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4 February 2016 | Tennis ACT

Norma Crawley (nee Southwell) was a long standing member of the ACT tennis community. Born in November 1924, Norma passed away on October 22, 2015 aged 90. She had a long and distinguished career in tennis in the ACT.

From 1946 to 1966 Norma won the ACT Resident’s singles title four times, women’s doubles title ten times, and mixed doubles four times. She also held the Yass and Queanbeyan championships. Married to Alan Crawley, Norma teamed up with her husband to win many of her mixed doubles titles. Norma won several doubles titles at the ACT Open, in years where some of Australia’s top male and female players participated.

In 1977 she was part of the ACT team which won the 50 ladies championships at the Australian Teams Carnival. The team played together until 1987, winning two more titles during this time. In the individual Championships, she won the women’s doubles in 1977 and was a finalist on two other occasions.

In 1981, she travelled to Osaka, Japan, and Hong Kong with a team of players.

One of her career highlights was playing in the New South Wales Championships with Joyce Martin, defeating Pat Jones and Clair Proctor before falling to the Ashford sisters in the final.

Both the Crawley and Southwell families have a long standing history of tennis in the ACT, and Norma’s outstanding record will see her remembered as one of the best female players in Canberra’s tennis history.