Simple Query intermittently returning 0 results I'm having a strange problem and need help troubleshooting.

if I run this query on my gallery table:

SELECT   * 
FROM     `gallery` 
WHERE    awarded = 1 
ORDER BY awarded_date DESC LIMIT 29 OFFSET 0


it works perfectly, but then randomly return 0 results, for a few seconds and then continues working. 

I could be wrong but i think i have narrowed the problem down to the 'awarded' column, as other queries of the same database seem to work without this issue.

the awarded column is an int with value 1 or 0 

any thoughts on what could be causing this? 

Thanks.
Improve the situation by adding a composite index:

INDEX(awarded, awarded_date)


Is there some other process that is doing bulk changes to awarded?  Perhaps not transaction-safe?