It’s only the second week of the new South London & Kent Pool Alliance winter season and it’s already gearing up for a tight Premier Division race, with only two unbeaten teams and six points separating top from bottom.

One of those unbeaten sides are Pickwick, who had a poor summer season, suffering relegation for the first time in their SLKPA history but after beating Falconwood Club last week, they went on to score another victory, against newly promoted Eltham Terrace Nuthouse this week.

Pickwick’s experience and tactical nous was the difference between the two teams, as Nuthouse were taught a lesson in safety play during their 10-5 defeat, well you wouldn’t expect anything else against the Pickwick.

It started well for the Nuthouse with Shane O’Reilly taking the first frame, on his way to two out of three wins but Pickwick went on to win the set, 3-2.

Nuthouse’ Shaun Shaphard made an excellent clearance in frame seven but it was to no avail as that was the only frame they won in the set, going down 4-1.

Pickwick secured the win by taking the first three frames of the final set, before Nuthouse reduced the deficit to five frames with the last two frames of the match, which included Craig Jones second win out of three frames.

There were some great performances from Pickwick but the most notable were, Martin Storey and Mark Brinkley who both won all three of their frames.

Joining Pickwick unbeaten at the top of the table are Eltham Terrace Club A, who scored an excellent victory against Hotshots this week.

It was a hard-fought triumph, as Hotshots won the first set, 3-2 but Eltham evened the honours in the second set and whitewashed the final set for an overall 10-5 victory.

It was a good all round team performance but both Dan Heinink and Paul Shrimpton stood out with a win in each of the three sets.

Bellegrove got off to a great start against Falconwood Club, taking a 6-2 lead but Stacy Redman kick-started a comeback with a dish from a dry break and gave them the win with an amazing cut on the black.

Current winter champions, Bellegrove will be rueing their missed opportunities as they get the defence of their title off to two successive 9-6 defeats.

Despite Redman’s heroics man of the match was Dean James, who recovered from a shaky first frame to finish on an unbeaten hat-trick.

Also succumbing to a second successive 9-6 defeat was Crayford Social Club Rugrats, who this week lost to Hustlers A.

Rugrats Captain, Scott Shephard did his best to keep the score respectable, remaining unbeaten in winning half of his team’s frames.

Paul Doherty got Falconwood Social off to a perfect start against Eltham Terrace Rovers with a break and dish in the first frame but they had luck to thank for taking a 4-1 lead in the first set.

Rovers tried not to let that affect them, as they refused to lie down, initially winning the second set, 3-2 to reduce Falconwood’s lead to 6-4, then winning the first two frames of the final set to tie the match at six all, before tying the match again to send it into a final frame decider.

Unfortunately for Rovers Elliott Giles was in imperious form and capped off his three out of three performance by winning the deciding frame to give Falconwood the narrow, 8-7 victory.

No one epitomised Rovers fighting spirit more than Dean Rider who, not for the first time, won all three of his frames.

Fox & Hounds followed up their massive win last week against Academicals with another this week to keep them top of SLKPA Division Two.

This week’s recipients were Plumstead Radical Club, who have been on the wrong end of a heavy defeat two weeks in a row now.

Fox whitewashed the first set, 5-0 but it was much closer in the second, with Fox taking it 3-2, before streaking ahead in the final set, winning it, 4-1 making the overall score, 12-3.

Radical Captain, Angie Hobbs was hoping there was more like her in the team, as she won two of her team’s three frames.

Fox Captain, Kerry Wyatt and Claire Stork had their own personal battle, meeting each other in each set but Wyatt was just too strong, winning every frame to remain unbeaten for the season so far, winning all six of her frames.

Les Ryan also kept up his unbeaten run for the Fox this week with another two out of two performance and Neil Shelton joined Wyatt on three out of three this week.

There are two more unbeaten teams in this division, Sharks and Rose Inn and they both recorded 10-5 victories this week.

Sharks are two points behind Fox after their triumph over Greyhound Elite.

Greyhound gave them a fight in the first two sets, only going down, 3-2 but Sharks showed they had bite in the final set, winning it by 4 frames to 1 and no one had more bite than Arif Salih, who won all three of his frames.

The other unbeaten team in the division are Rose Inn, who beat Orpington Sports Club this week, with Michael Bunn and Dean Greaney-Parr scoring unbeaten hat-tricks for the second week running.

After their disastrous first match against Fox, Academicals didn’t expect to pick up many points against Bellegrove Flyers this week but they surprised themselves with a narrow 8-7 victory.

It was an incredibly close match with both sides winning one of the first two sets, 3-2, making it five all going into the final set, where each side won two of the first four frames to force a final frame decider.

Academicals Dean Williams, who was yet to win a frame in the match faced Flyers Richard Marsh, who had already won both of his, so the odds weren’t in Academicals favour but they threw the form book out of the window and Williams gave his team their first win of the season.

Marsh was unfortunate not to get his hat-trick but team mate, Keith Mitchell did succeed in achieving that feat with Nik Gray winning their other two frames.

Gary Mason found some form to win three out of three for Academicals and Jenny Pearmund picked up her first victory of the season but by far the highlight of the night was Chris Bracey winning all three of his frames without actually potting the black.

There are also three unbeaten teams in SLKPA Division One, CSC Mr’s & Miss Q’s, Bellegrove Social Club and Glenmore Arms.

Luckily for CSC their opponents, Royal Oak Addicks couldn’t field a team, so they were awarded a walkover win to uphold their unbeaten start to the season but the other two teams had to battle to keep their unbeaten status.

Glenmore Arms had the toughest battle, narrowly beating Eltham Terrace Rack Pack by 8 frames to 7.

With such a close score, it was surprising to see that Glenmore had two unbeaten players on the night, A J Corker and Mavji Halai.

Bellegrove Social Club repeated last week’s 10-5 score line against North Heath Social Club this week, inflicting a second defeat in a row on the newly relegated club.

Saying that, Bellegrove didn’t have it all their own way, as North Heath took a 4-1 lead but Bellegrove battled hard and their resilience held strong to win nine of the next ten frames for victory.

David Jandu followed up his unbeaten brace from last week with a hat-trick this week and he was supported by Steve Pearce and Steve Knight, who both won two of their three frames.

There was also joy for Bellegrove A, who went one better than their sister team, beating Foots Cray Social Club by 11 frames to 4.

Foots Cray gave themselves a hill to climb by only having four players but they fought hard in the first two sets, only going down by the odd frame, 3-2 in both but they ran out of steam in the final set, losing it 5-0.

Steve Hughes and Steve Redout both won two of their three frames but Nathan Lampen went one better with three out of three, as did John Skuza, returning from ill health, winning all of his from the comfort of his wheelchair.

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.