Elizabeth Prattley, who goes by Bett, has been forced to retire because of injury and no longer being able to concentrate during games.
In 1995 Prattley won a gold medal for the women's four’s at the Asia Pacific Bowls Championship in Dunedin alongside team members Marie Watson, Marlene Castle, and Millie Khan.
In the same championship, in the women’s pairs, Prattley and teammate Judy Howat received silver medals.
Prattley was just the second female from the South Island to represent New Zealand at bowls and the 28th overall to don the silver fern, receiving her black cap at the Geraldine centennial from Kerry Clark.
Her performances at the championships also led to her winning the South Canterbury Sportsperson of the Year Award, and the Geraldine Sportsperson Award, in 1996.
While her playing was award winning, she came across the game ‘’completely by accident’’. While volunteering for St John, her weekly meeting was cancelled so she went to meet with her husband at the Woodbury Indoor Sports Club.
“Lloyd and the rest of the players were going to play indoor bowls, but they were a person short, so I filled in,” she said. “My teammate and I ended up winning.
Playing indoor bowls for the better half of a decade, in 1975 she made the move to outdoor bowls, and “the rest they say is history”, she said.
The game has taken her all over the world including Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe, she said.