A New Zealand champion outdoor bowler is hanging up her hat after almost 50 years in the game.
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.​

Her consistent bowling form, which saw her beat New Zealand members and selectors led to her representing New Zealand for about five years.
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.

Tragic situation for a club to go through - all of the history contained within, now ashes. 

The Foxton and Beach Bowling Club at Foxton Beach was devastated by a blaze on Wednesday 2nd of March. The clubhouse has been completely gutted and its large corrugated iron roof has collapsed.
President Alan Shannon and Vice President Chris Avery (pictured) say it’s not the end, and the club will rebuild. “We’ve got too many members to close up” Ms Avery said.

“We just don’t know [what’s next]. It’s going to take time to get it back together.”
They will hold a special general meeting for all members to decide what to do next. First they will need to find a venue.
Mr Shannon said the cause of the fire, which took four hours to put out, was still being investigated.
They were waiting for insurers to finish their work and for asbestos to be removed before the building was demolished.
There wasn’t much that could be salvaged. The fire ripped through every part of the building, except for a pump shed.

The Foxton Beach club was built in 1960 and in 2006 merged with the Foxton club to become Foxton and Beach.
It has 60 playing members and 200 to 240 social members. The club also runs business house bowls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and winter bowls. Its Friday night meals are popular too.
More than 60 years of memorabilia including photos, trophies, honours boards and certificates were destroyed in the blaze.