The Bulls will go into the Christmas break as the only team with seven wins from the opening 10 rounds of the season.
A domination of second bottom-placed Rochester on Saturday has the grand finalists of the past three seasons sitting marginally ahead of Moama Steamers on top of the ladder.
While Moama has a 6-3 win-loss record, both it and Tongala have 106 pennant points.
The Bulls lead by 1.16 per cent with four rounds of home and away competition remaining.
Only one pennant point separates the top two teams, Stanhope now sitting third on 105 points after losing its third game for the season — to fifth-ranked Echuca on Saturday.
The season will resume on January 14 when the Steamers and the Bulls meet in a new year blockbuster.
In the remaining three games the Bulls face only one other top four team — Deniliquin.
Tongala beat Rochester 14-2 (71-36), a change up in its playing personnel reaping an immediate return.
Regular skip Glenn Fields played third to Brad Tinning and alongside Steve and Barry Tinning they were 30-5 winners.
Connor Trewren was promoted to the skipping role and lost by two shots on his rink.
Matthew Liverton continued in the skipping role he took form the absent Steve Hammond last week and had a 12-shot win.
Liverton led 24-8 after he took three shots of more (four on three occasions) on five of the first 14 ends.
Despite winning only two of the final seven ends he was a 27-15 winner.
Trewren led 8-1 after six ends, but lost eight of the next nine ends and suddenly trailed by one.
The teams were square with an end to play, but the Rochester rink picked up two shots for the win.
Brad Tinning dropped only two of the opening 15 ends for a 23-2 lead, taking five shots on the 14th end as a game highlight.
He finished with shot bowl on 17 of the 21 ends and a 30-5 victory.
· Stanhope has dropped to third on the division one ladder after losing two rinks against Echuca in the penultimate round before the Christmas break.
Despite gun recruit Ben Fletcher cementing his place among the best handful of bowlers in the Campaspe Playing Area competition, Stanhope has been dethroned from the top rung of the division one ladder.
The 53-66 (2-14) defeat came after only Tim Hancock could manage a rink win and the competition’s second ranked skip, Fletcher, losing only his second game for the season.
It was almost a reverse score line from round three when Stanhope was a winner, on the way out backing up six pre-Christmas wins after finishing dead last in the top flight last year.
Stanhope does have a chance to significantly improve on its standing in the three rounds after the January 14 season restart.
It faces the three bottom teams — Rochester, Rich River and Mathoura — when competition recommences.
However, it did lose by one shot to Rochester earlier in the year.
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