Eileen Logan was a stickler for following the rules both on the bowling green and in her personal life. She did not approve of playing solely for fun and would cast a critical eye over matches as they unfolded. A private person, she rarely spoke about her own considerable achievements as one of the finest of all women bowlers.
Logan was both an England indoor and outdoor bowls international. She became a Middlesex, England, British Isles and national pairs indoor champion. In retirement, she would advise emerging players at Bounds Green Club in Southgate, north London.
Her desire for privacy stemmed from both her husbands having died within a few years of marriage, leaving her a widow at the age of 43. Bowls, at which she excelled from her thirties (she did not grow up with sporty parents), consumed her until she retired at the age of 80. “It is very rare to find someone good at both indoor and outdoor bowls,” Ray Young, the chairman of Bounds Green, said. “Longevity in bowls and being an England indoor international for 11 years is quite something.”
Concentration and the resolve to win were Logan’s foremost characteristics on the green. She was fortunate to play in the heyday of bowls and at a club which, although possessing a small membership, was well established and which could withstand council funding cut-backs. She could not abide players who did not put in 100 per cent effort,” said Pamela Sullivan, her niece. “She was regarded as a bit of an ogre on the green.”
Logan knew how to read a green and attack a head of bowls — in reference to a cluster — and swiftly understood her opponent’s tactics: indeed, she was always trying to find her opponent’s weaknesses, in a civil but stand-offish way. She was prepared to go to the bar afterwards, although she drank little alcohol, and to return later to Bounds Green to attend quiz nights and whist drives.
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Born in 1930, Eileen Margaret Fadden grew up in Hornsey, north London. Her father, Fred Fadden, was a London docker who lost an eye in an industrial accident. Two days before the outbreak of the Second World War, she and other pupils at St Mary’s junior school were evacuated to Brampton in Huntingdonshire. She returned to Hornsey high school in 1941. After matriculating, she gained certificates in book-keeping at Tottenham Technical College.
Logan became English Womens’ National Indoor Bowling Association (EIBA) champion in 1977-78, and an England indoor and outdoor international the following year. At outdoor bowls, she became Middlesex and EWBA champion in 1978 and British Isles champion in 1979. Some of her success could be put down to playing with size seven bowls, which her right hand was big enough to grip, whereas most men and women preferred size three or four.
She worked as a book-keeper, before marrying George Ward, who worked for a printing firm, in 1957; he died ten years later, aged 49. She married David Logan, an insurance broker, in 1968, but was widowed again after five years when he died aged 63. Both men had heart problems. There were no children from either marriage
She retired from all bowls in 2010, after which she enjoyed going on cruises. She died leaving Selborne Bowling Club, north London, after a dinner where she had been the guest of honour. Her coffin was wrapped in the Middlesex bowling flag.
Eileen Logan, bowls champion, was born on February 15, 1930. She died suddenly on July 24, 2015, aged 85