The Final of the Threes’ is next Monday, April 13th, at the Moordown Con. 8.00 pm start. Teams and order of throwing can be found on the three’s website page.

The Three’s competition started in 1986-87. The Cup was bought and donated to Poole & District Skittles by Terry Trent. The first winners of the Three’s were from Corfe Legion D, they were M. Bagg, A. Jaffray & C. Ridout, they also won the Three’s cup the following year, ’87-88.

In 2000-01, 25 years ago, the winners were C. Ridout, D. Yarnold & C. Barnes, and again they were from the Corfe Legion D team.

Tuesday’s game was cancelled between Cen-Terry! 24 and the Centenary PH ‘B’ team. That will now be played on Wednesday, the 15th, at the Centenary (BH 15) club.
Wednesday’s game at the Oakdale Club finished as a draw. Oakdale PHC took the first point, Bluebirds E took the next two points, but failed to secure the last point, leaving the door open for the Claypipe Lads and Wallisdown Lads to go ahead in the chase for the Beer trophy, and it also damaged their chance of that second spot in the league table.
Thursday night, there were four matches. First on the fixture list was the match at Claypipe Inn, where the home side entertained bottom of the league Corfe ‘A’, the only point that went to three legs was the second, but it did not stop the Claypipe Lads running out 4-0 winners on the night, they even rested the new Fossil, captain Paul.
The second Thursday match on the fixture list was the tie between the Bluebirds A and the Moordown Reds at the Bluebirds club. The ‘A’ team won the first point, lost the second, but came back and took the third and the Beer point. In a high-scoring game, the home side notched up eight stick-ups, the best coming from Chris Winwood, who scored an 18.
Thursday’s third match on the fixture list was between the Colehill OBs and Wallisdown Lads at the Colehill Club. Wallisdown Lads threw first and scored 52, which was made up of four nines and two eights, which was to be the best score of the night from either team, second throw went in favour of the Colehill team with their two-pin start being the deciding factor, they then won the third leg to secure the first point of the evening, the OBs took the second point in two straight legs. Wallisdown Lads won the third point of the evening in a best-of-three legs. Wallisdown captain showed his versatility and desire to win the Beer over the three legs. The new slow skipper came in with two stick-ups, which helped the Wallisdown team win that last point, so the close game finished as a draw.
Thursday’s fourth game was at the Corfe Legion, where the Corfe Lads took on the Centenary JB team. The result was a 3-1 win for the home side.

Final of the Pairs took place at the Wallisdown Con Club on Monday and produced an evening of good skittles and many chances of stick-ups but only four were taken, the winners were Steve Harris and Tash Davis from Corfe Lads, after the first throw the leaders were the Wallisdown Lads pair of Ian and Dan on 18, the eventual winners were in last place on 12. The second leg produced three stick-ups first of those was the singles champion Steve Shear from Moordown Reds with a 15, Rhys Phillips from the Centenary JB team had the second stick-up in the leg, with most probably the hardest to convert and finished with a score of 13, Steve Harris was the third person who got the stick-up in the leg his 17 and Tash’s 9 gave them a total of 38 which was one pin behind the leaders of Moordown Reds pair Steve and Simon.
There were no stick-ups in the third-leg, Steve and Tash were leading the way on 54, but there were six pairs with 50 and above at the end of that leg. There were no stick-ups in the fourth leg, but steady skittles from Steve and Tash kept them in the lead by two pins on 70, with Steve and Simon on 68, and in third place were the pair from Claypipe Lads, the new Fossil Paul and Dan on 66.
Fifth leg saw the last stick-up of the night, it was from Pete Downton from Bluebirds E scoring an 11, which was not big enough to get the pair of Les and himself back in contention for the top spots, but at the end of the fifth leg, Steve and Simon were joint leaders with Steve and Tash on 84.
The last and sixth throw of the night came down to steady skittles and holding one’s nerve, with no stick-ups in the leg Ian and Dan throwing second set a final score of 94 to beat which Steve and Simon did by scoring two seven’s giving them a total of 98, the next four pairs failed to get that total, Steve and Tash needed to score 15 to win the Pairs Cup, Steve finished his evening of with a seven, leaving Tash to get an eight, scoring five with her first ball and then hitting three with her next to win the trophy and cleaned up with a nine, which gave them a score of 100, the only pair who could reach that score was the last pair of the old fossil Paul and Dan from the Claypipe Lads, needing two nine’s to get to 98 for a throw-off for second spot, or a small stick-up to take the trophy, but both took out the middle pins on their throws, each finished with a score of eight, leaving them on 96 in third place.

The first big news of the week was Corfe Legion A winning their first game of the season last week. The 3-1 win, which included the Beer point, was against the Oakdale PHC team at the Corfe Legion, the game was outstanding from week 16, and the surprise was that Corfe played with five. Maybe they should play with five every week. This week, the Corfe A side played host to the Bluebirds A side, a team higher in the table than them. The Corfe side had their full six players this week and won another two points, which included the Beer point.
Bluebirds E brought forward their scheduled Week 18 game and played it last week. They suffered a 4-0 home defeat against the Corfe Lads, which could harm their league title chase for that top two position.
Another 4-0 result was the game on Tuesday, where the Centenary PH ‘B’ team took on the Oakdale PHC side at the Centenary club (now known as the BH 15 Club), with the alcohol now reinstated at the club, the Centenary PH ‘B’ celebrated by winning the first six legs to gain the first three points, the Oakdale side won the first leg in the Beer but could not set the PH ‘B’ team good enough scores to take the Beer point.
The Centenary JB team kept the alcohol alive in their match at the Centenary (BH 15) on Wednesday by winning the Beer point in their draw against the Colehill OBs.
On Wednesday, the match of the week had to be the fixture between the Wallisdown Lads and the Claypipe Lads, both teams trying to get the second spot in the league and also fighting for the Beer Cup trophy. The match went the full distance of 12 legs and ended up a draw, with the home side winning the Beer point, which keeps them level on 10 Beers with the Claypipe and Bluebirds ‘E’ one Beer behind in the table is the Colehill OBs on 9.
Cen-Terry! 24 cancelled their game against the Moordown Reds, so the Corfe Lads stepped in to play their outstanding game from week 16 at the Moordown club. Maybe a decision that they might have regretted losing three one on the night.

25 YEARS AGO (2000-2001) SEASON
There were 49 teams in the Poole & District Skittles Association. The first and second leagues had 16 teams, the third had 17. No fourth division for the first time.
The winners of the first division by three points were Bluebirds ’97. They were captained by Bill Lovell and finished the season with 76 points from their 30 league matches, and won 18 Beers, reversing their fortune from the previous season, when they finished second to the Bloxworth side. The Bluebirds ’97 team also won the Champion of Champions Cup that season. After a play-off for the runner-up trophy, the Bloxworth team was led by P. Toop overcame the Hamworthy Legion G side, their captain was Eddie Harris, both teams finished on 73 points, the Hamworthy Legion team won 19 Beers against the 18 by the Bloxworth side, but the winners of the Beer Cup was Colehill who’s captain was Allen Clarke they won 20 out of a possible 30 in the season and played their home matches on a Friday. The league stated which night you should play on. The 1st division should all play on a Tuesday. There were only three teams that actually played their home matches on Tuesday nights. The following year, the first division would have been allocated Wednesday nights for playing their matches.
The Bluebirds ’97 team also won the Champion of Champions Cup that season.

Winners of the second division by three points were the Broadstone Y2K side who was captained by Graeme Davis, their home venue was the Broadstone Railway Hotel, they won the league with 73 points from their 28 league matches and also won the Beer Cup with 20 wins from their league fixtures, in their team was the President of Poole Skittles at the time Cyril Matthews he had won the 1st division in three consecutive years (73/74, 74/75, 75/76), Cyril Matthews served on the general committee from 1972-73 to 1997 he became President of the Poole and District Skittle League from 1998 to 2005, he went on to become a Life President, the division finished up with 15 teams, Wimborne Lads dropped out during the season.
Runner-up in the second division was Oakdale C with a total of 70 points. They were three points clear of third-place Lytchett B, who ended on 67 points. Oakdale C team finished 3rd in the previous season (1999-2000). The captain for both seasons was Steve Lee.

The third division winners in 2000-01 season were the Potters Stuff, their captain was Bill Meaden. They scored 86 points from their 30 league matches and won the division by four points from Bluebirds 81′, their captain was Tony Evans. The Potters Stuff also won the third division Beer Cup with 22 wins from their 30 league matches. There were 17 teams in the division. The Power House team failed to complete the season, leaving 16 teams in the division. There was no fourth division that year.