Lily Gower

Lily Gower, birth name Lilias Mary Gower (5 October 1877 — 29 July 1959[1]) was a Welsh croquet player, a four-time winner of the Women's Championship.[1][2] She was one of the three women who have won the Open Championship, winning in 1905.

She had won her very first public tournament at Budleigh Salterton, in 1898[2] and won the Ladies Championship for the next three years. In 1901, she started entering tournaments with men and in that year she won the Open Gold Medal, with a controversy. In semi-final her opponent (a man) accused her of "spooning". This sparkled heated discussions as to whether this was a gentlemanly way to do. [3]

During her peak she was also three times Open Gold Medalist (contestants being both men and women) and even Men's Gold Medalist. The latter case was a result of confusion in rules: after "Open" and "Women's" were renamed into "Men's" and "Women's", the inadequately modified rules contained a loophole which allowed women to enter the "Men's Gold" contest.[3]

In 1906 she married Reginald CJ Beaton, who was also a leading croquet player.

As an administrator she served on the Council of the Croquet Association between 1939 and 1954.[4][5]

References
  1. "Lily Gower - "Championess" of England" Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "The Rise of a Lady Champion", By Allen Parker, South West Area News Letter, 2002 Issue 20
  3. "Lily Gower" Archived 2011-05-26 at the Wayback Machine in: The History of Croquet, by D.M.C. Prichard (1981)
  4. The Croquet Association Centenary Year Book 1897–1997. The Croquet Association. 1997. ISBN 0-902758-05-5.
  5. Townsend's croquet almanack. Townsend Croquet Ltd. 1988. ISBN 1-871714-00-1.
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