With both protagonists boasting perfect records for the season of five wins from five starts, something had to give in the all-Premiership clash in Wolvercote where stablemates, the Plough and the Ploughman’s Bunch! locked horns.

Buoyed by their triumph in the History Tabletop seven days earlier, the Bunch! were seeking to repeat their victory in the final match of the Winter Leagues back in April.

However, the defending Summer champs were in no mood to slacken their grip on the crown and after gaining an early advantage they managed to stave off all resistance from their game opponents, eventually prevailing 85-77.

Doubtless crestfallen, the Bunch! will have to defeat their great nemesis in the return fixture in mid-September.

That rather remote possibility nevertheless has its best chance this Thursday as the Plough visit the one other Premier Section outfit, the Royal Blenheim (Oxford City). A disappointing campaign to date, which has seen them lose out twice to sides from the lower division, the Blenheim returned to something like their old selves last week with an 89-62 thumping of the North Oxford Conservative Club (Summertown).

The latter were unlucky in running into an opposition in rejuvenated shape but whether the combined talents of the Vicar, Nick the Thespian and Geoff, the ‘Ben Stokes ‘ doppelganger, will be good enough to overturn the rampant Plough is something the Bunch! will have to get their (or the Vicar’s) rosary beads out for. Actually, do vicars have rosary beads?

‘Who *!*+^ ray’ exhorted skipper Busby, not noted for his attention to spelling, as his ‘Babes’ from the Blue Boar (Chipping Norton) sealed their first win since the opening round. Poor Captain Conway had been salivating at the prospect of his trip up the A44 and its gastronomic delights. However, his Black Swan (East Oxford) charges were walloped 83-54.

Elsewhere, the Gardener’s Arms (North Parade) suffered a surprise reversal at the hands of the Bell (Lower Heyford), going down 68-60. The Bletchingdon Nomads squeezed past the luckless White Hart (Eynsham) 72-70.

The Green Road Club (Kidlington) moved into second spot with an eye-catching 82-59 blitz of old adversaries, the Seacourt Bridge (Botley), and the Bookies have now installed them as odds on favourites for the title.

James Carr's questions

Q. Which Cole Porter song includes the lines ‘In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking’? 
Q. Who wrote the book Dr Zhivago? 
Q. Name Christopher Nolan’s 2006 mystery drama starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19th century ?
Q. Knothead and Splinter are the nephew and niece of which cartoon character? 

Answers: Anything Goes; Boris Pasternak; The Prestige; Woody Woodpecker