A local bowling club legend is provomg that age is just a number as she prepares to take on the region's best in the Ovens and Murray Championship of Championships in Wangaratta around the end of January next year.

Beechworth Bowling Club member Joan Deuis won last month’s annual women’s club championship, adding to a string of various competitions wins over the years in her bowling career.

Next year marks 40 years of playing the sport for the inspirational 94-year-old.

Joan took up the game after retiring from a nursing career when friends invited her to have a shot at bowls.

“I undertook coaching for the first six or eight weeks in Albury and then had great success from the first year of playing,” Joan said.

Away from the local club for nine years playing for the Commercial Club in Albury, Joan won the local club championship after her return to the Beechworth Bowling Club in 2022.

Joan has won three out of four women’s club championship since she returned.

The champion bowler worked for the Victorian Ladies Bowling Association in Melbourne for four years from 2002 to 2006 as the Victorian State councillor for Group 7.

“I headed the Ovens and Murray, North Eastern and Central Murray regions,” she said.

“I made lots of friends and played in Australian championships where the role took me all over Victoria as well.

“We went to different events, and I took a team every year to the Australian championships, and we had great fun.

“This included championships in Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.”

Among Joan’s incredible achievements she also won the 2004-2005 Ovens and Murray Women’s Champion of Champions.

“I've had a wonderful career in bowls,” she said.

Joan said bowling is a brilliant sport with many opportunities for young people.

“If they're good, they can go on to compete in the Ovens and Murray competitions, go on to state, and then to the Australian comps.

“There's been a lot of young players including under 12s and under 18s in those age groups who have made it through to Australian championships.”

Joan said three of her great-grandchildren in Beechworth are keen players too.

The Sydney-born bowler lived in Melbourne, moved to Shepparton, and then relocated to the NSW country town of Hillston near Griffith where she met her late husband.

“We came to the North East to live in Yackandandah and shifted to Beechworth when I started nursing in 1970 at the Mayday Hills Mental Hospital,” Joan said.