The fat lady may not have started singing yet, but she is warming up the vocal chords, after JT/Fox Oxford Cheetahs stretched their unbeaten run at Sandy Lane to 16 meetings against Peterborough last night to maintain their superiority at the top of the league.

Now Cheetahs have nine meetings left to get the few odd points they need to make certain of the Sky Sports Elite League title.

Trouble is, only two of them will be at home, and they have to hit the road to meet Belle Vue, Ipswich twice, Poole, Peterborough, Coventry and Eastbourne.

Looking at the chances of picking up bonus points on their travels, the A fixture against Ipswich looks remote unless they can win, for the Witches went down by only two points here. The B fixture was totally different, with Cheetahs winning by 59-31 and having a cushion of 28 points.

They will have 17 points in hand when they travel to meet Belle Vue and only two when they take on Poole, so we are talking about a two possible points in the bag.

There was much to admire about the vital win over Poole last Friday, not least the superb performance of Craig Boyce, who did a brilliant job coming as guest for the injured Lukas Dryml.

I must admit it's time for me to eat humble pie as I told promoter Vanessa Purchase they would probably be better off continuing to use rider-replacement for Dryml.

Andrew Appleton may have only scored five points, but it was the same as Todd Wiltshire and more than Steve Johnston or Ales Dryml, who ended the meeting at the JR. That nap hand turned out to be very precious in the end with Cheetahs scrambling home by two points.

And what a sight it was to see Brian 'The Axeman' Andersen celebrating after his great win over Grand Prix leader Tony Rickardsson.

Andersen said: "I had noticed Tony locking up at the second bend earlier. I was well placed when he did it again and I was able to shoot through and stay there.

"I don't think we would have won with rider-replacement though, because not everybody was firing well on the night."

An exhausted joint team manager Colin Meredith said: "That was heart-attack material, but what a brilliant meeting. I knew the lads could pull it off and Boycie did it for us, just like I knew he would."

Boyce, who picked up the rider of the night award, said: "I have had plenty of stick from the fans over the years, but this should settle a few scores."