There have been disappointments, even despair, along the way. The next destination is Glasgow 2014. Ceri Ann Davies can not contemplate anything less than triumph.
“Our philosophy must be simple. They are our medals. Let’s see if anyone has the guts to take them from us,” she said. The comment may seem incongruous given the speaker and the sport.
Davies is a 30-year-old mother with a gentle line in self-deprecation and an amiable disposition. And she is talking about bowls, hardly perceived as the hand-to-hand combat of international sport.
But Davies is high performance manager for Scottish bowls. And she knows what she wants. Although Delhi is just round the corner, her target is three medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
But she will not settle for that. The Welshwoman is a winner. She has won Commonwealth silver and a slew of world titles. She played for Wales at the age of 12. She won the world mixed doubles title with David Gourlay this year when six months pregnant with her son, Dylan (after Thomas, not Bob).
“I have only really known how to win, how to compete,” she says of a bowling career that started “as a baby” in the working-class environment of Port Talbot. “I played with my grannie and grandfather, who were good players, and my brother played for Wales. I come from good stock.”
She seems almost the personification of the fact that bowls is a sport that has achieved a high level of technical excellence and is one that glints with the most competitive edge.
“What I would like is for Scotland to become a world leader in the sport by 2014. Scotland has a proud history in our sport but other countries have taken off and they are taking more and more podium spots. Scotland may have been slow to go down the high performance route because we have been successful. But we are on the road now,” said Davies in her office in Stirling.
That avenue must lead to better performances at the highest level and Davies is relishing the prospect of honing the individual talent of a nation. Her first task is to choose the six men and six women from 52 candidates who will represent Scotland. It is a brutal, unavoidable task. Davies has to collate results and performances. Then she will tell each player where they are failing, where they are doing well, and whether they are in or out. It is a job that would challenge the most resilient character.
Davies, a sports psychologist, has the professional attributes to take on the job with an emotional assurance. She dismisses fears over squabbles with competitors over selection. “The criteria are clear,” she said. “Everyone knows what his or her targets are. They know what will happen if they meet them and they know what happens if they do not.”
Davis is tough. She is a marvellous, almost jolly conversationalist, but a glance at her background shows she has taken on tough times and beaten them.
Her early life was in a poor council estate in Port Talbot where bowls was her passion. She had to take on four jobs to fund her higher education.
She is also a person “who takes on challenges as if they were a whim”. Davies travelled to Australia to further her bowls career, but her relationship with a fellow bowler broke up. Transferring her allegiance to the Australian national team also caused problems.
“The vast majority of Australian bowlers did not want me to be playing for them, because I was not Australian in their eyes. A lot of people made my life very, very difficult. But I learned who my real friends were. It was a toughening up experience.”
It also led to her meeting her partner, Ian Glen, with whom she lives in Tullibody. But Davies was never likely to crumple under pressure. She believes she can take Scotland forward, she believes she can compete with men in the sport. Frankly, she just believes.
Criticism does not sway her. “My grandfather was an Army captain and he always said that it was not important that everybody liked you, because they won’t. But they must respect you.”
This may seem belligerent but it is delivered in a pleasant, unconfrontational manner. She loves the cut and thrust of debate. “Scots are good at that,” she said with a smile. “It is what makes them so successful as politicians and inventors.”
Davies has a mission that is both personal and international. She wants to make Scottish bowlers the best in the world. But she has reasons for doing so.
“I have always been interested in teaching and helping others. I like getting the best out of people. I like seeing people perform. And I like winning,” she said. She will use every tool at her disposal to make sure her bowlers have the best chance in competition.
There is performance analysis, psychology, physiotherapy, injury prevention, and strength and conditioning. Bowls traditionalists may be surprised at the range of aids that Davies will employ.
But she is gloriously old-fashioned in her belief that talent and hard work are the keys to success. “The majority of bowls is in the head,” she said. “You need focus and concentration.”
The world champion adds: “I am not very good at bowls. I just work very hard at it.”
Don’t believe the first sentence. And do not doubt the second.
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