Pat Chapman, who is turning 89 next month, has been the publicity officer for Urunga Women's Bowls since 2005.

She's been one of the newspaper's best sports contributors, reliably sending every week a well-written report with a photograph, which was almost always of someone else, as she was the person wielding the camera.

"And because I never win anything," she joked.

Pat will be moving to Keperra Sanctuary, a retirement village near her daughter's family in Brisbane, on November 27.

"I'm very sad to leave, I really am," Pat said, adding that she was very settled in Urunga after more than three decades there.

However, she is is looking forward to spending more time with her daughter Patti and her adult grandsons, and watching her four great-grandsons, whose ages range from five to nine, grow up.

"I'm also looking forward to seeing more ballet and live theatre," she said.

Pat and her husband John started visiting Urunga for weekends and holidays 42 years ago when they were both working at the University of New England in Armidale. Pat was secretary to the University Council and John was head of electronic engineering.

Upon retirement in 1985, they happily moved permanently from the university city to the coastal town.

John died in 2012, and in preparation for downsizing to the retirement village, Pat had a big garage sale recently and found someone to take the last of John's electronics gear, another aspect of the move that caused a pang.

As well as sending weekly reports about bowls for more than a decade, Pat has also done the Probus newsletter over the same time period and has been a member of VIEW for over 30 years.

Her friends at the Bowling Club are giving her a farewell lunch on Friday November 15 at Anchor's Wharf Cafe & Restaurant in Urunga.