Battle of the sexes rocks sedate world of lawn bowls

The world of lawn bowls in Melbourne has been rocked by a ruling that obliges clubs to open formerly single-sex competitions to all comers.

At one club, the ladies' champion is now a man and the men's champion is a woman.

The ruling applies to all 550 clubs in Victoria, and was handed down by the state's Equal Opportunities Commission after a young woman, Emily South, challenged club regulations that restricted women to playing during the week and men at weekends. The schedule dated back to when men were breadwinners and women were housewives.

Ms South is one of a younger generation attracted to the sport after a campaign by clubs to modernise their image. An offbeat Australian film about an ailing bowling club, Crackerjack, was a runaway success last year.

But the abolition of single-sex events has met resistance in a sport dominated by elderly players in whites and crepe soles. Some have quit clubs in disgust. Games have been disrupted by arguments on the green. And women have refused to serve tea to male players.

Jordan Blair Bremner, a 19-year-old librarian student, caused a stir when he won this year's ladies' competition at his local club in Sandringham, a wealthy Melbourne neighbourhood. To restore the balance, Jillian Ward won the men's competition.

Mr Blair Bremner went on to be defeated by a woman, Judith Thacker, in the knockout stage of a champion-of-champions' event.

Recalling the moment when he arrived for the game, he said: "Every head turned around when I walked in. People were making comments about a man on the green."

The Victorian Ladies Bowling Association is fighting to overturn the ruling. The organisation has been flooded with letters protesting about the changes.

Jean Harvey, of the Edithvale club, in the Melbourne suburbs, plans to give up bowls and take up line-dancing at the end of the season because she is fed up with men intruding into her weekly game.

"There'll be a mass exodus, just you watch" she warned. "I've seen a woman in tears on the green because of a man and the way he was carrying on."

Irene Wardley, another player, said: "We're going to lose a lot of little old ladies."

Men are not happy with the developments, either. Mrs Thacker's husband has given up bowls. "Men like to have their jokes, play their bowls, socialise and enjoy a drink afterwards," she said. "The presence of women cramps their mateship."

Aficionados insist that men and women play bowls differently, with men relying more on strength and women on accuracy. Peter Taylor, from Mentone club, said: "Ladies don't want bowls whistling around their ankles. They can't get out of the way quick enough."

But Diane South, Emily's mother and a keen bowls player herself, scoffed at that assertion: "Beware little old ladies who shoot from the hip," she said.