With all the promotion, relegation and league championship issues decided last week, the South London & Kent Pool Alliance turned their attentions to the Founders Cup and the semi final stage, where league Champions, O’Connors faced bottom of the table Rileys Rovers and third bottom, Glenmore Arms A took on second placed, Rileys Woolwich.

On first glance at the score between O’Connors and Rovers you would have thought it was very much a one sided match but almost every frame could have gone either way with O’Connors ruthless in finishing their chances in the 8-0 victory.

The first frame summed this up the best, when Darren Porter was on for a break and dish against Jordan O’Connor, only to snooker himself on his final colour, which was sitting over the pocket.

Porter managed to hit the colour but somehow it stayed on the table and had it gone down he was in perfect position on the black.

Some very good tactical play ensued with Porter, at one stage controlling a pocket that had four of O’Connor’s colours around it but a foul was conceded and O’Connor cleared all four balls away from the pocket in one shot and made an excellent single visit clearance to win the frame.

The next frame was a good tactical battle between Joe Kane and Rob Hearn, which either player could have won with a little more confidence and conviction, but in the end Kane just had the edge.

Tony Gear was on for a clearance after a dry break by Ryan Francis but he ran out of position and Francis fought back.

After some good safety play, Francis was left a long diagonal red, from pocket to pocket, which he missed but the white followed through and fell in the pocket instead, giving Gear two visits on the black.

James Sheed showed why he finished second in the rankings in despatching Lee Osborn to make it 4-0 before another tactical match between Mickey Clayton and Steven Reed.

Both players seemed to be tempting the other at the end, leaving each other half chances to go for the game, which Reed eventually succumbed to, cutting his last yellow in and leaving a long difficult cut on the black, which he left over the pocket for Clayton to finish off.

Adam Coppen played a faultless frame, making it 6-0 and O’Connor quickly made it 7, leaving Gear to win it when Kevin England made a mistake and let him in.

In the other semi final, Paul Rowlinson made a great start for Glenmore Arms A, taking the first frame against Rileys Woolwich’s Tony Halpin.

Woolwich won the next two frames with Craig Mallinder and Adam Everitt in awesome form, winning the first of their three frames.

James Grant found some form to beat Clive Black and tie the match before Dean Greaney-Parr found some luck to pot his penultimate colour and finish in prime position to pot the final colour and the black and give Glenmore the first set 3-2.

Halpin got his own back on Rowlinson in the second set but Dean Coppen couldn’t do the same to Mallinder as Woolwich took the lead and Paul Williams extended it to 5-3, then James Grant won his second match of the night before Everitt made it 6-4 at the end of the second set.

Woolwich went all guns blazing in the final set, starting with their two unbeaten players, Mallinder and Everitt.

Mallinder played Dean Coppen for the third time and Coppen just couldn’t find a chink in his armour as Mallinder went three out of three to take his side to within a frame to go through to the final.

Everitt met Grant, who were both unbeaten on two frames going into this one and it was Everitt who kept his nerve and his 100% record on the night, to win the frame and send his team into the final against O’Connors.

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

The league are looking at potential sponsors, any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.