Without the benefit of formal instruction, Betty Lou Field dominated the London bowling scene through the sixties and seventies and continues to actively participate to this day.

The oldest of six children, Betty Lou joined a mixed league for the 1960-61 season at Biltmore Lanes at Dundas and Rectory Streets in London. Her average for that first year was 202 and Betty Lou was on her way to stardom. Joe Worrall invited her to join Arcade Lanes and Betty Lou joined the Arcadettes which were sponsored by Joe and the Arcade centre.

Betty Lou’s skills improved quickly and, at the conclusion of the 1963-64 season, she won her first City of London championships with a fifteen game average of 255. Betty Lou won this event for the final time in 1969 and her margin of victory over fifteen games was nearly 400 pins.

The Open, as conducted by the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, became the centrepiece of Betty Lou’s career as she has qualified twenty nine times in the thirty year history of the event. In addition, twenty three of those appearances were on the ladies team and only six on the mixed team. The 1969 Open may have been the highlight as Betty Lou won the thirty game zone roll-off by more than five hundred pins only to finish second in the provincial finals which were held in Sudbury.

Betty Lou joined the Master Bowlers’ Association in 1966 and, all told, bowled in the tournament division a total of seventeen years from 1966-1977 and 1985-1991. In all, Betty Lou won five events including Bowler of the Year honours from the 1972-73 season. However, a national title was again denied during singles competition held at Towne Bowl in Kitchener.

While Betty Lou was dominating the bowling lanes, she also became a top notch instructor and coach. From 1963 to 1971, she was head instructor at Bowl-O-Rama Lanes in London and personally tutored three provincial YBC champions and two national champions. Specifically, Jane Aicken of Dorchester won the 1973 bantam girls singles title and, in addition, her two children have also starred on the lanes. Sons, Dan and Calvin, are both 260 average bowlers and her daughter in law, Janice, bowled a perfect game on September 13, 1990. In addition, through the Master Junior tournament, Betty Lou bowled with both Dan and Calvin and also her two grandchildren, Daniel and Koryn.

Completing her total involvement in our sport, Betty Lou experienced the ownership side with the purchase of Olympia Bowl in Dorchester. From 1971-1985, Betty Lou used her coaching skills to instruct both her YBC bowlers in Dorchester and continued to coach Senior Mixed and Youth Challenge teams in the London zone. In 1980, the Junior Girls team from Olympia Bowl won provincial honours and participated in the national finals, which were also held in London.

Throughout her career, Betty Lou has always been “in charge”. Prior to the arrival of the OFPBA in London, she was Press Secretary and in charge of membership and newsletters. With the arrival of organized bowling in London, Betty Lou served several years with the London association.

Even today, Betty Lou continues to lead as President of the ladies’ travelling league and, in a new career, has just completed a two year stint as President of the Craigowan Golf Club in Woodstock.