DEVONSHIRE Cougars, the only team among the main contenders never to have won the league, will miss the chance to take over the top spot in the Premier Division this weekend, after their Friday night match with PHC was postponed.

A win for Cougars tonight would have given them the top spot until at least Sunday evening. That match will now be played next Tuesday, by which time Cougars, presently level on 15 points with neighbours North Village, could be three points out of first place. Right now Village and Cougars are first and second in the tables - the same position they finished in the old First Division 24 years ago.

Cougars have surprised many by emerging as strong contenders in the title race at the halfway stage of the season. However, only time will tell if they can maintain their good form and improve on their best finish in the top division in 1978-79 season when they finished second to champions North Village. Back then Andre Amory's goals proved significant as Cougars enjoyed their best league season and this season they are banking on their front line of Raymond Beach, Heys Wolffe and Mark Smith to get the goals that produce the wins that could ultimately take them where they have never been before.

Beach is leading the Premier Division scorers with 11 goals while Wolffe has seven. Cougars are also the leading scorers in the division with 18 goals.

Village have the chance to gain some breathing space at the top of the tables when they take on slipping-and-sliding Somerset Trojans in the west end. The two teams drew 1-1 at Bernard Park in October, but considering their fortunes lately, the Trojans cannot afford not to take maximum points as they have been sliding down the tables and are on the brink of the relegation zone.

This is the weekend that teams are affected by the Bermuda Regiment draft, when new recruits head to Warwick Camp for two weeks which makes those involved in football ineligible on the Sunday they enter camp. Clubs are certain to be missing key players.

Devonshire Colts will be looking to bounce back from last weekend's loss to Village when they host Boulevard at White Hill in a clash between the third and fourth place teams. Boulevard, last season's First Division champions, have not looked like a team in the mood to stage another relegation fight and three more points will help them put more space between themselves and the relegation zone.

But while Boulevard are proving their critics wrong, the same cannot be said for their promotion partners, Somerset Eagles, who are now looking a strong candidate for the drop. Last weekend's loss to Cougars left them adrift at the bottom and unless they can put a couple of good results together soon, their fate will be virtually sealed come February.

Eagles' opponents on Sunday are Dandy Town, the team they managed to beat 4-2 earlier in the season in what was one of the most surprising results of the season so far. Eagles can take heart from that result, though things will be different at St. John's Field where Town are difficult to beat.

In the First Division, the race for the two promotion spots is heating up with three or four teams trying to keep leaders Hamilton Parish within their sights. Postponement of two key matches last weekend meant that Parish, without a match, did not have their six-point lead cut to three points. Struggling Social Club are their opponents on Sunday at St. David's and a week after their 9-1 thrashing at the hands of Paget, the bottom team are expected to put up too much resistence against the promotion favourites. The second match at St. David's sees the host club taking on Ireland Rangers, presently second in the tables, but with Southampton Rangers breathing down their necks who now take on St. George's who have climbed to third place. Neither team can afford to lose this one if they are to stay in the promotion race.

St. George's are scheduled to be at home but because their field is closed for the remainder of the season, they have agreed to play all their home matches at their opponents' ground which gives Rangers another 'home' match against the east enders.

The other team still with promotion aspirations, Prospect, travel to White Hill field to meet Paget in the remaining match.