Whilst I might be tempting fate, and potentially attracting a fair amount of ridicule, last Thursday’s victories for the Six Bells (Headington) over the spirited Chequers (Chipping Norton), 73-64, and the Chester Arms (Oxford) by a solitary point (78-77) in a titanic battle with the Hatchet (Childrey), may well have turned the quest for the Premier Section crown into a two-horse race.

Their clash on March 15 could well prove to be the title decider.

Equally intriguing, in the North Division, three teams are set to take the outcome of that championship down to the wire. The Blue Boar’s (Chipping Norton) battering of frontrunners, the Rock of Gibraltar (Enslow Bridge), 76-54, resulted in these two exchanging places, while the Crown (Church Enstone) remain just tucked behind in third after downing the Sun (Hook Norton), 69-62.

Perhaps the result of the night was the Black’s Head (Bletchingdon) prevailing over the Windrush Club, 71- 64. A little prematurely perhaps, I had hinted last week that the West Division honours rested between the Witney side and local rivals, the White Hart (Eynsham).

However, this triumph for the Black’s Head just nudges them into contention although, realistically, they are going to have to win four of their remaining five fixtures. Taking advantage of the Windrush’s slip-up, the White Hart regained top spot after edging out the Woodman (North Leigh) in a nailbiter, 67-66. The Highwayman (Kidlington) remain bottom after defeat, 70-52, at the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade).

In the other two divisions the destinations of the league winners’ trophies seem virtually settled. In the East, the Green Dragon (Haddenham) arrested a run of three straight defeats, and posted their first success of 2012, in knocking over the Chandos Arms (Oakley), 79-62. Both their nearest challengers, the King’s Arms (Wheatley) and the Eight Bells (Long Crendon) also won, but they may be running out of games to peg back the four-point deficit.

The King’s Arms overcame a North Oxford Con Club outfit whose last question failure to identify Una Stubbs as the actress playing Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper on telly, proved fatal in going down 67-69. Meanwhile, the Eight Bells accounted for the strangely-unpredictable Royal Sun (Begbroke), 62-53.

In the Oxford Division, the Green Road Club (Kidlington) were rewarded for their arduous trek to Ashendon with an emphatic 72-46 mauling of the Gatehanger’s Inn, and thereby opening up a five- point lead on their closest challengers. This remains the Black Swan (East Oxford) despite an ignominious home reversal to the Seacourt Bridge (Botley), 71-54.

Completing the round-up, the Plough (Wolvercote) dispatched the Bell (Grove) 76-70, thus warming up nicely as they go in search, this Thursday, of their fourth-consecutive tabletop win, this time in the Mary English Memorial Trophy. This cup is dedicated to the memory of a previous landlady of the Grandpont Arms who, together with her husband Pat, was a staunch supporter of the Quiz Leagues, but sadly passed away a few years ago.