Although the rest of the South London & Kent Pool Alliance Division One have a game left to play, Rose Inn have played their last and have opened up an unassailable 22-point lead at the top to end the season as champions. 

This week they played Eltham Terrace Rack Pack, winning by 10 frames to 5 for their fourteenth victory of the season, losing only two in the process. 

Steve Heather did his utmost for Rack Pack, winning three of his team’s five frames, but there was little help coming from his team mates. 

On the other hand, Leighton Aston also won all three of his frames for Rose Inn, which included a break and dish in the final set, but his team mates had the incentive of the championship to push them past the winning post. 

Rack Pack are still lying in fourth, nine points behind Crayford Arms, who didn’t play this week, so there is still a chance they could steal the promotion play-off place, although they are both facing teams from Bellegrove, who are fighting against relegation. 

CSC Sorry in Advance pulled themselves out of the relegation play-off place with a much-needed win against Bellegrove A, who were one point ahead of their opponents. 

 Despite only having four players, Bellegrove took the first set to a decider, which Ross Webster won for CSC to give them a, 3-2 lead. 

That must have demoralised Bellegrove as CSC whitewashed the next set and won the first three frames of the final set to make it a match winning nine frames on the bounce, before Bellegrove took the last two frames, making the final score, 11-4. 

Bellegrove Captain, John Skuza led from the front, winning half of his team’s frames, but he wasn’t unbeaten unlike Luke Matthews, who won his only frame and Steve King scoring a hat-trick for CSC. 

This result lifts CSC from eighth to sixth, leapfrogging their opponents by six points in the process. 

Replacing CSC in the relegation play-off place are Fox & Hounds, who suffered their own, 11-4 defeat this week. 

In each set Fox won the second frame to equalise against New Eltham Club, but they couldn’t build from there, losing the first two sets, 4-1 and the last set, 3-2.

Fox had Alan Dolan to thank for keeping them in the game by winning two of his team’s four frames. 

It was a great all-round team performance from New Eltham Club, with Dan Smith, Gary Mason and Paul Cobbold all recording unbeaten hat-tricks. 

New Eltham have gone six points ahead of Crayford into second and the automatic promotion spot, whereas Fox will be fighting it out with the two Bellegrove teams to avoid relegation. 

Both Fox and Bellegrove A are tied on 95 points, but Bellegrove have two more wins, so Fox occupy the relegation play-off spot, just five points ahead of Just Bellegrove, who were beaten by Academicals this week by the odd frame, 8-7. 

It will be a tough week next week, as the two Bellegrove sides will be playing teams chasing promotion, Crayford and Rack Pack, while Fox face the team just above them, CSC. 

Nothing is decided yet in the SLKPA Premier Division except the top two, Allstars and Hotshots will be the top two, we just don’t know the order however, it is likely to be Allstars at the top, as Hotshots have a twelve-point gap to overturn after this week’s results and they play each other in the final league game of the season. 

Allstars edged an, 8-7 win against third place, Eltham Terrace Club A this week, allowing Hotshots to creep a little closer with a, 9-6 victory over Hustlers in fifth. 

Hotshots won the first two sets, 4-1 to have the match won before the final set. 

Hustlers took the first two frames of the last set to pull it back to, 8-4 but Danny Kelliher broke and dished frame thirteen to finish on a hat-trick, before Hustlers won the last two frames to give them the consolation of winning the set, 4-1. 

Hustlers drop from fifth to sixth, after New Eltham beat Eltham Terrace Rovers to go one point ahead of Hustlers and four points behind their opponents. 

Uncharacteristically New Eltham got off to a good start, taking the first set, 3-2 and Peter Whyte made that, 5-2 by making a total clearance with his first visit to the table. 

New Eltham extended their lead to, 7-2 but Rovers fought back, making it difficult for New Eltham to seal the victory however, the gap was too much for them to recover from and New Eltham ended up, 9-6 victors. 

It was a good team performance, most notably from Whyte and James Couch, who were unbeaten with two frame wins each. 

The race to avoid relegation from the top division is the closest I’ve ever seen and the bottom four all played each other this week. 

Bottom team Pickwick have done their chances of survival the world of good by picking up their fourth win of the season, against Rugrats, who were in equal seventh. 

It was a really close match, which was reflected in Pickwick narrowly taking the first two sets, 3-2 but they pulled away in the final set, winning the first four frames to put them, 10-4 up.

They should have whitewashed the last set, but Joe Kane went in off while attempting to secure his hat-trick in the final frame, allowing his opponent in to bring Rugrats back to, 10-5. 

Rugrats were not disgraced and played well in places but not as well as Dave Pile, Chris Mackenzie and Paul Dawson, who were all unbeaten, with Pile and Mackenzie scoring a brace each and Dawson ending with three out of three. 

It was another close match, as Eltham Terrace Nuthouse in ninth played hosts to equal seventh Sharks. 

The home side took a, 2-1 lead but Sharks won the last two frames of the set, with George Taylor winning the decider. 

Sharks also won the second set, 3-2 to take a, 6-4 lead into the final set, where they won two of the first three frames for victory, before Nuthouse took the last two frames, with Trevor Biggs winning the set decider to make the final score, 8-7 in Sharks favour. 

Given the close, tense nature of the game it was no surprise that there was only one unbeaten player, Nuthouse’s Alex Biggs with three frame wins. 

These last two results have transformed the bottom of the table, as Pickwick have lifted themselves off the bottom and are now one point ahead of Nuthouse, Rugrats are three points ahead of them, in the relegation play-off spot and three points ahead of them are both Sharks and Hustlers, with New Eltham just one point ahead of them. 

So, twelve points separate the top two, but the same gap is between fourth and tenth, which makes only the top three mathematically safe from relegation, making next week’s final league matches incredibly important. 

Next week the top two are playing each other and the bottom four are all playing teams above them, providing an amazing end to the season. 

After losing, 11-4 to New Eltham Social Club last week in League Cup Group B, Real Hustlers had a real mountain to climb this week if they wanted to qualify for the final. 

They fared better than last week but the mountain was too high, as New Eltham won, 8-7 to make the aggregate score, 19-11 giving New Eltham Social Club their place in the final. 

The shock of the season has thrown League Cup Group A up in the air, as Bexleyheath Working Man’s Club, who won Division Two without losing a match, in fact the only match they had lost up to now was against the Premier Division leaders, Allstars in the Founder’s Cup, lost to Happy Hustlers this week. 

Happy Hustlers narrowly lost, 8-7 to New Eltham New Boys last week, so needed a win this week if they were to have any chance of progressing to the final and they got off to an amazing start with, Reece Stewart, Claire Stork and Matt Prince giving them a, 3-2 lead in the first set. 

Those three were on fire, as they all won again in the second set, to give Happy Hustlers an unbelievable, 6-4 lead. 

This must have sparked Bexleyheath into life and the comeback was on, as they took the first two frames of the final set, to tie the match at six all, but Happy Hustlers Captain, Angie Hobbs put her side back in the lead and players of the match Prince and Stork secured their hat-tricks to give their team the unexpected, 9-6 triumph. 

This result has really put the cat amongst the pigeons, as the lowest ranked team in the group, Happy Hustlers are top of the group and New Boys will have to score nine against Bexleyheath next week, while Bexleyheath will have to score eleven if they want to finish top and go through to the final against New Eltham Social Club. 

Next week is going to be the most exciting final day of the season I have seen for a very long time, with places to be decided in both divisions and the second finalist of the League Cup is still up in the air. 

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