Last Thursday witnessed the return to league action following the festive recess and a couple of ‘Tabletop’ events.

This enforced ‘lay-off’ may have contributed to slack performances from a couple of sides in the West who were in cracking form at the end of 2013.

League leaders the Royal Sun (Begbroke) – one of only two teams boasting a 100 per cent winning record – succumbed at home to those perennial party-poopers the Eight Bells (Long Crendon), going down 73-62.

And second-placed White Hart (Eynsham) had their run of four successive victories halted in the besieged borough of Botley by those wizened old souls from the Seacourt Bridge, 72-57.

Capitalising on these misfortunes, and with possibly result of the night, the Windrush Club (Witney) travelled to Childrey to take on an in-form Hatchet outfit, and returned home with a 79-73 success. Table positions remain unaltered but the Windrush and the Seacourt are in much closer order now.

In another magnificent contest, and possibly game of the night, the pacesetters in the East, the Green Dragon (Haddenham), entertained their equivalents in the North, the Bell (Lower Heyford).

Recovering from 11 points down early doors, the home side needed to answer the last two questions correctly, and in so doing squeezed past their gallant opposition by a solitary point, 74-73.

The Bell stay top of their section as their closest challenger, the Blue Boar Bees (Chipping Norton), went down to far From The Madding Crowd ‘A’ (Oxford City), 76-67. However, after a sticky start to the campaign, Blue Boar ‘A’ bounced back in tremendous style to wallop the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade) 86-59.

The Ploughman’s Bunch! (Wolvercote) remain the only unbeaten team after six rounds. They maintained this sequence, and their stranglehold on the Premiership, courtesy of an 81-48 triumph over Chandos Arms (Oakley). Their stablemate, the Plough retained the runner’s-up berth after downing the Sun (Hook Norton) 79-53.

Results worked out well for the Green Road Club (Kidlington), trailblazer’s in the Oxford Division.

Not only did they post the highest total in thrashing the Chequers (also ‘Chippy’), 91-57, but none of their rivals managed a win. The North Oxford Conservative Club (Summertown) came from an eight-point deficit to snatch a draw at the newly-refurbished Black Swan (East Oxford).

It was a curious night. The question-master insisted on using a microphone despite there being just the usual 10 participants, and the supper presented to us was a delightful curry yet, strangely, served with lashings of bread and butter.

In addition, there were a large number of questions on the Irish and Catholicism, yet the home side, comprised almost exclusively of Irishmen and Catholics, failed to answer any of them correctly. Still, 73-73 was a fair result on what was a most enjoyable evening.

By contrast, the misery continues for the Black’s Head (Bletchingdon). A narrow 68-65 reverse to the Woodman (North Leigh) means that’s now six defeats in a row. Sharing this unenviable statistic are Far From The Madding Crowd ‘B’, as they perished 76-33 at the King’s Arms (Wheatley).