| Nancie Colling | |
| Birth Name: | Florence Nancie Whalley |
| Nationality: | British (English) |
| Birth Date: | 19 April 1919 |
| Birth Place: | Colwyn Bay, Wales |
| Death Date: | 1 July 2020 (aged 101) |
| Death Place: | Seaton, Devon, England |
| Sport: | Lawn bowls |
| Club: | Frome Selwood BC |
Florence Nancie Colling (née Whalley) also Nancie Evans (19 April 1919[1] – 1 July 2020) was an international lawn bowls competitor for England.[2]
Born in Colwyn Bay her family relocated to Somerset. She started bowling in Frome during 1948 and was Secretary of the Frome Selwood Club and the Somerset Ladies Bowling Association.[3] In 1956 she won the first of her four National titles when winning the singles championship.[4] [5] Just two years later she won her second title in 1958,[6] again bowling for Somerset, this was the same year in which she married Harold Evans and then played as Nancie Evans.[7] The third title was the 1965 two wood singles.[8] [9] Widowed in 1959 she remarried to Coryndon Colling in 1967, playing as Nancie Colling afterwards. Remarkably she won the fourth of her National singles titles in 1970, four years after a spine injury had temporarily paralysed her.[10]
In 1973 she was selected for the England team at the 1973 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Wellington, New Zealand and won a silver medal's in the fours with Phyllis Derrick, Eileen Smith and Joan Sparkes, in addition to winning a bronze medal in the team event (Taylor Trophy).[11]
In 1976 she became President of the English Women's Bowling Association and four years later served as Secretary of her National Association, a role that was performed for 22 years. She was also the President of the International Women's Bowling Board.[5]
During the 1996 Birthday Honours she was awarded an MBE for services to bowls.[12] [13] Colling was recognised on her 100th birthday in 2019 by Bowls England[14] but she died the following year in 2020 at her care home in Devon.[5]