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

It is with sad regret that I have been informed of the passing of Derek Cooper. He was always known as Cooperman and played at the old Potters pub in Poole, he also played at the Lytchett Legion and the Oakdale Con. over the years. His funeral is on Wednesday, (18th) at Poole Crematorium, 10am.

Captains: a reminder that we are still charging £3 per league match, which accumulates to £33 for half the season or £66 for the season. There are seven teams that have not paid anything at the moment.
This week all the away teams won the last point of the evening. I cannot remember this happening before.
Three games were played on Tuesday, none of which resulted in a home win.
Centenary PH ‘B’ hosted the Bluebirds E at the dry Centenary Club, the game ended all square with Bluebirds ‘E’ winning the Beer, which is their third consecutive Beer in the second half of the season.
Corfe A picked up their first point in the second half of the season when they played against Colehill OBs at the Corfe Legion. Colehill OBs won 3-1 on the evening, which included the Beer point.
Wallisdown Lads were home to the league leaders Cen-Terry! 24 team on Tuesday , the Lads won the first point in a three-leg affair, Wallisdown won the first leg of the second point but the Cen-Terry team took the second and third leg with solid scores to win their first point. The Cen-Terry! side won their second point in two straight legs and also won the last point which was over three legs with solid scores, so they left the Wallisdown Club with three precious points.
Wednesday’s only match was at the Moordown Con where the Reds welcomed the Centenary JB team. Moordown Reds took the first three points of the evening, the Centenary side took the Beer point.
Thursday’s game between the Claypipe Lads and the Corfe Lads at the Claypipe Inn resulted in a win for the Corfe Lads. Solid skittling from Corfe Lads saw them take the first and second points and take the last point of the evening.
Bluebirds ‘A’ welcomed the Oakdale PHC side to their club, Bluebirds took the first point in two straight legs, Oakdale won the second point in two straight with the help of Mike Lee who scored an 18 to take their first point, Bluebirds side took the third point in two straight again to lead 2-1 in the evening, Oakdale came back and won the Beer point again in two straight legs, so it was an early finish in an eight leg game which finished in a draw.

The week started with only one match on Tuesday, that was the fixture at the Centenary Club where the PH ‘B’ team took on the Wallisdown Lads, who only had five players, but five for a missing player is not that bad on the Centenary alley. After a close game where two of the points were decided by a bolter, it ended in a draw with the home side winning the Beer point in a 12-leg match.
On Wednesday the Centenary club was again in use, this match was between two bottom sides in the table, Centenary JB and Corfe ‘A’, it ended with the same result as the Corfe Legion fixture, which was a 4-0 win for the JB team, it was the JB’s first win in eight league matches and leaves Corfe team with an uphill struggle.
Bluebirds E and Moordown Reds had their wellie boots ready for their encounter at the Bluebirds Club. Last week the club had to close for two nights due to a waterlogged car park. The result was a 3-1 win for the Bluebirds ‘E’ team. Moordown Reds did win a point from this match, which was more than they did in their first encounter with them in week 2.
Colehill OBs suffered their first 4-0 defeat at home this season on Thursday when the smoking Claypipe team visited the Colehill Club, although the game went to 11-legs the Colehill OBs could not stop the Claypipe Lads from taking all the points.

The draw took place at the committee meeting for the Final of the Singles, Pairs, and the quarter-finals of the Aggregate and Handicap Cup. They can be found on the relevant website page.

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.