The South London & Kent Pool Alliance winter league season is now six weeks old and there are now only three teams with an unbeaten record, one in each division.

Bellegrove Social Club have hit the top of Division One, after they won the battle of the Bellegrove against Bellegrove A and the former division leaders, CSC Mr’s & Miss Q’s lost their unbeaten record against Eltham Terrace Rack Pack.

In the battle of the Bellegrove, Steve Pearce and Steve Knight were the inspiration behind Bellegrove Social Club’s narrow, 8-7 victory, both winning two of their three frames.

Before this week Rack Pack had only one victory, whereas CSC were unbeaten in five matches and the game started by going to form with CSC taking a, 3-0 lead but Rack Pack ripped up the form book, winning the next three frames to tie the match.

CSC took the seventh frame but Rack Pack equalised again, took the next frame and stayed in the lead for the rest of the match, eventually winning, 10-5.

Dan O’Rourke was the only unbeaten player, winning all three of his frames and he was supported by, Tony Frost, Graham Levingbird and Steven Heather, who all won two of their three frames, as did Steven Aldridge and Lee Bushell for CSc.

The two bottom teams, Royal Oak Addicks and Foots Cray Social Club also had only one win each before this week so playing each other this week meant that one of these records had to improve.

It was Foots Cray who doubled their victory tally for the season with a, 9-6 triumph, with Mark Pope and Jeff Hopcroft also celebrating for the victors, recording unbeaten hat-tricks for the first time.

Sixth place, North Heath Social Club picked up their third victory of the season by beating third place Glenmore Arms by 8 frames to 7.

Following on from his fortunate three out of three in the cup last week, Ian Stringer repeated that score this week but more deservedly so.

The top two in the SLKPA Premier Division, Eltham Terrace Club A and Pickwick met this week and it was Pickwick who looked like inflicting Eltham’s first defeat by taking a 5-2 lead but they lost the remaining eight frames for a 10-5 loss.

Pickwick’s Paul Gafa won two of his three frames but Eltham ended with two unbeaten players, Dan Foley with three frame wins and Dan Vowles who won both his frames with dishes from a dry break.

This result has dropped Pickwick into fourth place but Eltham have continued their unbeaten start to the season and opened up a twelve point gap over Hustlers A, who are now in second.

Hustlers won the first seven frames against Eltham Terrace Nuthouse and had the game won before the end of the second set, taking an, 8-2 lead into the final set, which Hustlers went on to take, 4-1 for an overall, 12-3 triumph.

Dave Sparey came away with some credit for the Nuthouse, winning two of his and his team’s three frames.

Hustlers finished with three unbeaten players, Joe Kane who scored a brace and Bruno Silva and Tony Gear, who went one better with three frame wins each.

Louis Wilbourne’s night went from bad to worse as he was break and dished in two of his three losses, the first by Adam Coppen, which took about a minute and the second by Kane,which took closer to an hour.

Another team winning 12-3 this week was Bellegrove, who followed up their cup triumph with their first league victory this week.

Falconwood Social were their victims, who only had Ben Creffield’s break and dish in the sixth frame to cheer about.

Tony Halpin found some form to help kickstart Bellegrove’s season and scored an unbeaten hat-trick with support from Tony Stork and Paul Williams, who both recorded two out of two.

Despite this being their first win of the season, Bellegrove are sixth in the table, twelve points ahead of their opponents at the bottom.

Eltham Terrace Rovers, who were in equal eighth with Falconwood Social played hosts to former bottom team, Crayford Social Club Rugrats.

With only three points between the teams the game was bound to be close and it lived up to that with Rugrats finishing up 8-7 victors.

Even though the score was so tight, Rugrats still had two unbeaten players, Steve Gibson and Alan Enever, both with three frame wins.

This result lifts the Rugrats off the bottom and are now just two points behind their opponents.

Another tight game was Hotshots versus Falconwood Club and it was the away team who took an early lead by 4 frames to 1, with some great finishes from Dean James and Paul Elford.

However Hotshots fought back well in a high quality match which deserved to go to seven all and send the match into a final frame decider, which Hotshots won to take the match, 8-7 and hold onto third place.

In SLKPA Division Two, Rose Inn looked like holding onto their unbeaten record this season by taking the first set, 3-2 against Bellegrove Flyers but Flyers lived up to their name and flew past Rose Inn, whitewashing the second set and winning the last, 4-1 for an overall 11-4 triumph.

Both teams were tied on 31 points going into this match but Rose Inn have a game in hand so Flyers really needed the victory by such a large margin.

Flyers have Paul Dawson and Richard Marsh to thank, not only for getting them back into the match by winning the fourth and fifth frames to pull the first set back to, 3-2 but also for taking all three of their frames and they were backed up by Alan Boltwood who won both of his frames.

Still unbeaten and top of the division by thirteen points are Sharks, after they beat Academicals by 12 frames to 3 this week.

The damage was done in the first set, which they won, 5-0 and they went onto have the game wrapped up before the end of the second set by taking it, 4-1 for an overall score line of 9-1.

Donna Mullins played a great game to win frame eleven for Academicals and Gary Mason made another superb clearance to take the next, his second of the night to give their side a, 2-0 lead in the last set, however it was all in vain, as Sharks won the final three frames.

Despite the large margin of victory, Sharks only had two unbeaten players, Kevin Dempsey and Jeff Laporte, both scoring hat-tricks.

Fox & Hounds hold onto second place with a, 9-6 victory over Greyhound Elite.

Greyhound only had four players so did well to win the second set, 3-2 to tie the match at five all but Fox used their advantage in the final set, taking it 4-1.

Bill Mossom did his best to keep his side in the match by winning all three of his frames but it wasn’t quite enough, as Neil Shelton’s hat-trick helped Fox to the victory.

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.