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MADRID, Spain -- Simon Dyson of England, Carlos Rodiles of Spain and Gregory Bourdy of France shared the lead Saturday at the $2.75 million Spanish Open when darkness suspended play in the third round.

The players were at 9 under, with Bourdy and Rodiles having finished four holes and Dyson five.

Earlier Saturday, Rodiles shot a 6-under 66 at the Centro Nacional de Golf course to join Bourdy (69) and Stuart Little of England (69) as co-leaders after the completion of the rain-delayed second round.

Little started the third round 1 over through four holes to drop into a seven-way tie for fifth place.

The Spanish Open is headed into a marathon last day after another two hours were lost to a thunderstorm on Saturday evening. But at least the leaders don't have to worry about the two biggest names in the starting line-up.

Darren Clarke's disappointing season continued when he missed the cut for the fourth event in a row -- one in Asia, two in America and now one in Europe.

Ian Woosnam, meanwhile, pulled out after only four holes of his rain-delayed second round suffering from cramp in both his legs. He could not play at all in the Masters at Augusta earlier this month and will see a specialist in London on Monday.

For the third day running, play went on until around 9:00 p.m. because of the earlier delays. And just before the action was halted, Dyson had his third birdie in five holes to make it a three-way tie at the top.

They are one ahead of Nick Dougherty, but left-hander Little, who shared the halfway lead with Rodiles and Bourdy, bogeyed the fourth to fall into the group two behind.

Most of Thursday's play was lost and then Friday's action was interrupted as well. At least the forecast for Sunday is better.

Even in an event boasting just one of the world's top 50 -- defending champion Niclas Fasth -- Clarke failed to make it past the halfway mark following rounds of 75 and 71. The Ulsterman needed a birdie at the last to survive on level par, but instead bogeyed it.

Clarke was not helped by a recurrence of a hamstring strain he suffered recently playing football with his younger son Conor. The Ryder Cup star is already down to 69th in the world rankings and is now likely to fall even more.

Woosnam was 3 over at the time of his withdrawal.

"I can't walk properly and if you can't play if you can't walk," said Woosnam, who has yet to make a penny this year after his season began with missed cuts in Thailand, Singapore and China.

"I just can't get rid of it -- it's been a long time now. Just walking to the practice ground I'm knackered, and after hitting 20 balls I am out of breath," he explained. "It's like cramp and I keep going into spasm. I feel like I've got to go flat out just to swing and I'm not going to play again until I feel better."

Rodiles and Bourdy have both come close to tasting victory in the past, but each of them has had to go back to the qualifying school in the last two years.

Bourdy was third in the South Airways Open at the end of 2005 -- Retief Goosen and Ernie Els were first and second, so that was no disgrace -- while Rodiles lost a playoff to Fredrik Jacobson for the Volvo Masters in 2003 and has two other second places to his name.

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