With five weeks of the South London & Kent Pool Alliance Elite League still remaining the battle for the prize winning places is exciting viewing, as the top six teams are separated by just eight points and the top four by only three.

The race became so close after Eltham Terrace Club A, in fourth place beat the league leaders, Falconwood Club.

The first set went to form with Falconwood racing to a 4-0 lead but Dan Heinink prevented the whitewash with a wonderful clearance from a dry break.

A whitewash did come in the second set but it was Eltham who scored it, with Louis Wilbourne also performing a dish from a dry break, on his way to an unbeaten brace and help give his team a 6-4 lead in frames going into the final set.

The last set went to the wire but at two frames each Dayle Stork’s cue ball left the table from his break and Heinink came to the table and cleared up again to give his team the well-deserved 2-1 & 9-6 victory and record his own unbeaten hat-trick.

Falconwood’s other team, Falconwood Social had much better fortune, after last week’s heavy defeat to their sister team.

This week they had another difficult match against Glenmore Arms B, just one place above them in the table but they played some great pool to finish the night with a 3-0 & 10-5 victory.

The first and third sets were quite close and could have gone either way but Falconwood took them both by the odd frame, 3-2 however the middle set was a different story with Falconwood easing through by 4 frames to 1.

This was an extremely important result for Falconwood as it leapfrogged them over their opponents by one point into fifth.

Both Hotshots and Bellegrove in second and third respectively took advantage of the league leaders misfortune and recorded 2-1 & 9-6 triumphs.

Hotshots victory was a hard fought one against Pickwick, who can’t seem to buy a win at the moment as they lost another game after going into the final set all square at one set and five frames apiece.

After Pickwick took the first set, both Steve Krishnan and Danny Kelliher helped to steady the ship and steer Hotshots to victory by playing some great pool all night and finishing with three frame wins each.

Pickwick will be looking forward with some optimism though as they felt they played better than they have in recent weeks and that they are more beating themselves by throwing frames away than their opponents beating them.

Royal Oak Addicks should also look forward with some optimism after their performance against Bellegrove, taking a shock 3-2 lead after the first set.

Bellegrove did battle back and took the next two sets, 4-1 and 3-2 for an overall 2-1 & 9-6 win to stay on equal points with Hotshots and just one point behind the league leaders.

Addicks can be pleased with their night’s work, despite the loss as only one Bellegrove player remained unbeaten, Richie Mitchell with three frame wins and three of their players, Adam Newbrooke, Ben O’Brien and Dan Smith came away with credible two out of three performances.

Rising Sun hold onto their unbeaten record and pole position in SLKPA Tier Three after an emphatic victory over Plumstead Radical Club by 3 sets to 0 and 13 frames to 2 to increase their lead to ten points.

Crayford Social Club 2 took advantage of Rose Inn’s free week to go above them by one point after a 3-0 & 10-5 triumph over Orpington Sports Club.

A 4-1 second set victory was sandwiched between 3-2 wins in the first and third sets, with Steven Aldridge and James Coomber both taking a frame in each set.

Bellegrove Flyers ensured Foots Cray Social Club are rooted to the bottom with a 3-0 & 11-4 win over them.

Richard Marsh was the inspiration behind the victory with an unbeaten hat-trick and he was supported by, Keith Smith, Rich Sheppard and Peter Gray, who all won two of their three frames.

Sitting top of SLKPA Tier Two East are Royal Oak but they were dealt a blow this week after losing 2-1 & 9-6 to fifth placed North Heath Social Club.

Royal Oak looked like they’d be taking the points after winning the first set, 3-2 and taking the first two frames of the second set but North Heath then decided to turn up and won the next seven frames, only going down in the final frame.

Despite the loss Steve Clark remained unbeaten for the Oak and won both his frames.

After going 5-2 down North Heath turned it around well with Akar Necati, Paul Baker and Brett Crawley all winning two of their three frames but Captain, Dave Selby went one better with an unbeaten hat-trick.

Second placed Crayford Social Club Rugrats only just managed to capitalise on Royal Oak’s defeat by narrowly beating Eltham Terrace Rack Pack by 2 sets to 1 and 8 frames to 7 to reduce the gap at the top to four points.

The match was extremely close all night with Rugrats taking the first set, 3-2 but Rack Pack won the second by the same score before Rugrats took the first three frames of the final set to win the match.

Charlie Lee was impressive on his debut for Rugrats, winning two of his three frames with Adam Hewson taking all three of his, as did Rack Pack’s Dan O’Rourke for the first time this season.

There was another see-saw battle between Glenmore Arms and Bellegrove A as each set was won by 4 frames to 1.

Bellegrove took the first set but it all fell apart from there as Glenmore looked like getting the whitewash in set two but Patrick Melia won the last frame to stop the rot.

Jon Syta thought he might have taken a frame in the second set when he put Lee Dale in a snooker with the best escape covered by the black but with plenty of check side, Dale not only found his colour but potted it and landed nicely on the 8-ball, which he despatched for the frame.

Bellegrove’s misfortune continued in the final set when, at 1-0 down Steve Hughes had two visits on the black and for some unknown reason decided to try an outrageous double on the first visit, which he missed and then missed the second visit as well, handing his opponent the victory.

Glenmore went on to take the final set, 4-1 for an overall 2-1 & 9-6 triumph to go just one point behind their opponents in fourth.

There was a bottom of the table tussle in SLKPA Tier Two West, as current wooden spoon holders Greyhound Elite faced Pickwick Academicals.

Greyhound took the first set, 3-2 but Academicals fought back and won the second set by the same score to go into the final set all square.

In the final set Paul Thomas won his second out of three frames for the Academicals but Bill Mossom equalised with his hat-trick.

Dean Williams won his second frame of the night to restore Academicals lead, then Captain Donna Mullins secured her team’s victory before Chris Bracey won the final frame to give his team the 2-1 & 9-6 overall win.

As well as Williams Jenny Pearmund also scored two out of two and was Academicals player of the match.

This result leaves Greyhound virtually doomed to relegation as they are now eleven points behind Academicals and sixteen points behind Fox & Hounds, who also lost this week.

They played second placed Bellegrove Social Club and it was quite close going into the final set, with Bellegrove taking the first two by the odd frame, 3-2 but they put their foot on the gas in the final set, winning it 4-1 for an overall 3-0 & 10-5 victory.

Both Martin Hession and Tony Hodsdon won their only frames but team mate, Sam Bedingham-Pearce won all three of his to keep Bellegrove in the hunt for the championship.

Still in pole position but only by two points are Eltham Terrace Rovers after they gained revenge on Eltham Terrace Nuthouse for inflicting their only defeat so far this season.

Zoe Healy gave Nuthouse the perfect start, winning the first frame but Rovers took the next four for the set and they went on to take the second set, 3-2 which included a break and dish from Darren Porter.

Ryan Francis put Rovers one up in the final set with his hat-trick but Healy was in majestic form winning her third frame of the night to tie the set before Dave Sparey gave Nuthouse the lead.

Kevin England equalised for Rovers, taking the set into a final frame decider which the captains, Porter and Craig Jones played out, with Porter winning his third frame to give his side the 3-0 & 10-5 triumph.

Despite the loss Nuthouse remain in third, six points ahead of Fox and nine points behind Bellegrove.

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 is looking at potential sponsors; any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.