Remember: The two lowest defeated aggregate team scores will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Tuesday’s games both resulted in home defeats for Corfe A and the Cen-Terry! 24 sides. Corfe A had a six-handicap start against the Centenary JB team, but the Corfe side found that was not enough to win their home leg against the Centenary JB side they went on to win the match by 21. That was Centenary JB’s first win since week five in the league. Cen-Terry! 24 side lost at the Centenary club, whether the Cen-Terry! 24 could blame the lack of club alcohol spirit on the night is open to debate when they played against the Corfe Lads who are the holders of the Handicap trophy and are keen to retain that cup, Corfe Lads had a six-pin start against the league leaders and finished the match 12 ahead of the Cen-Terry! 24 team.
Wednesday’s two matches resulted in both home teams coming out on top. Moordown Reds had a nine-pin start against the Colehill OBs at the Moordown Club. Colehill OBs fielded only a five-man side. At the halfway stage Moordown Reds had a 29-pin lead. Colehill OBs five kept up their effort and pulled back most of the 29, but lost by 11 on the night, if you take the handicap deficit of nine away Colehill OBs would have lost by only two pins on the night. The other game on Wednesday was at the Oakdale Club, where the PHC side took on the Bluebirds E team. The Oakdale side had a 21-pin handicap start against the Bluebirds E team, and they gained a further 19 pins on the night, which meant the Oakdale team finished with a 40-pin advantage going into the second leg. That will be hard to pull back next week at the Bluebirds Club for the E team.
Thursday’s games both resulted in home wins. Bluebirds ‘A’ played host to the Wallisdown Lads, the Bluebirds ‘A’ side was another team with a six-pin start in this competition. Wallisdown found themselves 20 pins down at the halfway stage, mainly due to the Bluebirds ‘A’ first-player Jamie, who had a flopper on his second throw, and with solid scores from the rest of the team, it resulted in Wallisdown losing the leg by 13. Wallisdown Lads continued to battle through the rest of the evening, but steady skittling by the Bluebirds ‘A’ team saw them finish with a 28-pin victory. The other match on Thursday was at the Claypipe Inn where the Claypipe Lads had to give 18 pins to the Centenary PH ‘B’ side, which was still not enough advantage for the Centenary PH ‘B’, who lost the match by 26. Both teams had plenty of fun and played the game with spirit. The return match at the Centenary Club might not have the alcohol spirit, but I still think it will be fun.

Teams that qualify for the 2nd round are Colehill OBs, Bluebirds ‘E’, Wallisdown Lads, Moordown Reds, Cen-Terry! 24, Bluebirds ‘A’, Oakdale PHC and Centenary PH ‘B’.

The match between the Colehill OBs’ and Bluebirds ‘E’ finished as a draw, both teams finished on a score of 269, Bluebirds E threw first and had a 17 pin lead after the first leg, at the end of the fifth leg the Colehill OBs had pulled back that 17 and were two pins ahead, the Colehill OBs’ increased their lead to 11 after the sixth leg, Bluebirds E slowly pulled the deficit back and were set a score of of 41 to win, it came down to last-man Steve on the night, with his last ball and a full frame set-up to aim at meant he needed five to win the match, he knocked down four which resulted in both teams hitting the 269 score.
Wallisdown Lads had a comfortable home win against the Centenary JB team. Rhys Phillips from the JB side generally gave them a good start but the team failed to capitalise on that start and did not win a leg on the night Wallisdown Lads won by 102 pins.
Moordown Reds played host to the Cen-Terry! 24 team, the Cen-Terry! 24 team came out on top by 18, as Moordown lost by the narrowest result in the 1st round they go into the hat for the second-round draw.
Bluebirds ‘A’ took on the Corfe Lads at the Corfe Legion, despite the presence of Tash (Wonder Woman) and Robin, they could not stop the Bluebirds ‘A’ team from winning on the night, Bluebirds ‘A’ won by 36 pins.
Oakdale PHC proved too strong for the Claypipe Lads at the Oakdale Club, the home team came out on top by 31 pins.
Corfe A tried to take on the Centenary PH ‘B at the Corfe Legion with only five players, with no award for the missing player the result was inevitable, but well done Ray for even playing the game. The Centenary PH ‘B’ won by 96 pins.

As there is no need for a qualifying round in the Three’s next week, it means that the next official matches will be the Handicap competition that are on January 12th and January 19th week. The handicap is as follows: The Cen-Terry! 24 side is off scratch (0), Claypipe Lads have 3, Corfe Lads 6, Bluebirds E and Wallisdown Lads have 9, Colehill OBs and Bluebirds A have 15, Centenary PH ‘B’ have 21, Moordown Reds have 24, Centenary JB have 27, Oakdale PHC have 30 and the Corfe A side have 33. The draw can be found on the Handicap website page.
Captains: a reminder that we are still charging £3 per league match, which accumulates to £33 for half the season or £66 for the whole season.

On the paper fixture list, Week 14 should be w/c Feb. 9th not 16th and Week 15 should be Feb. 16th not the 17th.
The fixtures on the website are correct.

In the 1975/76 season of the Poole and District Skittle League there were four divisions, each division had 18 teams, which makes it a 34-week league season. If you reached the final of the Aggregate Shield or the Knock-out Cup you would have had to go through seven rounds to get to the final of those trophies.

The 1st division winners in 1975-76 season were the Gas Tavern ‘A’ side who won 24 of their 34 matches and scored a total of 95 points, this was their third consecutive 1st division titles (73/74, 74/75, 75/76), Cyril Matthews was the Gas Tavern A captain for all those winning title years, they were six points clear of the second place team Potters Lads they captained by R. Hatchard they won 18 of their league matches and finished with 89 points, nine ahead of the third place team Municipal A, the previous year (74/75) the runner-up spot was the Generators E side who also was captained by a R. Hatchard, they were different people believe it or not very confusing when one of them won the captain’s cup in 1978/79 season.
Cyril Matthews served on the general committee from 1972/73 to 1997. He became the President of the Poole and District Skittle League from 1998 to 2005. He then became a Life President. Cyril finished his playing career with the Broadstone Y2K side, their home alley was the Broadstone Railway Hotel.
There was only one Beer Cup for all four divisions Gas Tavern ‘A’ won 25 Beers in that season. The Beer Cup winners were the Pure Drop Lads of the second division, they won 26 Beers in the 1975/76 season.