WORKING as a bus driver, it is no wonder Kevin McLean does not like to drive.The Ballarat Memorial Sports premier division skipper prefers a couple of metres of weight through the head."You see these blokes who are drive mad, a good draw bowler will beat a driver any day, I believe that anyway," McLean said."There's a time and a place to play every shot in the book. "I'm not much of a driver anyway, I play probably a yard to three yards into the head because I don't like to lose my bowl ... a yard-on shot is probably the best shot in the game. "If you do a bit of damage, you'll probably sit in the head, or you'll sit on a bowl or move the cat, something will happen and you've got control over it. "Whereas with a drive, if you are banging away and you haven't got control over it with direction, it's all over the place and you're going to do some big numbers."And after 28 years of bowling and five club championships, he might just know what he is talking about.A lot of people join a bowls club because it has a bar and that is exactly what brought McLean to the game."I originally started through an old friend of mine, Bill Cochran, who was the secretary of the Ballarat City Bowling Club. "And he knew I used to do a bit of part-time bar work on a Friday night at the Old Colonists' Club and Saturday evenings if there was a wedding on at the Midlands Golf Club. "He got me a bit of part-time work down there at City, and after a while, someone left and I became the full-time steward there. "I hadn't bowled for about 18 months after I started the job there and then they talked me into playing, actually it was against your club _ Ballarat East in division seven one Saturday because someone never turned up _ and being a substitute for East and winning, they didn't like that too much so they suggested I should play for them in the future." From there the 55-year-old has seen Ballarat City merge with Servicemen's Memorial Bowling Club and then move to its current home at Alfredton after winning last season's division one premiership."We were probably the best side all year and we're probably not used to being in that position, we're normally used to being the underdog," McLean said."So we had to play it low key during the finals, trying to build the other sides up to let them know we weren't cocky or anything else."We had a job to do and we had to go out and do it. "And the boys were brilliant, absolutely brilliant _ probably one of the best wins I've been in."It was his third premiership _ having helped BMS get promoted from division two, as well as another division one pennant.And that is why he plays the game _ not for personal honours _ although he has kept his fifth club championship trophy because it was the last one Ballarat City ever had."It don't mean nothing to me (personal glory) _ grand finals are the one with 16 of us sharing, and probably 24 over the year that have been in and out of the side. "When you win them, they're the ones that count. "Anyone can win an individual award, but when you are part of a team and you share something together, there's a lot more meaning in that than what there is in something you win yourself."And it only took a six-pack of bowls to get him hooked."To start off with I thought it was an old man's game and to me, just watching, it didn't look real hard. "And then when they threw me to the bloody wolves and got me to play that Saturday, I thought, `Gee this is a bit harder than what you think'. "And anyway, from the first three or four ends I played, I knew I liked it. "And I started practicing after that, unbeknownst to people, so if they do give me a gig, I won't look stupid .th.th. I knew pretty well from the start that this is what I liked."