Mixed Pairs Final was held at the Wallisdown Con on Monday. There were 14 pairs on the night trying to win the Cup, which was first played for in 1974/75 season. The competition is held over six throws.
After the first leg, the leaders were the 2023/24 winners Karen & Steve Scudamore with 17, in second place were H & Ryan with Lloyd & Sharon on 16, all three pairs representing the Cen-Terry 24 outfit.
After the second throw, three pairs were joint leaders with a score of 32, who were Karen & Steve, Lloyd & Sharon, and last year’s winners Estelle and Steve Shear from Moordown Reds.
The third leg saw Michelle & Kyran from Moordown Reds take the lead with a score of 50, they won the competition in 2022/23, second place was Tash & Kevin from Corfe Lads on a score of 48.
Michelle & Kyran kept their top spot after the fourth throw with a score of 66, two pins ahead of Ellie and Matt on 64 from Bluebirds A. Matt scored a 16, which was the highest score of the night.
With only two more throws in the competition, the fifth leg is where every pair is looking to get close to the leaders. At the end of the fifth throw, the leaders were still Michelle & Kyran on 81. H & Ryan and Ellie & Matt were in second place with 78.
The final throw saw H & Ryan score 16, that gave them a total score of 94, next pair to throw were the leaders Michelle & Kyran they scored 14, which gave them a total of 95, that meant most pairs needed a stick-up to catch Michelle & Kyran, there was only Ellie & Matt who did not need a stick-up to take the trophy and were the last pair to throw on the evening, they needed to nine’s, Ellie scored a six leaving Matt requiring a stick-up but he took the middle out of the frame with his first ball giving him no chance to get that trophy.

That was Michelle’s fourth time she has won the mixed pairs title, and Kyran’s second time. Last season they were the runners-up in the competition.

Final scores: R. Sherry & A. Sherry 70; K. Coslett & T. Davis 89; D. Shear & M. Shear 87; R. Carpenter & H. Carpenter 94; K. Arthur & M. Orchard 95; R. Melhuish & G. Masters 76; D. Connolly & T. Connolly 72; J. Nicholls & S. Hancox 75; R. Broomfield & S.Lewer 79; S. Scudamore & K. Craddock 89; L. Cork & S. Pitman 85; S. Shear & E. Gleave 92; R. Voysey & C. Darby 67; M. Elston & E. Cherowbrier 90.

Tuesday’s Aggregate quarter-final match at the Centenary was a remarkable game between the league leaders, Cen-Terry! 24, and the Wallisdown Lads. The Lads steadily pulled ahead of the 24 side and looked as if they were heading for a victory, and with only two throws left in the game, the Lads were ahead by 29. The Cen-Terry team pulled back eight pins in the eighth leg, which still left them trailing by 21. Throwing first in the ninth leg, the Cen-Terry! 24 side totalled a remarkable 61 score in this Aggregate match, which meant the Wallisdown Lads needed 41 to win the match. The Wallisdown Lads had scored over 40 in most of the legs in the match, but this time the Lads failed to hit that 40 mark and lost by five.
Oakdale PHC played host to the Bluebirds E team on Wednesday for this Aggregate Shield fixture. Although the Oakdale PHC side played the night before on their alley, which was an outstanding league fixture, they found the Bluebirds E too strong in this match, whether that was because they were tired after their second match in two days, or maybe it was the return of Eddie Smith for Bluebirds who made the difference for the E’s, he was missing from the team sheet last week in their league defeat.
Also on Wednesday, the Colehill OBs visited the Moordown Con. club again, this time for the Aggregate quarter-final fixture. The OBs say it is most probably their longest away trip in the league. When they visited the club in week 4, the result was a draw, so the match on paper looked evenly balanced. There were a few OXO’s on the night, which might be the reason why Moordown Reds lost the fixture by 38 pins.
Last quarter-final match was on Thursday at the Bluebirds club, the ‘A’ team were drawn home to the Centenary PH ‘B’, in week 9 of the league the Centenary PH ‘B’ took all four points from the Bluebirds A team at the Bluebirds club, but this was an Aggregate match where the ‘A’ team had no pressure put on them and cruised to a 69-pin victory.

THE FINAL OF THE MIXED PAIRS NIGHT IS ON MONDAY, MARCH 2nd. It is at the Wallisdown Con Club. It is a 7.30 start, not 8.00 pm, which is due to the number of entries for this competition.

25 YEARS AGO – 2000-01
Winners of the Mixed Pairs were Mr. & Mrs. Deacon, who were representing the Bluebirds ’97 team.

50 YEARS AGO – 1975-76
Winners of the Mixed Pairs were Mr. & Mrs. P. Colclough, who were representing the Poole Town team.

In the 1975/76 season of the Poole and District Skittle League, there were four divisions and all had 18 teams, which was 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.

Winners of the Second Division in 1975-76 season were Pure Drop Lads, captained by John Knowlton, Pure Drop Lads won 23 of their 34 league games and finished with a total of 95 points, 11 points ahead of the second-place team. The Pure Drop Lads won the Beer Cup by winning 26 of the 34 Beer points. There was only one Beer Cup for all four divisions. 1st and 3rd divisions finished with 25, 4th division winner finished with 24.
Redlands C were the runner-up team and finished the league season with 84 points and won 17 of their 34 league games, which included 19 Beers. Their captain was A. Pinkett.