Jeanette Scott is the new captain of the ladies’ section at Cheltenham Bowling Club.

But while she is new to the role this year, hers is a name that is very familiar to bowls players both at the club and around the county.

That's because this is Jeanette’s second term as ladies’ captain at the club and she has also served as Gloucestershire ladies’ president. That was back in 2010, the same year that she captained Cheltenham for the first time.

Jeanette, who will be 66 in June, has been playing bowls for 27 years, initially for Moreton-in-Marsh before joining Cheltenham in 2009.

“I love playing bowls,” she told The Local Answer. “I’m very competitive and bowls can be very competitive. The social side is also really good and it’s a relatively inexpensive sport to play.”

Jeanette was also captain when she played for Moreton-in-Marsh so it’s clearly a sport that she has taken to in a big way.

“I’m not too bad,” she said modestly, before adding, “I’ve won quite a few glass bowls in my time at Moreton and Cheltenham.”

She also represented the county for some 20 years and was part of the Gloucestershire team that reached the semi-finals of the Johns Trophy in 2017.

“That was a good achievement, that’s a good competition,” said Jeanette, who also represented Cheltenham in the two wood finals in the national championships at Leamington Spa in 2014.

She is obviously pretty good and it will come as little surprise to anyone that although bowls is her number one sport these days, Jeanette is something of a sporting all-rounder.

“I played hockey from the age of 12 right up until I was 38 when I took up bowls,” said Jeanette, who was a pupil at what is now Cotswold School. “I played tennis, I used to swim and I played badminton at Stow-on-the-Wold Badminton Club.

“I’m like quite a lot of people, if you play one sport you tend to play half-a-dozen.”

These days, of course, you will often find Jeanette in Suffolk Square, the home of Cheltenham Bowling Club.

“It’s a good club,” said Jeannette. “We’ve got two greens, we’re in the centre of town and we’ve got parking. I think we’ve got something like 120 playing members and about 100 social members.

“Some of the playing members are in their 80s and 90s but we’ve got youngsters under the age of 10 playing too, we’ve got a couple of three generations playing at the club.

“We also do school age coaching and have open days for Cheltenham groups.”

The club also play host to some big tournaments and this year they will be home to the Open Singles championships and the Open Pairs championships.

Those tournaments are open to players from all over the country and Jeanette said: “You get some good bowlers taking part.”

Jeanette has entered the singles competition and she plans to keep on playing bowls until “my knees give in”.

She admits that she is “probably past my prime” but that certainly won’t stop her giving her all both on and off the green.

As she says: “It’s a sport that you play outside, it’s competitive and it’s fun.”