Rovers rip up form book

The biggest shock came at Eltham Terrace where Rovers, sitting in seventh, faced the form team of the division, Hustlers A, who are currently second.

In the corresponding fixture Hustlers demolished Rovers, 12-3 and this match looked to be continuing in that vain with Hustlers taking the first two frames but Ryan Francis pulled one back for Rovers before Jordan O’Connor secured the set for Hustlers.

Chris Hobbis again reduced the deficit to one frame, with Hustlers taking a, 3-2 lead into the second set, which soon became, 6-2 as they won the first three frames of the set.

Captain, Darren Porter won another for Rovers but Joe Kane made it, 7-3 to Hustlers and they only needed one frame for victory but that didn’t happen, as Rovers whitewashed the final set, 5-0 including a break and dish from Francis, to give them the unexpected 8-7 triumph.

This victory puts Rovers six points above the relegation play-off and seven points clear of relegation with just two games left to play.

Just below them, Falconwood Social have leapfrogged Eltham Terrace Nuthouse into the play-off place after their own surprise victory against their sister side, Falconwood Club.

Falconwood Club were five places ahead of Falconwood Social and this showed in the first set, with the higher placed team taking a 4-1 lead but Falconwood Social followed up their first set whitewash of the season with another in the second set this week to go, 6-4 up.

Social gratefully held on in the tight final set to gain a much needed, 8-7 victory.

With the players knowing each other so well the match was always going to be close and there was only one unbeaten player, Steve Dixon winning all three frames for Social.

Falconwood Club were fourth but they have dropped out of the prizes after Hotshots inflicted a huge win over Eltham Terrace Nuthouse.

Hotshots won the first two frames but Nuthouse levelled the match at two all before Hotshots nicked the last frame of the set to take it, 3-2.

You can hardly say the second and third set were nicked though, as Hotshots took them both by 4 frames to 1, for an overall, 11-4 victory.

The only winners for Nuthouse were Craig Jones and Louis Wilbourne, who both scored two out of three, as did Danny Kelliher and Neil Hall for Hotshots but Tony Wilson and Richard Chapman both went one better with unbeaten hat-tricks.

This result had an effect at both ends of the table, with Hotshots overtaking Falconwood Club to go fourth and Falconwood Social went above Nuthouse, both by one point.

The only winners in the top four were Pickwick, who nudged Crayford Social Club Rugrats a step closer to relegation, as they are now 21 points away from safety at the bottom.

Despite there being seven places between the two teams, the actual score was quite close, with each set being won, 3-2 but unfortunately for Rugrats it was Pickwick who won each set for a 9-6 triumph.

Rugrats Captain, Scott Shephard led from the front with a superb three out of three display, it was just a shame his team couldn’t follow him.

Pickwick’s Mark Brinkley kept up his challenge for the Premier Division’s top ranked player by winning all three of his frames and Paul Slater recorded a wonderful break and dish in the penultimate frame.

This win puts Pickwick four points ahead of Hotshots and eight points behind Hustlers to make the battle for the end of season prizes even closer.

This battle has been made even more interesting with the league leaders, Eltham Terrace Club A going down to sixth place Bellegrove.

The first set went to Terrace, 3-2 although Bellegrove’s Paul Williams performed a break and dish but Bellegrove battled back in the second taking it, 4-1 with Terrace’s one coming from a break and dish by Dave Rawlinson.

Bellegrove went into the final set, 6-4 up and they went on to take it, 3-2 to beat the league leaders by 9 frames to 6.

Terrace now take an eight point lead at the top into next week’s break for the Founders Cup.

In the League Cup Group A, the two winners from last week and the two losers played each other.

The gulf between the first and second division was apparent in the match between North Heath Social Club and Plumstead Radical Club, with North Heath running away with a, 13-2 victory.

It was a very different story in the other match, as Division Two champions, Sharks comprehensively beat Eltham Terrace Rack Pack, who finished in Division One’s promotion play-off place.

The writing was on the wall as Sharks won the first four frames and it was only Captain, Steve Unwin who prevented the whitewash.

Sharks extended their lead to, 6-1 with the first two frames of the second set but Tony Frost and Graham Levingbird levelled the set before Jeff La Porte secured the set for Sharks.

Unwin may have stopped the whitewash in the first set but no one was able to do it in the third, giving Sharks the, 12-3 triumph.

La Porte went on to win all three of his frames along with the man who beat him in the recent Lower Division Singles final, Chris Mackenzie with Tony Bailey joining them.

This win has made Sharks favourites to go through to the knockout stage from this group and they are likely to play fellow promotion winners from Division Two, Fox & Hounds who went top of Group B with their second League Cup victory.

It almost didn’t happen though, as Bellegrove A won the first two sets, 3-2 to go into the final set, 6-4 up but Fox fought hard and won the first four frames of the final set to secure the victory, before Bellegrove won the last frame, making the final score, 8-7 to Fox.

There was only one unbeaten player on the night, Fox’s Tom Wyatt scoring a brace.

Bellegrove are five points behind Fox in the table and they were joined by Rose Inn on sixteen points, after they beat Royal Oak Addicks, 10-5 this week.

Rose Inn looked to be running away with it after they won the first two sets, 4-1 but despite already losing the match, Addicks battled back and won the last set, 3-2.

None battled harder than Stewart Ahern, who won both of his frames but Dean Greaney-Parr and Peter Reynolds went one better for Rose with three frame wins each.

Group C is turning out to be the group of death, as three of the four teams are all on the same points.

Bellegrove Flyers are top by virtue of winning both their games so far, after they narrowly beat CSC Mr’s & Miss Q’s, 8-7 this week.

CSC are joint second with Glenmore Arms as they have exactly the same record following Glenmore’s remarkable victory against Academicals.

I say remarkable because they only had four players and each one of them scored a victory in the first set to give them a, 4-1 lead.

They went on to take the second set by 3 frames to 2 and only needed one frame to win the match, which they achieved in the eleventh frame when Lewis Hearn won his third frame of the night.

Academicals took the final set, 3-2 but Glenmore won the match by 9 frames to 6 to keep their chances of progressing to the knockout stage alive.

Glenmore face CSC in the final group match and for either team to progress they will have to beat Flyers score against Academicals, otherwise Flyers go through.

Bellegrove Social Club have set up a winner takes all match against Foots Cray Social Club in the final Group D match, after they matched Foots Cray’s, 14-1 score against Greyhound Elite.

This was a massive mismatch as Bellegrove finished top of Division One in the league season and Greyhound bottom of Division Two but Bellegrove still performed extremely well with the first division’s top ranked player, Dave Jandu being joined by Steve Pearce, Jason Brunton and Steve Knight in winning all three of their frames.

For more information on the SLKPA including league tables visit our website at www.slkpa.com or contact our Secretary, Paul Gafa on 07443 456662 with any queries.

The league is looking at potential sponsors; any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.