Peterborough Milton moved two points clear at the top of the standings after recording a 6-2 home victory over Staverton Park.
The reigning champions rarely looked in danger of losing the match after James Walters (6&5) and Dominic Ralfs (3&2) collected a couple of early points.
Although David Walshe (one hole) and Miles Mudge (5&4) got the visitors on the scoreboard, Josh Scimeca (two holes) and Richard Cole (3&2) quickly restored Peterborough’s cushion.
Phil Hughes (both 3&2) and Tom Burgh (3&1) were also successful for Milton, whose last two games are at home to closest rivals Wellingborough and Northants County, who meet this weekend.
County go into that clash in confident mood after defeating Overstone Park 5-3 at home at the start of last week.
Despite convincing wins for Paul Harris (8&7), Tom Bullough (6&4) and Tony Lord (4&3), the hosts were made to battle for their victory as Matthew Myers won on the 17th and two games were halved.
Richard Dalton and Harry Woan were successful for Overstone, who face two huge matches with fellow strugglers Staverton Park in their bid to avoid the drop.
Division two leaders Northampton maintained their unbeaten run with a gritty 4-4 stalemate at Kingsthorpe, who have now drawn half their six matches this year.
Kingsthorpe looked set for victory at the half way stage after Gavin Hitchcock, Steve Jackson, Jason and Kris Spence took the first four ties, but Northampton responded with wins for Lloyd Skidmore and Simon Brown.
With Dom Jessup in control of the final game, Northampton team-mate Alex Izzard made sure of the draw by winning the 18th hole against Mark Bazeley.
Kettering’s hopes of staying in the second tier rest on a knife edge after they slumped to a 7-1 reverse at Rushden, who leapfrog above at the bottom of the table.
Despite being without a victory, Rushden made a good start as Nick Statham took the opener on the 14th hole before Jeremy Smith (3&1), Steve Alexander (2&1) and Chris Adams (4&2) added more points.
With Ian Dickerson, Lewis Miller and Simon Cox strolling to big home wins at the tail, the visitors feared a whitewash defeat. But James Northern prevented that with a narrow win against Chris Ward.
Farthingstone and Brampton Heath will battle it out for top spot in the third section after both teams recorded positive away results at the weekend.
Brampton Heath stay top of the pile after securing a 4-4 draw at Whittlebury Park, thanks to points from Alec Francis, David Gottsch, Fraser Carnihan and Jack Brown.
Farthingstone remain on their curtails after an excellent one-point success at Cold Ashby maintained their unbeaten start to the season.
Barry Jones and Jon Redley took the opening ties against lower handicappers, Ian Donald halved, before brothers Matt and Paul Hodgkiss sealed the Farthingstone victory with wins in the final two ties.
Oundle sealed promotion to division three in quick time away to Daventry as they took five of the opening six ties in a comfortable win.
Dean Montgomery (2&1), Sean Turner (6&5), David Young (4&3) and Steve Oldham (3&2) guaranteed at least a draw for Oundle, before Luke Wyatt confirmed top spot in the table with a 4&2 success.
Daventry, who will probably have to beat Cherwell Edge in the last home outing to avoid the wooden spoon, collected points from Kevin Tarbox, Craig Wyatt and Chris Eveleigh.