Elaine Pollard went out with a young Curly Watts in the summer of 1984. They were set up by Terry Duckworth as she'd tagged along with her friends Gill Collins and Mandy Whitworth to blind dates with Terry and Kevin Webster and Terry thought she was just as weird as Curly so they'd be a perfect match. Curly enjoyed the date and was smitten with Elaine and wrote her a love poem. They met up again when Terry invited them to a party with Kevin, Gill and Mandy so that they could have it at 3 Coronation Street. Emily Bishop approved of what she thought would be a quiet evening in and put on a buffet for them but once she left the house it turned into a wild party.
A few days later, the six of them decided to spend the day on Curly's friend's barge. Gill got Curly to agree to go by cutting his hair so that Elaine would fancy him. They were hoping to cruise along at speed but when they found out the boat couldn't go faster than 5mph everyone went to a pub instead, with Curly and Elaine staying behind to make sure the boat didn't get stolen. They ended up staying out all night as the motor conked out, making their way home in the morning. While Elaine was missing, her dad was frantic and nearly called the police.
On another occasion, Curly held court in the Snug to an attentive audience of Elaine, Gill and Mandy as he told them about his UFO sighting which he'd been interviewed about on the radio. Mandy was also in the Street during the Pub Olympics, taking part in the three-legged race with Curly, but they came in last. Elaine had a rotten time and was fed up with Curly, barely smiling all day.