Kiama local Ethel Curran began ten-pin bowling in 1966 - Neil Armstrong was yet to land on the moon, Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys had just been released, and scores at the bowling alley were still recorded by hand on paper cards.

“A friend asked me to come and join their team - they were a couple of players short at Warrawong. Warrawong was open, so I thought, ‘Why not?’” Ethel recalled.

Now 90 years old, Ethel is still going strong - and the proof is in the pins. Just a couple of weeks ago, she bowled a score of 210.

“I haven’t bowled that for a long time,” she laughed. “I suppose I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing bowls anyway.”

But for Ethel, bowling is about more than scores.

“I come for the company. A group of us - about eight or nine - all stay for lunch. It’s just a lovely outing, and the best thing about bowling is: we can play in any weather.”

Ethel began in a bowling league at Warrawong. When that centre closed, she moved to Albion Park - a brief stint she didn’t enjoy.

“We absolutely hated it. The road was terrible getting in and out of the bowling alley. As soon as Shellharbour opened, our league was the first to come over here to Shellharbour Bowling alley. But most of those people aren’t bowling with us anymore,” she said.

These days, Ethel bowls in a league called The Misfits. Her team of three is called The Easy Beats.

Ethel with teammate Rhonda Parson from The Easy Beats

“We play three games, and everyone has a handicap. The lower your average, the higher your handicap, which gets added to your score to make things fair,” she explained.

“Every week, we put in what we call our social money. We used to get trophies, but we ended up with so many I had to take the plaques off mine and repurpose them as awards. Now, the team that comes first gets the most prize money - but we all get something back.”

Ethel’s personal best is an impressive 279.

“My best game at Warrawong was 279. In the first two frames, I had an 8-spare and a 9-spare, and then 10 strikes after that,” she says with a grin.

“There’s just something so satisfying about the sound when you knock them all down. And it’s almost more satisfying when you pick up a hard spare - like a split. Not so much when you miss the one lone pin — I’ve done that plenty of times,” she laughed.

Bowling is such a big part of her life that when she turned 90, her only birthday wish was to have her whole family bowl with her.

“I have 12 great-grandchildren, four grandchildren and their partners, and we all came down to bowl for my 90th birthday. We had so much fun - the kids absolutely loved it. We took up nearly the whole bowling alley,” she said.

That celebration is part of what makes the sport so special to her - the fact that anyone, of any age, can enjoy it.

“Anyone can bowl. Years ago, I was playing a social game with my cousin and her little girl - she must’ve been about four or five. She couldn’t even hold the ball properly, rolled it slowly down the lane - and she got a strike!”

And when asked if she’s planning to retire anytime soon?

“I’ll be bowling until they forcibly take me out.”