But it took a big effort from Craig Ford to get City Oval over the line after a titanic battle with Mt Xavier to firm up its hold on fourth position.

Ford was City Oval's only winning skip in a finals-like encounter, but it proved enough to secure the all-important 10 points on Saturday.

Knowing it would be backing up against tearaway leader Avenue in the penultimate home-and-away round in a week, City Oval potentially had its season on the line against Mt Xavier, which is holding down second spot.

A stumble and Learmonth and Creswick had the potential to swoop.

Ford's 27-16 win made the difference, with the other three match-ups each going down to the last bowl.

Mick Fryar (City Oval) and Luke Classon (Mt Xavier) tied on 19 shots apiece, while Mt Xavier's Mick Storey and Beau Adams each took the honours by a shot - 19-18 and 25-24 respectively.

With Creswick getting over Learmonth in similar circumstances, City Oval has a 19-point cushion.

Added to this is Learmonth's testing run home against top two - Mt Xavier and Avenue.

Like City Oval, Creswick was also fortunate to take the major points despite just the one team tasting victory.

Max Capuano delivered in emphatic fashion, 34-14, and with little in the other pairings it was sufficient for the day to belong to Creswick by 11 shots at Learmonth.

Ballarat East provided the upset of the day in dramatic circumstances.

East held on for an 88-87 win over third-placed Victoria after the umpire declared that neither side had the shot on the last end of the day.

The umpire was called in to make a measure after it was too close for the thirds to decide.

Victoria skip George McBryde had the last bowl knowing one shot would be enough to share the points, and momentarily it looked like he had achieved this objective in his battle with Ian Hedger.

While the outcome did not have implications in the top- end of the competition, it caused a major reshuffle in the relegation battle.

East's third win in a row lifts it two positions to seventh - ahead of Ballarat North, Webbcona and Sebastopol, which slipped two places to the bottom after being thumped by 55 shots at the hands of Avenue.

Webbcona breathed some life into its battle to stay off the bottom with an even greater victory of 79 shots over Ballarat North.

LADDER: AVENUE 207 points, MT XAVIER 177, VICTORIA 172, CITY OVAL 166, Learmonth 147, Creswick 145, Ballarat East 114, Ballarat North 107, Webbcona 103, Sebastopol 102.