A DOMINOES dynamo from Accrington has knocked the spots off the opposition at a tournament in Blackburn just hours after being discharged from hospital.

Brian Wynn, 68, of Moorhouse Avenue, won the coveted Blackburn CIU title less than 24 hours after being released from Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

Brian had initially been taken to hospital with a burst duodenal ulcer three weeks prior to the event, but due to a mix-up with bookings for the X-ray machine he had been sent back home.

And when Brian was rushed back in because of excessive bleeding just a fortnight later, he thought his chances of taking part in the competition had gone.

"There was a moment when I was sat on my hospital bed that I didn't think I was going to make it out in time to play," he said.

"All the nurses knew that I desperately wanted to enter and they assured me that they'd do everything they could to see me fit and well.

"Thankfully it didn't come to that and I was discharged the day before, leaving me to celebrate my victory in the comfort of my own home that night."

Brian, who was representing Audley Range Working Men's Club, had actually played three games prior to his hospital visit and faced just three more games in order to lift the trophy.

After winning his quarter-final match 3-0, he went on to win his semi-final game by the same margin and he almost completed what would have been a remarkable hat-trick in the final.

"I was 2-0 up in the final and started thinking to myself that this was all very easy," he added. "However my opponent had something of a revival and brought the score back to 2-2.

"In the final game it was his down, which meant that he had the advantage, but somehow I managed to steal it against the head and take the title."

Brian, who is a lifetime member of Spring Hill Working Men's Club, won the Accrington CIU title back in the 1970s and believes that he is now the only player ever to have won both East Lancashire CIU titles.

Brian first started playing dominoes at the age of eight when he used to visit his aunty who had a handicapped son.

"I would go round to my aunty's house about five or six nights a week, primarily to go and play with her son, but also to keep me off the streets.

"It was my dad who then helped me develop a greater interest in the sport. He owned a pub in Spring Hill when we were growing up and as soon as I turned 18 he would take me down there and teach me how to play doubles.

"He was the one that really introduced me to competitive dominoes and ever since then I've been entering and winning competitions for different pubs and clubs across East Lancs.

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Despite the sport's relative obscurity nationally, Brian believes that dominoes is as popular in Lancashire as it ever has been.

"Personally, I think that the sport has gone from strength to strength in recent years. I play for Accrington's Platt's Social Club in the Monday Night League and then there's the darts and dominoes league on a Tuesday.

"There's a lot of young people who show great enthusiasm in the sport. I play with a real mixed bunch of folk - girls, boys, young and old."

Brian isn't aware of anyone ever winning the Blackburn CIU title two years running, so it's going to take more than a week in hospital to keep him away from next year's event.