Sport
Drought's broken
TORIN CHEN
Wednesday 2 July, 2008 10:00am
A LONG-AWAITED drought is over for lawn bowler Jeanette Mclean.
The Liverpool City club bowler has gone 14 years without winning a major singles championship but that all changed when she took out her maiden singles title recently.
Mclean, who won the Liverpool City minor singles championship in 2000, won her first major singles title with a hard-fought 31-23 win over multiple major singles champion Karen Mitchell.
She set up the upset win with a lightning start which saw her lead 9-0.
Former NSW representative Mitchell threatened to seize control of the game when she drew within three shots at 20-17 but Mclean held steady to claim a historic nine-shot victory.
``I expected Karen to challenge me and overtake me but I was able to maintain my lead,'' Mclean said.
Mclean stuck to a simple game plan of staying with her trusted draw shot and cutting down Mitchell's shots to singles and doubles.
``You just have to keep drawing and drawing and if you are down just go down by one shot,'' Mclean said.
``I always managed to come in with the last bowl and cut her down to one shot.
``She did get a three towards the end but by that time I was 10 or 12 shots in front.''
Mclean believes her new redline bowls gave her the edge over opponent.
``It has taken a while to get used to them but they are very good.''
