THE timing just wasn’t right. Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall had become Scotland’s most successful-ever Commonwealth Games participant by racking up his fifth gold medal in his sixth games, this time in the company of his fours’ team-mates Paul Foster, Derek Oliver and Ronnie Duncan. TV cameras and photographers waited for the money shot after to mark the occasion but this 51-year-old from East Lothian was playing hard to get.
Not only did he feel bashful about appropriating all the limelight from his team-mates, the skip admitted he felt bad for his Aussie rival, skip Aron Sheriff, whose failed take out had just handed Scotland their fifth medal of the bowling competition. Amazingly, the Scots had trailed by two shots going to that 15th and final leg before turning it around for a remarkable 15-13 win.
“It wasn’t the time for that sort of celebration today,” said Marshall. “That [pairs semi-final against England] was like a football match that was 1-1 going into extra time and you’ve scored a late goal. Today I felt sorry for my opponent because he’s going to be gutted he missed that shot. I gave them a bit of a target and that guy doesn’t normally miss that. He’ll get it nine times out of ten.
“It was a stupid bowl I played. I should never have been anywhere near the target area to give him that chance. I was going about kicking myself, because these guys would have sorted me out good and proper later on if the guy had got the winning bowl.”
As it happens Marshall is jetting off to New South Wales tomorrow to join up with Australian club side Warilla. “The Aussie guys are great guys,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up with them for a juice later. I wish I hadn’t booked that flight now. It’s going to be a long night tonight and I’m going to enjoy it. I’m going to be playing for a club called Warilla down there and part of it is going to be a holiday for us as well. I’ll come back though, don’t worry. I would miss the snow and the rain.”
Perhaps another reason why the bowlers were a little more reticent in their celebrations was the fact that emotions were running high. Marshall dedicated the win to Paul Foster’s father Hugh, who passed away in January.
“I’ve come through a lot to be here, but I can’t dwell on that,” said Foster. “You’ve got to move on in life. I knew he was up there thinking about me and that I had to put in the best performance I could for these guys.
“It’s not just about me,” he added. “It was lovely what Alex said, and obviously I appreciate that, but it was about coming here and doing the best I could. We were robbed in the pairs but we both knew we would bounce back from that and if we played how we know we can, we’d be in the mix for the fours. We’ve proved once again that we’re a solid, solid team. I had a wee thought for my dad at the end. It was for him.”
Lawn bowls is a core sport in the Commonwealth Games and it is little wonder if Scotland prosper by this arrangement. The next generation of Scotland’s talent on the greens is coming along just fine, if the two gold medals picked up by Ronnie Duncan and Derek Oliver, 34 and 33 respectively, are anything to go by. They added a second title to the one they took alongside Darren Burnett in the triples, when Sheriff again was the luckless losing skip. “I’ll have to make some space on my mantelpiece,” said Oliver. “There was never a point where I didn’t think we would do it. Even at 8-2 down, we knew we were good enough. We just had to keep battling and get back into it. Tattie and Paul are two of the greatest bowlers ever and it’s a pleasure to play with them.”
“It’s an absolute dream come true,” added Duncan. “To come away with two gold medals from my first Commonwealth Games, it doesn’t get any better than that. It’s a wonderful, wonderful feeling. We were behind the whole game, but we did exactly the same the previous night against England when we were 7-0 down.”
Burnett, singles champion in Glasgow 2014, lost out for a bronze to Robert Paxton of England, but Lesley Doig and Claire Johnston did manage third in the women’s pairs with an 18-10 win against Canada. “I just can’t believe it,” said Johnston. “I’m just well chuffed.”
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