With a convincing and wholly unflattering 79-67 scoreline, the Green Road Club (Kidlington) pulled off the result of the night last Thursday as they recorded their first win over Premiership opponents, the Royal Blenheim (Oxford City).

A gruelling opening to their fixtures has seen them pitted against all the three top-flight contenders plus a visit to Section One leaders, the Royal Sun (Begbroke), a fortnight ago.

To emerge from this testing period with two wins and a draw deserves tremendous credit and with a far less onerous schedule going forward, the Green Road will doubtless finish much higher than the fourth position they currently occupy.

There has been a notable absence of culinary reports of late, but skipper Beth of the Ploughman’s Bunch! (Wolvercote) was gushing with praise for the homemade tartare sauce accompanying the fish and chips she and her charges were served up at the conclusion of hostilities with the Royal Sun.

This delightful addition rounded off a trip which left them returning down the A44 with an 81-63 win in their bag. Their hosts never recovered from a shaky start, losing the first round 14-2, and though the contest was pretty even after, the damage had been done.

A mess-up in transport arrangements, allied to poor communication, meant that the North Oxford Conservative Club were two players light for their encounter in Eynsham with the White Hart.

It helped a little that the home side were also short a body but it was nevertheless a great effort by the ‘Summertown Three’ to land a 70-59 win and thereby inflict a fourth defeat of the season on their opposition.

This was the Con Club’s first foray to the White Hart for some time but the new tenants (new to us anyway) were marvellous and the food and beverages first rate.

The Black Swan (East Oxford) experienced their first taste of success in this campaign following a demolition job on the Bell (Lower Heyford). Captain Conway’s Crown Street crew bounced back from some absolute maulings to dole out one of their own, 71-47. The Bell has put in some spirited performances on their return to summer quizzing but this was by far their most lacklustre.

‘Busby’s Babes’, aka the Blue Boar (Chipping Norton), suffered a narrow reverse as they lost 69-74 to the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade). For the victors, they now lie third in Division One, one point behind pacesetters the Royal Sun, but with a game in hand.

Concluding last week’s round-up, the Bletchingdon Nomads battled gamely against the Plough (Wolvercote) and actually had the audacity to tie 27-27 prior to the picture round. That was as good as it got, however, and they eventually went down 81-65.

JAMES CARR'S QUESTIONS

1. Who became the first Asian ever to captain Manchester United when he took the armband from Ryan Giggs as he replaced him during a Champions League home group match against Lille in October 2005?
2. Which David Bowie hit record includes the lines Let the children lose it, Let the
children use it, Let all the children boogie?
3. What was the name of the Roman road that linked Exeter to Lincoln, via Ilchester, Bath, Cirencester and Leicester?

1 Park Ji-Sung; 2 Starman, 3 The Fosse Way.