No women allowed! Shropshire bowls league refuses to allow female players
Shropshire's top bowling league will continue to be open only to male players.
Clubs voted at last night's Shropshire Premier Bowling League (SPBL) annual meeting not to allow women to play in its 14-team competition.
During the meeting, held at Meole Brace Bowling Club, in Shrewsbury, a vote was taken among the 13 clubs present to delete the word "male" from the league's match rules for the make up of teams.
This says: "Each team shall comprise twelve male bowlers and the draw for each game shall be made by the captains exchanging the names of their players in playing order prior to the commencement of the match."
Three voted for the motion of dropping the word "male", but 10 voted against.
The amendment was proposed by Ludlow-based Burway Bowling Club, whose star player – Claire Williams – has been unable to play for the team in the two years since the club entered the county-wide premier league.
Next season it will be too late for Ms Williams to join the line-up of the SPBL team in Ludlow, as she is moving to the Telford area.
But the principle of women being allowed to play in the competition was still worth fighting for, team members said.
Ms Williams is a long-standing stalwart with the club, who has played in various ladies' competitions as well as being a member of the table-topping Burway team in the Flowfit Ludlow & District Bowls League.
But when the club entered the county-wide premier league two years ago, they had to drop Ms Williams from the side.
The same proposal was also defeated at last year's league annual meeting.
Duncan Pressley, captain of the Burway SPBL team last year, said before last night's meeting he had hoped other teams would see his point of view that women should be able to play in the league.
He said bowls was not like athletics where there could be a big difference in ability between the sexes, as it was more about skill, precision and technique.
He said there was no equivalent to the SPBL for women.
"There are ladies' leagues, obviously, but just within localised areas as far as I know," he added.
