The singles final was held at the Centenary Club on Monday (March 16th). Seventeen players tried to become the new Singles champion on the night. The first throw of the night ended with four players scoring a nine but no stick-ups. That was to change in the second throw, there were two stick-ups, first was a 12 from Mark Whitehurst, (now known as the killer), and then Mike Jeans, who had a 15 and was now the leader on 22 after the second leg. There were no stick-ups in the third leg. Mike Jeans with a score of 29, was still the leader after the third throw, in second place were Mark Whitehurst and Barry Connolly on 27, Barry had scored three nines on his home alley.
After the fourth throw and with no stick-ups in the leg, the leader was Mark Whitehurst on 36, with Mike Jeans just one pin behind on 35.
The fifth throw produced only one stick-up in the leg, which was a 14 from Steve Shear, which made him the joint leader with Mike Jeans, both on 43, one-pin behind them were Mark and Barry with 42. Tom Phillips had missed two split two’s for a stick-up in the fourth and fifth throws and was in fifth place on 38.
The final throw of the night saw Barry Connolly complete his sixth throw first, ahead of the chasing pack, scoring another nine, which gave him a total of 51 in his six throws, that was five nine’s and a six. Steve Shear was next to throw and scored an eight, which meant he had also scored 51 for the evening. Mark Whitehurst needed a nine to equal that 51 score, but just missed out by scoring an eight. It was now Mike Jeans who had the chance to win the Cup on his home alley, he needed a nine to take the cup or an eight for a play-off, after his first ball he had left himself two split two’s, he boltered his second ball, that cost him his chance of a nine or an eight, meaning there was to be a throw-off for the cup between Steve Shear and Barry Connolly.
In the throw-off, Barry threw first and scored a nine. Steve needed a stick-up to win the Cup, but he failed to convert a hard stick-up chance, but still achieved a nine, which meant another throw-off for the Cup. Barry went first and scored a six, Steve hit six with his first ball, then took the one pin needed with his second ball to win the Singles Cup. That is Steve’s fourth time of winning the Singles trophy.

Final scores were: J. Nicholls 43, R. Melhuish 41, J. Twine 44, M. Elston 41, D. Harper 48, B. Connolly 51, R. Voysey 40, R. Broomfield 43, S. Shear 51, C. Foster 42, I. Penney 40, P. Downton 47, S. Marsh 42, M. Whitehurst 50, M. Jeans 49, D. Perry 39, T. Phillips 38* did not complete last throw.

In 2000-01 – 25 Years ago, John Kearley won the Singles Cup when he played for the Oakdale Lads team.
In 1975-76 – 50 years ago, the winner of the Singles title was Les Hurst of Generators B, the runner-up was F. Luther.

The only game on Tuesday night was at the Centenary club, where the Cen-Terry! 24 side recorded their fourth 4-0 win and was Corfe ‘A’s fourth 4-0 defeat of their season.
Both Wednesday matches finished as a draw. At the Centenary club, the JB side played host to the Wallisdown Lads. Centenary JB team took the first point in two straight legs, the second point was a best-of-three legs, which the Wallisdown Lads won, then took the third point of the evening, again in a best-of-three shoot-out. Last man Dan for Wallisdown needed 13 to take the Beer point to a third leg, which he successfully achieved, last pair for the JB’s needed two eights to take the Beer point, mice killer Mark came in with a 12, that took the pressure off last man Rhys to earn them the Beer point and break their sequence of losses, which I reported on last week’s report. The other game on Wednesday was at the Oakdale club, where the Moordown Reds won the first point in two straight, and they also won the Beer point, which gave them the two points on the evening. Last season, Moordown Reds failed to win a point from that Oakdale fixture.
On Thursday, the Colehill OBs only fielded a team of five for the match against the Bluebirds E, which included one-handed Dave Yarnold. The Bluebirds E team took the first point in two straight legs and thought they were on for more points playing against the weakened five-man Colehill side, but the Bluebirds E team had one of those nights where they could not put a solid set of team scores together, and left the Colehill club with only that first point.
Looking at the league positions before the match, this fixture at the Bluebirds club on Thursday was going to be a close result, Bluebirds ‘A’ were against the Claypipe Lads, the fixture was a close result, the home team came out on top, winning three points which included the Beer point, but it could have gone either way in many of the legs on the night.
Another close match was at the Corfe Legion, where the Corfe Lads were against the Centenary PH ‘B’ side, with only one point in the league table separating them before the start of the match. Over 11-legs, the match ended with a wayward last ball from Corfe that gave the Centenary PH ‘B’ team their third point of the evening and left Corfe Lads with just the one point.

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 3rd Division in 1975/76 season were Municipal D, their captain for the season was G. Willey, this was their first year of playing at the Municipal Club, the previous year they played at the Newtown Con Club under the C banner and were runners-up in the fourth division, the club shut its doors to skittles so George took his team to the Municipal Club where they won 25 games out of their 34 league matches and accumulated 96 points and won 25 Beers, that was not enough to take the Beer trophy as there was only one Beer Cup for all four divisions, that went to the winners of the second division Pure Drop Lads, Municipal D won the 3rd division by five points from the Gas Tavern Lads their were captain was A. Nicklen, they won 20 of their 34 league matches and also finished with 25 Beers, they were seven points clear of the third place team Municipal E.