Oxfordshire clinched their place in the top flight of British darts for only the second time in their history after a thrilling last-game victory over Bedfordshire at the weeklend.

They went into their final Division 1 fixture of the Rileys British Inter-Counties Championship campaign in third place, needing victory and hoping one of the top two, Hampshire and Gwent, might falter.

In the event, Hampshire saw off bottom club Somerset easily 29-10, while Gwent pipped County Durham 19-17.

That wasn’t quite enough for the Northerners, who missed out by just a single point.

After two days of high drama at Rileys in Cowley, it all came down to the very last game of the men’s A match.

Jon Jukes knew that everything rested on his shoulders and he duly won to seal a 25-14 victory and clinch promotion for Oxon.

The last time Oxon played in the Premier Division in 2008-9, they survived only one season.

The ladies B team got them off to a flying start on Saturday by taking the first three games via Babs Manning, Kelly Dutton and Julie Newman.

Bedfordshire hit back to win the next two before lady-of-the-match Nicola Curzon made it 4-2 to the home county.

The men’s B side then put Oxon firmly in the driving seat by reeling off the first seven games thanks to Lee Russell, Olly Varney, Jon Mulley, Phil Addison, Ronnie Anderson, debutant Aaron Stevens and Stuart White.

The visitors stopped the rot by capturing the next three games before Antony Barrett and man-of-the-match Joe Palmer recorded two more home wins to put Oxon 13-5 up at the end of the first day.

Oxon’s ladies A soon found themselves 3-1 down the following day, with Linda Jones taking out a 101 finish to win her game.

Lady-of-the-match Deta Hedman then reduced the arrears before Leanne Jennings (23.19) fought back from 2-0 down to beat 16-year-old England youth player Fallon Sherrock and seal a 3-3 draw, bringing the overall score to 16-8.

Oxon were receiving rep-orts from the Gwent match throughout their A team encounter, so they knew exactly what was required against a determined Bedfordshire side.

Man-of-the-match Stuart Dutton gave Oxon off to a good start and Kevin Wilkins made it 2-0.

The next two games were lost before Preben Krabben put another precious point on the board.

Back came Bedfordshire to capture the next three, so with four games to play, Oxon had to win three of them to seal promotion.

Up stepped Pete Hall to win a close tussle, and then Ronnie Anderson, playing his second game of the weekend, put them a point away from glory.

The penultimate game went to the visitors, so it was all down to Jukes in the very last encounter of the season.

And he did not let his side down with a 115 game-shot to triumph 3-1 and sent his teammates wild with delight.