Name The Greechans | Role Bowls | |
The Greechans are a family of bowls players from Jersey. Both Lindsey and Thomas Greechan, wife and husband, compete both indoor and outdoor, as does their daughter Chloe Greechan. All three members of the Greechan family; Thomas, Lindsey and Chloe have all been a world champion on at least one occasion each.
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Lindsey Greechan
Lindsey Greechan became the first bowls player from Jersey to win a bowls world title at any level in 2002, when she won the World Indoor Bowls Council (WIBC) Junior Ladies title. She helped Jersey defeat England in a test series for the first time in 2004.
At the Atlantic Rim Games in 2007, Lindsey Greechan won gold with Jersey in the Women's Fours event. In 2008, she came away with a bronze medal at the women's World Champion of Champions event.
Lindsey Greechan represented Jersey in lawn bowls at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. With Katie Nixon, the pair lost to Northern Ireland in the pairs bronze medal match 15–14. Had they won the match, they would have been Jersey's first medalists at the Commonwealth Games for 24 years.
Lindsey Greechan has won Jersey's women's outdoor Bowler of the Year three times, in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Her mother, Gina Le Long, father, Peter Le Long, and brother, Kevin Le Long, have all played or play bowls competitively as well at national and international level for Jersey.
Thomas Greechan
Like his wife, Thomas Greechan also medalled at the 2007 Atlantic Rim Games, with silver in the Men's Fours event. Jersey's bowls team, which finished second in the overall combined medal table at the Games, narrowly missed out on 2008 Channel Islands' Team of the Year to Jersey's cricketers.
He claimed Jersey's first senior world title in 2011, winning the men's World Champion of Champions event in Hong Kong. He beat Jonathon Ross of Scotland in a tie-break set 5–0, despite dropping the first set.
In 2012, Thomas Greechan was voted Channel Islands' Sports Personality of the Year and won Sports Person of the Year in Jersey. He has also been selected as Jersey's men's outdoor Bowler of the Year twice, in 2005, and 2006.
In his career as well, Thomas Greechan has also competed for Jersey at the World Outdoor Championships in 2000 and 2012, the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the European Championships in 1999, and in 2007, with his wife, Lindsey, taking part in the latter edition as well.
Chloe Greechan
In 2015, Chloe Greechan became the youngest ever bowls world champion at 14-years-old, winning the World Indoor Bowls Council Mixed Pairs title with her father, Thomas. Her parents had lost in the final of the same event in 2008 to another husband-and-wife team of Mervyn and Suzanne King in a tie-break set. She retained the title a year later (with Malcolm De Sousa).