Florence Nancie Colling (née Whalley) also Nancie Evans (19 April 1919 – 1 July 2020) was an international

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

competitor for England.

Bowls career

Born in Colwyn Bay her family relocated to Somerset. She started bowling in Frome during 1948 and was Secretary of the Frome Selwood Club and the Somerset Ladies Bowling Association. In 1956 she won the first of her four National titles when winning the singles championship. Just two years later she won her second title in 1958, again bowling for Somerset, this was the same year in which she married Harold Evans and then played as Nancie Evans. The third title was the 1965 two wood singles. Widowed in 1959 she remarried to Coryndon Colling in 1967, playing as Nancie Colling afterwards. Remarkably she won the fourth of her National singles titles in 1970, four years after a spine injury had temporarily paralysed her. In 1973 she was selected for the England team at the

1973 World Outdoor Bowls Championship The 1973 Women's World Outdoor Bowls Championship was held at the Victoria Bowls Club in Wellington, New Zealand, from 3 to 18 December 1973. Elsie Wilkie won the singles which was held in a round robin format. The pairs was won by Australia whil ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand and won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

's in the fours with Phyllis Derrick, Eileen Smith and Joan Sparkes, in addition to winning a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in the team event (Taylor Trophy).

Bowls administration

In 1976 she became President of the English Women's Bowling Association and four years later served as Secretary of her National Association, a role that was performed for 22 years. She was also the President of the International Women's Bowling Board. During the

1996 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppl ...

she was awarded an MBE for services to bowls. Colling was recognised on her 100th birthday in 2019 by Bowls England but she died the following year in 2020 at her care home in Devon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colling, Nancie English female bowls players Sportspeople from Colwyn Bay 1919 births 2020 deaths English women centenarians 20th-century English sportswomen Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire