 from teenager Andrew Umeed and Greg Watson's 55.

Carlton showed the resilience of champions to kick-start their Eastern Premier Division campaign with victory over Aberdeenshire at Grange Loan.

Last season's SNCL winners looked up against it when they were dismissed for just 138, but fought back superbly to triumph by 74 runs. In an astonishing collapse the visitors lost their last six wickets for just 13 runs.

John Hutton and Omar Ahmad were Carlton's bowling heroes, both of them taking two wickets in two balls to spark disarray in the Aberdeenshire ranks.

Earlier, Umair Mohammed had top-scored for the home side with 33 while skipper Fraser Watts contributed 22.

Elsewhere, Stuart Chalmers led from the front as Watsonians maintained their 100% record with victory over Stoneywood-Dyce at Peoples Park. The skipper scored 88 of his side's 214-6, then claimed three wickets as Stoneywood were bundled out for just 94.

David Ross and Qasim Ashraf both scored a half-centuries as Heriot's made 228-8 against Forfarshire at Forthill, while the home side's reply was halted 36 runs short of victory at 193.

Finally, Grange made it a clean sweep for capital clubs against sides from the north-east with a win at Arbroath.