Gloria Thomas

Gloria Thomas is a former international lawn bowls and indoor bowls competitor who represented England. She helped establish organised women's bowling in Cornwall in the 1960s, when she set up a ladies' section at her local bowling club in Helston. Her playing career brought a national pairs title in 1978, won in partnership with Anne Pascoe. Her best known results came at the 1981 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Toronto, which she reached through a qualifying event at the Whitnash Bowls Club in 1980. There she won gold in the fours alongside Eileen Fletcher, Mavis Steele, Betty Stubbings and Irene Molyneux, a gold in the team event known as the Taylor Trophy, and a bronze medal in the pairs. She was still competing in the 2003 EBWA triples championship, which shows a playing life of more than two decades.