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The Parkes Women's Bowling Club is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and for 65 of those Joan Simpson has been a part of it all.
The now 90-year-old began her playing career in March 1961, and fellow club stalwart 86-year-old Gwenda Carty has been bowling for 49 years and is a life member of the club.
This duo has played a lot of bowls together and seen many changes. They say it's the friendships they've formed over the decades and being part of a team are what brings them back year after year.
Even after a knee replacement just five weeks ago didn't stop Gwenda from attending the club's anniversary celebrations on Tuesday.
The pair were among the 80 women who attended the anniversary luncheon at the club and reminisced about the past.
"I still had three children in high school when I joined," Joan said.
"They'd get embarrassed when I picked them up from school because I'd be in all my whites, so they made me park around the corner," she laughed.
Joan comes from a family of bowlers - her parents Ted and Dorothy Collins were players and both presidents of each club, and her late husband Fred Simpson was a past president.
Now their son Ian is following the family tradition.
Over the years Joan has been on the Parkes Women’s committees in various positions including vice president from 1988-1990.
She has also been the club delegate at district level.
The culmination of the many years of service to the club was in 2019 when she was made a patron.
One of Joan's favourite memories is winning the Grade 3 State Pennants in 2004, after succeeding at district and zone levels.
Joan has played in most sections of the club championship games over her many years playing bowls: she won the minor singles in the 1971/72 season; minor pairs in 1987/1988 with Lorraine Watts and again in 1991/1992; major pairs were won in 1987/88, 1991/92 and 2003/04 all with Lorraine Watts; triples featured in 1977/78, 1979/80, 1990/91, 1991/92, 2000/01, 2004, and 2019/20 with several different partners including Irene Hennock, Lorraine Watts, Daphne Smith, Pat Cooney, and Maureen Miller.
In the fours championships Joan won in 1990/91, 2003, 2007 and 2013 starting with Molly Wyatt, Ethel Job, Daphne Smith and in the later years with Cherie Frame, Lorraine Watts, Flo Riseborough, Merilyn Rodgers and Helen Heraghty.
Joan’s foray into district events began in 1992/93 in the Pairs and Fours and she continued playing nearly every year in some events until 2023.
For Gwenda, she loves every aspect of bowls.
"It's wonderful, I love all of it. I love the friendship," she said.
"I did end up playing in the state final in the Open 4s in 2020."
When the time came when women were allowed to join the Board of Parkes Bowling and Sports Club, Gwenda was the first woman on the Board and remained there for 16 years from 1993 to 2012.
"We had a big club in the early days, with over 100 women," she said.
"And we had to wear white - the white stockings on display with the old club uniforms (at the anniversary lunch) are my mum's, Alma Atkinson, when she played."