JUST three years short of the golden anniversary of his first ever appearance for the national team, Willie Wood is back at the Scottish National Championships today aiming to add further accolades to his peerless list of achievements in the sport.
No bowler has won as many World Championship medals nor has made as many Commonwealth Games appearances, but at the age of 75 the man from East Lothian who made his Scotland debut in 1966 remains fiercely competitive as he returns to the domestic game's main event.
"I'm still playing good bowls and I always thought I would get back here. I'm still playing a lot of bowls too, as much as I ever did," said the legend of the sport, who has repeatedly turned down the chance to play in seniors (over-55s) events in favour of continuing to mix it with the best.
The difficulty of getting to Northfield cannot be over-stated, especially when taking into account a qualifying system aimed more at mass participation than seeking to ensure that the very best players compete.
While the vast numbers taking part ensure that it is a busy-looking event, the governing body has resisted advice to change the rules to ensure that more leading players meet one another in major events.
That makes this year potentially all the more memorable as Wood, who retired from international duty two years ago, is among a string of greats of the game taking part.
Three years ago in the fours, Wood produced two exceptional shots at the final end of the semi-final and looked to have put the Westbarns rink he was playing for into the final only for Houldsworth skip Ian Campbell to produce what he would later describe as the shot of his life to complete a comeback from having been 14-1 down.
"I still don't know where he got it from," Wood says.
Wood's last winning appearance at the Nationals was in 2006 when along with Brian Bisset, his cousin, he claimed the pairs title. His only other success was 33 years ago when he took the fours title.
Victory this time around would, then, take him within range of a grand slam of the main titles and he has still not given up on one of his other great goals, to emulate his father by winning the Scottish singles.
It has become something of a Holy Grail for a man who first reached the final of that event in 1970, just three years after his father was champion, and has made two more final appearances since, losing out to Ross Logan in 1998 and to another of Scotland's all-time greats, Paul Foster, nine years ago.
However, having returned to Gifford last year after spending a few seasons with Westbarns, the route to doing so could hardly be tougher since he has to win his club cham-pionship this season and then a succession of regional qualifying rounds to get to the 2014 finals.
Getting there is harder than it is at perhaps any other club in the country, he pointed out.
"I'm through to the semi-finals of our club championship again this year and I'm waiting to see if 'Tattie' [Alex Marshall, the five times indoor world champions and Foster's world champion indoor and outdoor pairs partner] gets through to meet me there," Wood said yesterday. "We'll find out when he plays Brian Bisset [in the quarter-final] tonight."
That forthcoming meeting with either his fellow world champion or his cousin must be put to the back of his mind as he anticipates another huge challenge, however.
Today Bisset will be alongside him with Brian Galloway, who has previously played at the Nationals with the Haddington club, completing the trio as they line up in a powerful looking competition.
Wood won the last of his 15 world championship medals, a gold, in the triples in 2008 alongside David Peacock and Wayne Hogg and they are both through with their clubs, Danderhall and Markinch respectively, while Neil Speirs, with whom Wood played many times for Scotland, is also there with the Kirkliston triple.
"I'm really looking forward to it. The draw for the triples is a strong one and we are not far away from Danderhall so it would be great to get through and face David, but we know that will be very tough," he said.
Both must win two matches to set up a quarter-final meeting on Saturday morning.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article