Sunday 30 January saw the South London & Kent Pool Alliance hold its seasonal Singles and Sudden Death competitions sponsored by Heat Technologies Ltd at Woolwich Riley’s and Tony ‘Pancake’ Halpin bagged a nice birthday present by winning the main Singles event.

28 of the best players in the SLKPA started the Singles competition hoping to walk away with the trophy and prize money and the first round draw produced some interesting ties.

Team mates Rob Chalmers (3) and Naftali Ayieko (2), Mattie Flockhart (3) and Tony Gear (2) and Jay Baker (3) and Richard Chapman (2) were all drawn together but the surprise of the round came with Joe Kane getting a 3-2 win over Adam Everitt.

There was a good show from some of our First Division players with Stephen Marsters (2) coming very close to an upset against two time champion Clive Black (3), and Danny Foley matching that score against England International Adam Coppen but the First Division flag was kept flying by Paul Williams who beat Miro Cujic 3-2.

Unfortunately that flag was lowered in the second round as Williams was beaten by Steve Krishnan 3-1.

The rest of the round had some very tasty ties with, fourth in the rankings Paul Dawson going down 3-1 to Chalmers, last year’s champion Jay Baker drawing a blank against Adam Coppen losing 3-0 and Jordan O’Connor beating team mate Gary Dixon 3-1.

The quarter final line up was Pankaj Chilkoti v Rob Chalmers, Clive Black v Joe Kane, Tony Halpin v Adam Coppen and Steve Krishnan v Jordan O’Connor.

Chilkoti came close to beating current Kent Open Champion Chalmers, taking the game by the odd frame 3-2 to face Clive Black in the semi who breezed past Joe Kane 3-0 but must be pleased with his performance on the day.

The other two quarter finals were won by the same 3-1 score line as Tony Halpin beat Adam Coppen and England Junior International Jordan O’Connor was just too strong for Krishnan.

He may have been too strong in the quarter but met ‘Pancake’ Halpin in fine form in the semi who didn’t give the youngster a look in battering him 4-0.

The other semi was a much closer and hard fought affair with it swinging one way then the other and either player could have taken it but Chalmers just edged it 4-3 over Black to meet Halpin in the final.

Chalmers took an early 2-0 lead but Halpin turned it on and levelled the score, Chalmers then restored his lead making it 3-2.

The next frames could have gone either way with both players in excellent form and not leaving the other many chances but it was Halpin who took all of the next 3 to win the final 5-3 and collect his prize from Heat Technologies Ltd Managing Director Alex Thompson.

Earlier in the day the single frame knockout, Sudden Death competition was played.

The very nature of this lends itself to a very exciting and fast paced tournament where anyone can beat anyone, which is reflected in the mixed fortunes of players across the two competitions.

None more so than the Singles Champion who went out in the first round of this competition, although it was to team mate and much fancied Clive Black so no shame there.

Other notable first round exits were Gary Dixon, going out to Tony Frost; Jordan O’Connor, beaten by Adam Everitt; Jay Baker, losing to Tony Gear; Paul Dawson, who met Rob Chalmers again; but the biggest shock came as Division One’s Glenn Bradstreet overcame the Premiership’s George Covington.

Team mates Miro Cujic and Tony Frost met in the second round with Frost the victor, while in the all first division affair Danny Foley beat Bradstreet.

The shock of the round came in another match up crossing the divisions when Stephen Marsters beat Adam Everitt to set up a quarter final tie with Frost.

The quarter finals saw Adam Coppen beat Clive Black, Frost overcame Marsters, Tony Gear was victorious over Richard Chapman and Rob Chalmers won against Danny Foley.

The first semi final went to form as Coppen triumphed over Frost and most would have expected Chalmers to meet him in the final but Gear turned that on its head to meet Coppen.

Having beaten Chalmers, Tony Gear’s great form continued to take the final against Adam Coppen and become Heat Technologies Ltd Sudden Death Champion with Managing Director, Alex Thompson on hand to present the prize.

For more information on the SLKPA including the full draw for both competitions visit our website at www.slkpa.com or contact our Secretary Paul Gafa on 07753 926291 with any queries. We are also looking at potential sponsors for the league; any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.