A native of Scotland, Janet Peel spent her childhood in Toronto but made her mark in five pin bowling at her adult home base in Oshawa.

As with another of tonight’s inductees, Lorry Bates, Janet excelled as a softball pitcher and used her follow-through to adopt her smooth bowling style.

Janet became involved in bowling almost accidentally, when she and her husband Chuck dropped in on the Oshawa Ladies Major League on their way to the movies in 1940. Hall of Famers such as Lorraine Murphy were in the league and Janet actually bowled that night, managing scores of only 148, 147 and 152. However, she improved rapidly and by 1942, was of a caliber to enter the Canadian Bowlers Association annual tournament, which at that time was the only annual organized tournament for the bowlers to participate in. In the first event, Janet rolled the high triple of 806 at Olympia Gerard in Toronto to narrowly defeat another Hall of Famer Vera Ward of Hamilton.

Janet continued to attend the CBA each year and in 1952 at Karrys, made history with the first and only perfect game in the tournament, which was conducted over thirty years.

While Janet was bowling each week in Oshawa, she was also starring on the lanes in Toronto. Each Tuesday and Saturday, throughout the fifties and into the sixties, Janet along with another Hall of Famer, Bea Ross would bus to Toronto to bowl in the Mixed Majors at Olympia and the Ladies Majors on Saturday.

In addition, Janet along with Doris Luke, Marg Bently, Tiny Baker, Theda Procher and Eileen Huston, were part of Mabel McDowell’s instruction crew that hosted afternoon clinics on five pin bowling throughout the Metro area.

On the provincial scene, Janet represented Oshawa at the Sportsman Show, on special lanes set up at the Coliseum at the CNE, and in 1958 won the all-events title at the annual event.

In 1960, Janet qualified to represent Ontario at the East-West Canadian championships and won national titles with both the ladies and the mixed teams. Bob Totzke coached both teams which included Janet and Gayle Hulford, Marj Summers, Isabelle King, Bea Milton, Millie Evans, Grace Kaiser, Bob Gallagher, Hugh Connelly and Jackie Wilson.

In 1960, Janet won the third annual O’Connor Open as her eight game score of 1973 topped the best ladies of the day. Janet was a regular on the CBC television series and bowled memorable matches with Hall of Famers Mabel McDowell, Ollie Miller and Dottie Peppin.

Following the glory days of the fifties and early sixties, Janet still managed to qualify for the Open five times, making her last appearance in 1972. As well as bowl, Janet also chose to coach and worked extensively with the youngsters at Motor City Bowl in Oshawa. Her bantam team were gold medal winners in the Ontario Winter Games in Kingston in 1978.

While many bowlers hang up their shows and retire, Janet at 74, has no such plans. Today she is active in three leagues one in the afternoon and both the ladies and mixed majors and her average is sell over 200. Janet and her husband Chuck have four children, Janet, Margaret, Sheila and Graham from 47 years of marriage and enjoy 15 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, while still living in Oshawa.