Sports

Life Members May Ford and Pat McLennan. Image: Contributed

We salute our new Honorary Life Members

The Coutts Crossing Croquet Club recently honoured two of our members with ‘Life Membership’.

May Ford

May Ford was born in Queensland in 1924, the youngest of eight children. She met Tommy and married him in 1953. They moved to Lower Kangaroo Creek and May raised four daughters whilst running a dairy.

In her younger days she played tennis and vigoro but excelled in hockey. She played goalie for Queensland and was selected for the Australian national team. In the Clarence she played tennis for the Cathedral Club and won a number of singles championships and doubles with various partners. She often played squash at Gillet’s squash courts. May moved on to bowls and was one of the ladies who set up the South Services Women’s Bowls Club, holding every position in the club, later moving to South Bowls Club where she remains a member. She often said nothing could replace bowls in her life till she was persuaded to try croquet. She took to it like a duck to water, loves both the game and the people she has met at the club. She has endeared herself to everyone in our club. We wish her many more years of play

Pat McLennan

Pat was born in Mosman in 1929 and came to this area when she was 16 to complete her education at St Mary’s College. She was a Jacaranda Princess in 1951. She married and had three children; Paul, Cathy and Lindy. She now has seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

For years she helped her sister Dot run the Five Mile Hotel on Armidale Road and for a while took on the role of secretary of the Australian Hotels Association. For sixty years her passion was tennis. With her sister she won the NSW Country Ladies Doubles championship and was numerous times the Grafton District Ladies Singles Champion. With her keen eye and her tactical sense she took to croquet and constantly surprises us with the accuracy of her game. Ever the charming lady she has graced our croquet lawns in recent years and we hope she will continue to do so for years to come.

Peter Martin