Top bowler Mclean dies
Decorated Manawatu bowler Lyn Mclean has died, aged 72.
Mclean died of a heart attack on Saturday, having been part of the golden era of Manawatu bowls in her heyday.
She won numerous Manawatu centre titles and club titles, won two medals at the 1989 Pacific Games in Fiji and was part of the women’s fours team who won a silver medal at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games.
The Pacific Games were her debut for New Zealand and she won a gold medal in the fours, where she was playing at No 2, and she was the lead in the pairs team that won silver.
Manawatu legend Joyce Osborne was the New Zealand women’s manager at that stage.
At the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Mclean was in the four who were beaten 20-18 by Australia in the final and she was playing at No 4.
It was the same Commonwealth Games where Manawatu greats Phil Skoglund and Peter Shaw won bronze with the men’s four.
Mclean’s death came almost two years to the day after Skoglund’s.
Out of Freyberg High School, Mclean started bowling in 1975 at Northern Bowling Club, which was a powerhouse in those days.
In her later years she shifted to Foxton Beach, bowling for Foxton and Beach, but then poor health stopped her playing.
It is believed if health hadn’t hindered her in later years she would have as many titles as the legendary Bev Budd.
She was a longtime rep bowler for Manawatu and played at many New Zealand championships.
It is unsure how many centre titles Mclean won, but by the time she was announced in the New Zealand team in 1988, she had won 11 centre titles, four of them as a junior.
In her first year bowling she won the Northern colts singles and pairs titles, as well as the junior singles, pairs and fours at Northern.
She won the junior titles for the next two years.
By March 1989 she had 28 Northern club titles.
She also had two Wanganui centre titles and two Kapiti Coast titles.
In 1989 she was third at the New Zealand championships in the pairs along with club-mate Gwen Mckenzie and runnerup in the fours.