Cocked Hats closing the gap

This week third placed, The Cocked Hats hosted bottom team, Bears, and came away with a, 10-5 triumph. 

This leaves Bears eleven points adrift at the bottom of the table, whereas Cocked Hats are now just six points behind Sharks in second, after they were narrowly beaten this week. 

Sharks travelled to Bellegrove and they came out of the blocks quicker with a break and dish from Rahat Munim. 

This was quickly followed by Vu Son winning frame two and they should have been three up, but for an in off on the black in the third frame. 

Peter Whyte and Dan Heinink took the next two frames to give Bellegrove a, 3-2 lead. 

Sharks won three of the next four frames to retake the lead, 5-4 but a break and dish from Heinink levelled the match at, 5-5 going into the final set. 

Richie Mitchell won his second of two frames to put Sharks one ahead, but Tony Halpin, with a little bit of fortune tied the match again. 

Paul Cook and Dec Kelly were having their own personal battle, with Cook edging it, 2-1 to put Sharks ahead once again. 

Home skipper, Barry Barham played his first frame of the night in the penultimate frame and broke dished to level at 7-7, sending the match into a final frame decider. 

After an in off for the away side, Heinink stepped up to finish well, complete his hat-trick and win the match for the Bellegrove, 8-7. 

Bellegrove stay in fourth, but are now within ten points of Sharks, who have a game in hand over the teams around them. 

Sharks are now eleven points behind league leaders, Hotshots after their comprehensive win over Rugrats. 

Rugrats only had three players against Hotshots, and you can’t afford to do that against the unbeaten, top of the table team. 

Rugrats started by handing their opponents the first two frames, but Steve Gibson won the first frame played with a break and dish to bring it back to, 2-1. 

However, Richard Chapman and Danny Kelliher won the last two frames of the set to give Hotshots a, 4-1 lead going into the second. 

There were no heroics from the Rugrats three in this set, with all five frames, including the two byes going to Hotshots to make the overall score, 9-1 sealing the inevitable win before the start of the final set. 

Again, Rugrats decided to give their opponents the first two frames of the set, which made it nine in a row for them, including four byes and Ryan Francis made it ten on the spin with frame thirteen. 

This made it, 12-1 to Hotshots, but Rugrats were not lying down, as Aaron Shephard and Gibson with another break and dish, won the last two frames to make the final score 12-3. 

Rugrats paid the price for their lack of players, as the score of the frames played was only, 6-3 and Shephard was unfortunate not to win all three instead of one, and Liam Firth was unlucky not to pick up a frame on his debut. 

Despite the large margin of victory, Hotshots showed they are not invincible, as the only unbeaten players were Tony Wilson, whose hat-trick included one bye, and Neil Hall whose three frame wins were all byes, meaning Chapman Kelliher and Francis all dropped frames. 

Rugrats were in fifth, but Pickwick have leapfrogged them after a hard-fought triumph over second bottom Eltham Terrace Nuthouse. 

Nuthouse got off to a great start with Shane Hutley and Louis Wilbourne winning the opening two frames. 

Jamie Davis pulled one back for Pickwick, then Trevor Biggs restored Nuthouse’s two frame advantage, before Mike Werbowy won frame five to finish the first set at, 3-2 to Nuthouse. 

Werbowy made it a personal two in a row and Paul Gafa made it three on the bounce for Pickwick to put them in the lead for the first time in the match, 4-3. 

Paul Doherty tied the match, but Paul Slater and Martin Storey gave Pickwick the set, 4-1 and put them, 6-4 up in the match. 

Doherty made it two out of two to bring Nuthouse back to within a frame however, Gafa put Pickwick on the hill and Werbowy secured the win, with his hat-trick.

This meant that Pickwick had only dropped two frames between five and thirteen, both to Doherty and this proved to be the difference between the two sides.  

The last two frames were shared making the final score, 9-6 in Pickwick’s favour. 

This match was littered with mistakes and very little fluent pool was played, which suited the Pickwick more than the Nuthouse.

This was shown in the fact there was only two unbeaten players, Doherty with two wins for Nuthouse and three out of three for the Pickwick’s Werbowy. 

Pickwick are now five points ahead of Rugrats and ten points in front of Nuthouse, three places below them. 

Bull Tavern have suffered after not playing this week, dropping two places into seventh, but they do have a game in hand over those around them.

One of the biggest shocks of the week came in the SLKPA first division, as bottom team New Eltham New Boys beat promotion chasing Bellegrove A, 9-6. 

This was only New Boys third victory of the season, whereas Bellegrove stay in third, ten points behind New Boys sister side, New Eltham New Stars. 

Dave Jandu was the inspiration behind their narrow, 8-7 triumph over Fox & Hounds after winning all three of his frames. 

Despite the loss, Fox lift themselves above Eltham Terrace Rack Pack by one point, after they were beaten by top of the table Falconwood Club. 

Falconwood went into a, 3-1 lead before Adam Watts broke and dished for Rack Pack in frame five. 

The next two frames were shared to give Falconwood a, 4-3 lead, they then run off four frames in a row to lead 8-3 and seal the victory. 

The last four frames of the evening were shared for a final score of, 10-5 which flattered, with many players on both sides spurning opportunities to win frames.

Falconwood have now scored more than 100 points, 106 and are twelve points ahead of New Stars in second, whereas Rack Pack are only six points ahead of New Boys at the bottom. 

There was another shock in SLKPA Division Two, as second from bottom, Happy Hustlers defeated Academicals, who were 27 points ahead, by 9 frames to 6.

Hustlers have increased their lead over Bexleyheath Working Men’s Club at the bottom to 25 points, after they were thrashed by the league leaders, Duke of Northumberland, 14-1. 

This has increased Duke’s stronghold on pole position to 24 points, as Bellegrove Flyers, in second beat Farmhouse, 9-6. 

With four games to go in this division it appears that all the positions are already decided, as there are so many points between each team however, you never know what might happen. 

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 or secretary@slkpa.com with any queries.

The league is always looking at potential sponsors and any interested parties can also contact Paul Gafa.