WOMEN AT BOWLS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19945, 1 November 1934, Page 7

WOMEN AT BOWLS

STAUNCH VETERAN OF 81 Whether a woman is 18 or 80 she can enjoy a game of bowls. This was evident at Eastbourne, England, last month, when 400 women players from nearly 100 different clubs in Britain opened their week’s tournament on four greens. Wives were in the majority; only a quarter of the players were unmarried. One of the most sprightly of the unmarried competitors was Miss Woonfield, a slim little lady with snow white hair, who is proud of the fact that «he was 81 last July. In pouring rain, during which men spectators ran for shelter, she put up an excellent fight against Mrs Wilmott, who is a noted Eastbourne player and 50 years Miss Woodfield’s junior. Miss Woodfield refused to hold up the game to take shelter. “Bowls is the best game of all for women,” she said. “It is a game that can be learned at

any age. I did not even start playing until I was 70. I was too busy working before then to go in for games, but the last 11 years have been my playtime.” Miss Woodfield was formerly proprietor of an Eastbourne boardinghouse.

Mrs Craxford, of Southgate, is champion, and this year is challenged by ail the English county and club champions and by some from Scotland.

The men were very impressed by the women’s play. “Some of them can give the men points in style,” said one of the husbands who had come to watch.

There are several family partner ships. Mrs and Miss Huggett and Mr and Miss Llewellin are two Eastboum

mother and daughter pairs who play together. Mrs Johns, the president of the English Women’s Bowling Association, and her daughter, Mrs Greaves, are rivals.

Mrs King, the English champior Mrs Fawcett, the Hove and Hasting champion, and Mrs Johns were amen the early winners on September 3.

The organiser and secretary of thi: contest—the largest of its kind in Eng land—is Mrs Alma Lodge.