Melbourne, Dec 5 (IANS): A decision to allow women to compete in an Australian state lawn bowls competition for the first time has caused an uproar among the men, many of whom have chosen to leave the new mixed-gender competition.

Since October, when women were admitted to the previously male-only Bowls Tasmania South's (BTS) Saturday pennant competition, about 200 male players have quit, reports Xinhua.

Some said they felt pressured to censor their language and behaviour in the company of women, while others believed women could not play to the same standard as men.

"We don't have a choice of playing men's bowls, which really sticks in my craw," Rod Purcell, a member of a committee advocating male-only competition, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"I think it's unfair and it's sexist."

"You've got to watch your 'Ps' and 'Qs'. You can't act and do the same things as you did with your men compatriots."

Another competitor in the BTS league, Lindsay Lovell, who has been playing lawn bowls for 40 years, said he would continue to play in Wednesday's men's competition, but would keep his bowls packed away on a Saturday.

"I won't play pennant - not while there's a mixed competition across the board," he told the ABC.

"All the camaraderie's gone. Half the afternoon for us is so the men can talk to the men and enjoy the game of bowls, which is not happening now."

However, in Victoria, male-only competitions have long been disbanded and most competitions are open to both genders, as Bowls Victoria chief executive Graham Bridge told Xinhua Friday.

"We can't do that because legislation was passed in our state and a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing determined that men and women, in regard to playing bowls, were of an equal strength, stamina and physique - that delivering a bowl for a woman was exactly the same as delivering for a man. That's been in place since 2001."

He said women were under-represented in Victoria, with two men to every female player.

"(Open competition) provides an opportunity for working women to play on the weekend. If they are working women who are of a fairly reasonable ability, it gives them an opportunity to play in a higher competition that has usually been dominated by males in the past."

Purcell and his other committee members this week met for the first time, with support from 10 presidents of the 28 clubs in BTS. Whether they are accepted back by BTS - or set up a rival competition - they will only compete in a league which is devoid of female representation.