The first week of the South London & Kent Pool Alliance Winter season pitted the sister teams of Pickwick and Pickwick Academicals together, with the established Premier Division team, Pickwick showing the debutants what Premier Division pool is all about.

Pickwick showed no leniency from the very first frame, with Dean James performing a break and dish.

They went on to win the next eight frames to take a 9-0 lead and Academicals only won the tenth frame after Paul Gafa went in off on the black.

Pickwick took all their chances to finish the match with a 12-3 win, although Academicals Captain, Gary Mason showed some resistance by winning two of his team's three frames.

Last year's champions, O'Connors also started the season with a good win, 11-4 against Radical Rebels.

The match started evenly with the teams sharing the first eight frames but O'Connors showed their class in the latter half by taking all of the final seven frames.

Newly promoted Eltham Terrace Rack Pack got off to a great start against Rileys Hotshots, with Chris Unwin beating Andre Cox in the first frame and winning the next frame to take a 2-0 lead.

Hotshots went on to win the next eight frames to lead 8-2 at the end of the second set and took the final set 3-2 to make the final score 11-4.

Neil Hall scored three out of three on his SLKPA debut and he was joined by Danny Kelliher.

Eltham Terrace Club A got off to winning ways with an 8-7 victory over Foots Cray Social Club Rugrats.

In the hard fought, close match two players managed to finish unbeaten, Dan Foley for Eltham and Alan Enever for Rugrats, both finishing with a hat trick.

Shock of the night came at North Heath Social Club, where they beat last year's runners up, Bellegrove by 8 frames to 7.

The two Eltham Terrace teams that were relegated to SLKPA Division One both started this season with a win.

Eltham Terrace Nuthouse and Royal Oak Addicks were locked at five all going into the final set, which finished in a whitewash to Nuthouse, giving them a 10-5 victory.

Both Craig Jones and Lester Barrow finished on three out of three and Claire Stork impressed with two wins from her three frames, on her Nuthouse debut.

Elthaam Terrace Rovers took a 4-0 lead against Glenmore Arms A but they fought back well to reduce the gap to 6-4 by the end of the second set.

Glenmore won the first frame of the final set but Paul Dawson won his third frame of the night to restore Rovers two frame advantage.  

Tony Stevens reduced the deficit again but Kevin England and Ryan Francis, with his three out of three won the match for Rovers, 9-6.

It was a real topsy-turvy battle between Bellegrove Social Club and Fox & Hounds as each set was won 3-2, with Fox taking the first and the home side the second.

It looked like Fox were going to run away with it in the final set, winning the first two frames but Bellegrove pulled it back to two all, taking the game into a final frame decider, which Kerry Wyatt won for the Fox with her third frame victory of the night, to make the score 8-7.

There was a similar match in SLKPA Division Two between Plumstead Radical Club Rebels and Rileys Sharpshooters, whereby each set had a 3-2 score line.

It was a hard fought game between two evenly matched, strong sides, that should be competing for the title.

Rebels took the first set and Sharpshooters the second, then the scores went to 6-6 and 7-7 to send the match into a final frame shoot out.

Jack Wilson secured the match (8-7), for Rebels with his second win from three frames on his debut, with Stephen Craig and Elliot Giles also impressing on their SLKPA debuts for Sharpshooters, winning two out of three as well.

Unbeaten for the Rebels were Leighton Aston and Paul Doherty, both winning two frames.

Bellegrove A hit the ground running with a 10-5 victory over Lord Herbert.

They took the first set 4-1 but Lord Herbert got back in the game in the second set, winning it 3-2, before Bellegrove repeated the first set score in the final set.

Terry Mitchell was the only unbeaten player on the night, winning all three of his frames.

Glenmore Arms II had their best ever start to a season, with a 12-3 win over White Hart.

Jason Brunton, Patrick Melia and Steve Redout all had 100% starts to the season, with three wins out of three.

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