In February 1980 a composite women’s four consisting of three members of our club, Francie Galloway (skip), Wynne Bullen and Rita Murphy along with Marie Krenek from Central Levin took part in the National championships held in the Wellington area that year. It was originally to be a Central Levin team but some of their members withdrew and the team ended up being skipped by Francie Galloway who had recently joined Levin.
The team enjoyed great success during the tournament beating some top teams along the way and managed to reach the final to be played on a Sunday against an Avondale team at the Berhampore club. The team set out early for a 1 pm start at Berhampore but a series of events delayed them until they were picked up by Percy Walton from Waikanae and arrived at the green only 10 minutes before play was to begin. Unfortunately the upset contributed to the team taking some time to recover their earlier form and they went down by 3 points – but still the best result by a team from our club at the national level.
The aftermath was interesting. As Wynne Bullen explained in our club’s Centenary publication:
“After we came off the green, we were told that those of us from the Levin club were to present ourselves to the members of the governing body.. The President at that time was Mrs Walker from Auckland. She waded into us over our name. We had taken it for granted that we would take the same name as the men and that Levin women’s would just add ‘Women’s’ to their name. Mrs Walker would not listen to our reasons and finished by telling us that if we did not comply by changing our name in some way, we would be suspended. Faced with that ultimatum we were obliged to ask our members to vote for a new name. Levin West was the final choice, but I can state here and now that we felt we had been rail-roaded.”
It was by the name Levin West Women’s Bowling Club that the women’s section continued to be known until amalgamation of the two clubs in 1997.
Francie Galloway, mother of our current players Keith and Les, and mother- in- law of Liz Galloway joined our women’s club when it was formed in 1979 and was its first Match convenor. Prior to joining Levin she had played at both Central Levin and Levin Women’s. She won Manawatu Centre Champion-of-Champions singles titles at both Central Levin and Levin and was a Manawatu Centre Gold Star holder from 1978. Francie remains a social member of our club today.
L to R: Rita Murphy, Wynne Bullen, Marie Krenek and Francie Galloway.
Wynne Bullen was a founding member of our women’s club. She served as President and Secretary of the Levin West Women’s club, was a Centre delegate and umpire. As a player she was a member of the Champion-of-Champions fours team of 1984-85. Later Wynne became a Life Member of Levin Bowling club and was its Patroness until four years ago. Wynne still takes a very keen interest in the progress and events of our club.