Next Monday, 9th September, pool resumes after the summer break with the annual event in memory of the League’s Founder and former Chairman and Life President, Maurice Wick.

The Maurice Wick Memorial Trophy will take place at the Smeta Club in St. Matthew’s Road, Brixton, from 8.00pm. This is the regular venue for this competition as Maurice was a long-time member of the club and played pool for a team based there. The competition will operate on a single frame straight knock out basis with a best of 3 final, time permitting. Table costs for this competition will be met by the League.

There will be 16 players in the draw for this tournament. Each current team in the League will have one guaranteed place and there are automatic places for Maurice’s son, Dane Wick, and last season’s winner of the event, Brian Willey. The remaining places will be filled by a draw on the night – all teams with other registered players present at the venue at 8.00pm will be entered in a draw and the Captain or senior representatives present from drawn teams will be asked to choose which of their other players present will enter. The draw for the tournament will then take place and play will commence immediately.

A Time Limited Singles Pool tournament will take place on Monday 19th August from 8.00pm at the Marquis of Lorne in Dalyell Road, Brixton. This tournament is open to all players in the League who are interested. The rules of Time Limited Singles are very simple – it’s like a regular Singles competition but players have to play each shot as quickly as possible after the previous one without taking time thinking about each shot. The tournament is played on a single frame simple knock out basis.

A Ten Shot Crush Pool tournament will take place on Monday 12th August from 8.00pm at the Smeta Club. 

This tournament is open to all players in the League who are interested. 

The rules of Ten Shot Crush are very simple – the game is played with spot and stripe balls, all of which have numbers on. Each player gets 10 shots including the break off – the player with the highest points total from numbers on the balls he or she pots wins the game.

A Speed Pool tournament will take place on Monday 5th August from 8.00pm at The Sultan. This tournament is open to all players in the League who are interested. The rules of Speed Pool are quite simple – the faster you can clear the table (the League record is 41 seconds), the more likely you are to win but beware as all fouls cost you 5 seconds each!

Congratulations to Hero of Switzerland, Mitcham Mint (The Vale), Prince of Wales and Smeta A for their victories in Monday’s Knock Out Cup Quarter Finals and thereby reaching this season’s Semi Finals. The draw for the Semi Finals will take place and venues for them decided at the Officers and Captains meeting on Monday 2nd September and the matches will be held on Monday 25th November.

Smeta will be holding some more fundraising events in July to raise money for their legal battle for survival. Please come and support them at the following events;

Friday 12th July – Prize Bingo from 7.30pm.

Saturday 13th July – Open Pool or Killer Pool tournament from 5.00pm.

Saturday 20th July – Hawaiian Night from 7.30pm.

Congratulations to Chris Owens of Smeta for retaining the Governors Cup on Monday 24th June despite not playing at his best – something which he admitted himself. There were 10 entrants in the competition on the night representing the venues in the league, a record number of entrants at least in this millennium, which was great to see! Commiserations to all the other entrants, particularly to Patrick Hennessy, Marquis of Lorne, who undoubtedly played the shot of the season to pot the black to take the first frame of the final.

The second half of the season gets under way on Monday 1st July with further fixtures on the following three Mondays. See the league fixture list  for more information about matches.

The league season has now reached its halfway point with defending champions Smeta A in a strong position to retain the title. There’s quite a battle going on for second place and some other close battles throughout the league. The second half of the season gets under way on Monday 1st July and it promises to be really exciting!

In the meantime, there’s pool every Monday in June with the Preliminary Round of the Knock Out Cup on Monday 3rd, the Singles mini-competitions on Monday 10th, Pairs mini-competitions on Monday 17th and Governors Cup on Monday 24th. All of these events look as if they will be really exciting. Captains will receive fuller details about these events nearer the time.

The Smeta Club are holding an event to continue their fundraising efforts for their legal battle for survival.

They will be hosting an open killer pool tournament and barbecue on Sunday 26th May. The bar will be open from 2.00pm and the tournament will start soon after. All are welcome.

Smeta are holding another fundraiser to raise money for their legal battle with Lambeth.

There will be a barbecue there this Sunday (5th May) from 2.00pm including raffles etc.

All welcome - please spread the word.

As part of their fundraising campaign to raise money for their legal battle against eviction and closure, the Smeta Club will be hosting an open pool tournament on Friday 26th April at 8.00pm. All are welcome at the Smeta Club to take part on that evening. Information on entry fee and prize for the winner TBA.

Don’t forget you can also donate to their crowdfunding campaign to raise money.

Congratulations to Smeta B who registered their first league win of the season on Monday 15th April. This means that all teams have now won at least one match and no teams remain unbeaten!

The longest surviving venue in the League, the Smeta Club, needs the support of its friends right now as it faces a battle against eviction which would leave its two teams homeless in the middle of the season. The club is faced with closure at the end of April 2019.

Because of irregularities with the way in which the threat of eviction has been laid against the club, they have agreed to proceed with a legal challenge and, as always, legal costs are likely to be high.

Please support Smeta raise the funds for this battle by making donations through their crowdfunding page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stmatthews?utm_term=qe3myP8Yx or, if you want to offer additional support, by sending an e-mail to the league with any suggestions or alternative fundraising ideas. All ideas are welcome. 

Please give generously! 

At a meeting held on Monday 4th March, the Officers and Captains of the South East London Pool League elected a new Chairman and Vice-Chairman to join the Officer team. 

David Hector (Sultan A) was elected as the new Chairman of the League and David Owens (Smeta B) was elected as the new Vice-Chairman. 

They join the other continuing Officers – Graham Williams (President), Brian Willey (Treasurer), Simon Hooberman (Secretary), and John Dellafera (Assistant Secretary).

Matches in week 4 that took place on Monday 11th March 2019 brought the first win in the League for the new Conquering Heroes B team. Congratulations to all members of the team and their Captain, Chris Hayter. 

This week also saw the first 9-0 match results of the season. Updated Results and League Tables follow in the next few days.

League fixtures start tonight, Monday 11th February 2019. 

Reminder to Captains: Please remember to submit your match results by e-mail within 48 hours and register any additional players to your squad at the same time.

Congratulations to Zack Ouazene, Captain of Hero of Switzerland, for his victory in the Captains Cup on Monday 4th February at The Sultan, after he won a close final by 2 frames to 1. Commiserations to Patrick Hennessy, Captain of Marquis of Lorne who was narrowly beaten in that final, as well as to all other competitors.

We would like to wish all teams good luck for the new season.

As announced at the Captains Cup (4th Feb 2019), I am delighted to report that, after a gap of several years including several promises that it was going to happen, the new website for the South East London Pool League has finally been launched and can be found at https://www.selpool.co.uk.

Please note that it is still a work in progress but you can find all sorts of information on there including News, last season's final League Tables, list of Teams for the new season, Season Calendar and Fixture List, as well as the League's Constitution and Rules.

All feedback about the new website as well as ideas for what else we can include on there will be welcome. Also, if anyone has any old South East London Pool League photographs or other memorabilia, feel free to provide them and we can upload them to the website subject, of course, to current data protection legislation. If you prefer not to be included in any photos on the website please let us know.

Keep up-to-date with what is happening in the league by adding the above website address to your favourites folder and perusing the site on a regular basis.

Thanks are due to Alex Mackay for his time and effort with developing this website free of charge.

Look out for our next News update announcing the winner of this season’s opening event.

The new season starts on Monday 4th February with the Captains Cup which is taking place at The Sultan in New Park Road, Brixton Hill, SW2. The venue for this competition this year is in accordance with our policy of holding the competition at the home venue of last season’s winner of the competition.

League matches commence on Monday 11th February – see the League Calendar and Fixture List.