Joan Emily Sparkes ( Southgate; born 25 July 1916) was an English international

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

competitor.

Bowls career

Joan Emily Southgate was born in rightlingsea, Essex on 25 July 1916. In 1938, she married Leslie A. Sparkes (a county player and butcher by trade). She was introduced to the sport by her husband and took up bowls in 1954 at Burnham-on-Crouch. She won the 1966 & 1972 triples title at the England Women's National Championships when bowling for Essex. In 1973 she won the

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, etc ...

in the fours at the 1973 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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 second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand and also earned 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 receive ...

in the team event (Taylor Trophy). Four years later she won another

in the fours at the

1977 World Outdoor Bowls Championship The 1977 Women's World Outdoor Bowls Championship was held in Worthing, England, from 21 May to 5 June 1977. Elsie Wilkie successfully defended her singles title which was held in a round robin format. The pairs went to Hong Kong, the triples t ...

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

with

Margaret Lockwood Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE (15 September 1916 – 15 July 1990), was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938), ''Night Train to Munich' ...

Joan Hunt Joan Hunt is a former international lawn bowls competitor for England. Bowls career In 1977 she won the silver medal in the fours at the 1977 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Worthing with Joan Sparkes, Margaret Lockwood Margaret Mary ...

and Mabel Darlington.

References

1916 births Possibly living people English female bowls players {{UK-bowls-bio-stub