Five teams join race for SLKPA promotion
5:53pm Friday 27th January 2012 in Sport By Steve Reed
With four league games left of the South London & Kent Pool Alliance season there are just six points separating the teams from second to sixth so the battle is well and truly on to see who will join runaway leaders White Hart in the Premier Division next season.
White Hart opened up an almost insurmountable forty point lead at the top with another massive victory, this time 13-2 against Bellegrove Sharks.
Ian Cruwys, Ernie Wellhausen and Alex Thompson all won three out of three with Scott Shephard and Dan Fenech both losing one of their three frames.
It was below them where all the drama happened this week and second placed Rileys Rovers could only sit and watch it all unfold as it was their free week.
Fourth placed Glenmore Arms A met New Eltham Social Club in a lively, jovial and in places fortunate match.
New Eltham won both of the first two sets 3-2, making the score 6-4 but Glenmore won the first two frames of the final set to tie the match.
Miro Cujic won his third frame of the night to make it six in a row for him and put New Eltham back in the driver’s seat.
Mark Carrano won the penultimate frame for Glenmore forcing the final frame decider which Paul Thomas polished off with ease for his third victory of the night to give Glenmore the win 8-7.
This win put them on equal points with Rileys Rovers in second.
It was yet another late one at the Kings Arms in their tense match against Fox under the Hill.
Fox needed the win to go into second place and it looked like they were going to get there with ease after going 5-2 up but Kings Arms could also go second with a big win and staged a fight back to bring the score back to five all.
Fox’s Jamie Walkey won his third frame to go back into the lead but Clive Forrest won his second of two to tie the match again before Chris Gaunt swung the game back in Fox’s favour again.
Next up was a hard fought frame between Kings Arms Kerry Wyatt and Steve Cole which reflected the tense nature of the match as a whole.
With just a few balls left on the table Cole committed a foul which let Wyatt in to take the frame for her second of two and take the match to the decider.
Kerry had selected her dad Tom for the final frame, which proved an excellent decision as he won his second frame of the night, giving Kings Arms the 8-7 victory.
This result really tightened up the promotion race as Fox joined Rovers and Glenmore A on 96 points whereas Kings Arms are just one point behind.
Beech Tree Nuthouse showed that they don’t want to miss the promotion party by beating Glenmore Arms II 10-5 to go one point behind Kings Arms in sixth place.
Youngster Shane O’Reilly was top performer with three out of three and he was ably backed up by Paul Saxton with two out of two and Phil Handley and Stephen Frampton who both got two out of three.
In the SLKPA Premier Division Brockleians extended their lead at the top to twenty points after subjecting second placed Rileys A to their worst defeat in the league by 11 frames to 4.
Despite fielding a side of experienced players, it was a night of missed chances for the losing team, with only Tony Gear and Naftali Ayieko coming out with any credit, winning two out of three a piece.
On the other hand Rod Altes, Andre Cox and Danny Kelleher all won both their frames for the league leaders.
Rileys Woolwich capitalised on this defeat by beating Bellegrove Social Club A 9-6 to go two points behind their neighbours with O’Connors going two points behind them in fourth after an 8-7 win against Brockleians Choppers.
Erith Snooker Master 8’ers appear to be steering themselves away from relegation after their third win on the spin this week, 9-6 against Our Lady of the Rosary.
Erith won the first set 3-2 with Our Lady turning that round in the second to make the score five all but Erith took the first two frames of the final set, with Paul Williams winning his third frame of the night, as well as the last two frames to seal the victory.
The SLKPA Reserve League had two matches this week but couldn’t get a winner out of either of them as White Hart Reserves drew 6 all with Pickwick Academicals and The Crown held Royal Standard to the same score line.
For more information on the SLKPA including league tables visit our website at www.slkpa.com or contact our Secretary Paul Gafa on 07753 926291 with any queries.
The league are looking at potential sponsors, any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.
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