Success In Many Sports For Mrs Penn

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 9

Success In Many Sports For Mrs Penn

DABBLER at everything” is how Mrs H. A. Perun, a prominent Christchurch sportswoman, who has represented the South Island at both croquet and golf, Canterbury at hockey and Malvern at tennis, describes her sporting career. Mrs Penn is definitely not a “dabbler” in the ordinary sense but is in fact a highly versatile person with a record of sporting achievements which few women in the country can equal. Only a few weeks ago, Mrs Penn, who claims that she has “had it” as far as sport is concerned, gave a magnificent performance in the New Zealand Croquet Council’s English silver and bronze medal tournament

in Christchurch, finishing runner-up to the current South Island representative. Mrs E. Todd. She also plans to compete in the New Zealand croquet tournament, which begins at Auckland on March 5. “just for fun.’’ Mrs Penn began her cro-

quet career in 1937 as a member of the United Club. She later joined the Fendalton Club as a foundation member and is still a member of this club today. As a junior in 1940, she won the Whittaker Cup for what was then known as the New Zealand levels singles competition. Five

years later she became the South Island open champion. She has also represented the South Island in the annual inter-island match, which has not been held for a number of years. She has won the Canterbury women’s croquet championship on several occasions and this season was runner-up to Mrs Todd. In 1946 Mrs Penn, an active member of the Russley Golf Club, represented the South Island women at golf. One year she was runner-up to Miss Valmai Fleming in the Canterbury women’s golf championships. She has won many tournaments during her golfing career and last September she was a member of the Russley team which won the Cowlishaw Cup. She began playing golf seriously in 1925 when she became a member of the old Malvern club, now combined with Oxford and called the Waimakariri Gorge Club.

Mrs Penn has also played J hockey for Canterbury on a s

number of occasions. She first represented the province in 1920 or 1921. In 1928 she was a member of the Canterbury team which won the K Cup for interprovincial competition. Before she became a Canterbury player, she represented Malvern. In the early 1920’5, Mrs Penn represented Malvern at tennis, although she insists that she was “never very good.” Now she is learning contract bridge. A cheerful loser and popular with everybody she comes into contact with, Mrs Penn is a great credit to the many and varied sports she has represented.