There were three matches on Tuesday, one of which was a change of night that involved the League Leaders Cen-Terry! 24 side and Corfe Lads at the Corfe Legion. Cen-Terry! 24 side lost the first-leg match by 12, and they had to give Corfe Lads another six-pin handicap start on the Corfe alley. Cen-Terry! 24 team showed why they are the League Leaders and won the match by 36, which meant the Corfe Lads lost by 24 over the two legs.
Centenary PH ‘B’ were down by 26 pins going into their match against the Claypipe Lads at the Centenary club, the PH ‘B’ team failed to take advantage of their home venue and lost by 11 on the night, which resulted in a loss of 37 over the two legs.
The other Tuesday match was at the Wallisdown club where the Lads had a deficit of 28 to make up going into their 2nd leg against Bluebirds ‘A’. Wallisdown Lads pulled back the six-pin handicap start that the Bluebirds A had in their first two throws by gaining three pins in each throw. Wallisdown Lads gained a few pins in each leg and were slowly pulling the deficit of 28 back from the first match. It was not until the ninth leg of the game that the Bluebirds team won their only leg in the match. Wallisdown Lads won the match by 20, but over the two games, Bluebirds ‘A’ won by eight, which left the Wallisdown Lads hoping that they had done enough to qualify for one of the two least defeated teams.
Wednesday’s match at the Bluebirds club saw the ‘E’ team trying to pull back a 40-pin deficit from the first leg against the Oakdale PHC side. Although Bluebirds ‘E’ did win on the night against the five-man side from Oakdale PHC, it was by only one pin, which meant they lost by 39 over the two legs.
Another match on Wednesday was at the dry Centenary club where the JB team had a 21-pin lead going into their game against Corfe A. The Corfe A team failed to make any impression on their deficit in the evening and lost by a further 46, which meant that the overall result was a 67-pin defeat over the two legs
Colehill OBs played host to the five-man Moordown Reds on Thursday. Colehill OBs had to give the Reds a nine-pin handicap start, and with their 11-pin deficit from the first-leg it would be a tough ask to get back 20 pins on the night, although the OBs were not in the lead at any stage of the game, they did have a little help from Doug of the Moordown Reds later in the game, he had an OXO but the Reds were still in the lead by 29 with two throws to go, the Colehill side pulled back 13 pins in their last two throws to leave them six down at the finish, therefore lost by 17 over the two games. Looking at the fixture over the two legs without the handicap start, Colehill OBs lost the away match by 2 and won their home match by 3.

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.

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.

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.