Hotshots hand Rileys Woolwich SLKPA Premier Division title (From News Shopper)

Hotshots hand Rileys Woolwich SLKPA Premier Division title

12:07pm Saturday 23rd March 2013 in Sport By Steve Reed

In the exciting finale to the South London & Kent Pool Alliance league season Rileys Woolwich managed to win the Premier Division title without picking up a cue as their closest rivals Rileys Hotshots suffered a shock defeat to O'Connors.
It was a quick fire match with plenty of attacking pool and the odd fudge frame thrown in of course, played in a strange atmosphere due to the intensity of the match.
Hotshots started brightly, as expected going 3-0 ahead but Joe Kane and Adam Coppen pulled it back to 3-2 for O'Connors before Andre Cox made a precise clearance to make it 4-2 and secure second spot for Hotshots.
They were looking good at this point and set for the title but O'Connors rattled in three straight frames to go 5-4 ahead before Danny Kelliher tied the match.
At this point the mistakes started to creep in and the pressure began to show as Hotshots had many chances to close out frames but all of them slipped away in the final set as Tony Gear, Jordan O'Connor, Michael Clayton, Adam Coppen and Joe Kane all beat their opposite numbers to secure the victory by 10 frames to 5 and hand Rileys Woolwich the league title.
After struggling for players Bellegrove Social Club A produced an outstanding performance to beat Foots Cray Social Club 11-4.
The result never really looked in any doubt as Bellegrove won each set 4-1, 3-2, 4-1 to      finish the season in style with Shane Hutley, Stephen Pearce and Ron Brown all scoring three out of three.
Foots Cray will now face Rileys Rovers who finished second in the SLKPA first division in the Premier v Division One play off.
Rovers finished the season well with a 9-6 victory over Fox under the Hill B but the most interesting battle of the night was that between Darren Porter and Ryan Francis who are first and second in the division's rankings respectively.
They both won their frames in the first two sets then Porter lost the first frame of the third set which meant that Francis could overtake him if he won.
Francis looked to be doing that as the break and dish was on but he hung his penultimate colour over the pocket allowing Tom Wyatt to claw himself back into the frame with some good safety play.
Francis got down to the black but gave away two visits which Wyatt used to full advantage clearing his final three colours leaving a table length double on the black that he despatched with ease meaning Francis had to settle for second in the rankings.
Sandwiched between the third set battle was an excellent '7-baller' from Kevin England while Clive Forrest won both of his frames for Fox.
Bellegrove Social Club B put themselves ten points ahead of Fox after an 8-7 win over bottom club Glenmore Arms II with Dan Brown recording three frame wins.
After securing the division title last week Glenmore Arms A took their foot off the gas a little this week but still got a win by the narrowest of margins 8-7 against New Eltham Social Club.
Alan Enever kicked off proceedings for Glenmore winning his only frame of the night and Glenmore went on to win the first set 3-2 but New Eltham won five of the next six frames including two out of two for Jim Woodbridge to go 7-4 up.
Glenmore hadn't given up though and won the final four frames for the match.
The only match in Division Two had already crowned champions Rileys Rebels looking to finish on a high but North Heath Social Club were having none of it and eventually won 8-7 in what turned out to be a very close game.
Rebels raced to an early 4-1 lead but North Heath battled hard and found themselves at 7 a piece and still in the match going in to the final frame.
Rebels pinned their hopes on youngster Alex Biggs who got to the black but refused the natural pot due to an in off but missed the more difficult option bringing Simon Morris to the table nerves a jangling but he potted his last yellow and came round the angles to finish nicely on the black for the match.
Trevor Biggs and Ian Stringer had their own mini battle which Stringer won 2-1 and Dave Selby pulled out some unbelievable shots to win all three of his frames, two of which from a position where he looked dead and buried.
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.