Left: Mary Price will represent Blind Bowls Victoria this month in Adelaide.
By Melissa Meehan
LAWN bowls is a game of soft hands and pure precision – so imagine playing with limited vision.
For Pakenham’s Mary Price, it’s all part of the game she loves.
Next week Mary will head to Adelaide to represent Blind Bowls Victoria over 10 days.
Mary is one of seven visually impaired members of the group who will represent Victoria along with their sighted directors.
It is not the first time Mary has travelled interstate to represent Victoria, last year in Perth she won a silver medal in the mixed pairs event and a bronze medal in the ladies’ pairs.
This year she will be playing in a different category, as her sight has deteriorated, but Mary has taken it all in her stride.
“When we (Mary and her late husband George) came to Melbourne from Tocumwal, Vision Australia came to our house and put buttons on the washing machine and the fridge so I could see them,” Mary said.
“We started talking about how I played bowls and she said she knew the president of Blind Bowls and that I should head down there and try it out.”
And the rest is history.
Mary not only plays for blind bowls, but also plays at the Pakenham Bowls club.
“It’s quite a bit different – not being able to see,” Mary explains.
“There are markers on both sides of the rink and the sighted director calls out the distance we need to bowl.
“It means I have to be good at maths,” she says with a smile.
Not only having to imagine the green, Mary also has to take weather conditions into consideration.
“It’s pretty hard when it’s windy,” Mary said.
“But the hardest thing is not having my husband George as my director.”
Mary will head to Adelaide on Wednesday and is hoping to bring home some medals.
