For the third week in a row, the disappointment I felt due to a defeat for the county was last night once again assuaged somewhat by the discovery that I’d made another leap up the charts in the prediction mini-league. With two rounds to go, I’m now in second spot, only a short distance back from new leader, Garrymore’s Enda McGearty.

Enda sent last week’s leader Devel spinning down to fourth as he climbed from third last week to the top of the tree now while Shane Prendergast has slipped back to third. There’s now a fair bit of daylight between the two of us at the top and everyone else below with Enda enjoying a 15-point lead over me as we start the turn into the home straight. But as we do, we’d all be well advised to keep an eye on Gaels Man who has stormed up the table from 11th to fifth and now undoubtedly has his eyes on the summit itself.

There’s still two weeks of predictions to go and so, as I know from bitter experience in the past, there’s more than enough time left in which to make a complete hames of things. As a result, it’s perfectly possible that the leaderboard will undergo another bout of convulsive upheaval before the winner is unveiled after Round 7 on April 8th.

Here’s how things stand after Round 6: