MBE – stands for My Bowling Excellence
Queen honours greens champ David
He now enjoys life in the glamorous city of Barcelona.
But David Gourlay’s heart remains rooted in Annbank where he first stepped on to a bowling green.
Former world champion David is thrilled to have been made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last week for his services to bowling as top- flight player and coach.
Despite living abroad and now aged 52, he is the head coach at Bowls Scotland.
And he was in charge of the Scottish troops who brought back five medals from the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast 2016.
Now it’s his turn to get a medal from the Head of the Commonwealth.
David says he owes everything to his parents Sarah and David Snr, who still live in Annbank, for the accolade and for getting him involved in the sport aged just 11.
He said: “My parents, who are both Commonwealth Games medallists, were probably more excited than me.
“I obviously owe them so much for my bowling career, their support and inspiration is incredible.”
David and his civil partner Stephen quit Scotland for Spain four years ago.
It was Stephen who made the Honours nomination and David said: “He collated all the relevant information so it is a huge thankyou to him for having the patience and tenacity to keep going with it.”
David won 11 World Bowls Tour Titles and took the singles title in 1996. He represented Scotland two years later at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Now he is working on developing the new breed of Scotland players in the national high performance squad.
Scotland is in the top two bowling countries in the world and he admits the skill of the players makes his coaching job easier.
David said: “I started my role with Bowls Scotland in 2012 in preparation for the Glasgow games where we won three golds, an experience I shall never forget. I then left the post for two years and came back in 2016 ahead of the Gold Coast games.
“Our performance made Scotland the most successful bowling country at the Commonwealth Games and what was most pleasing was that every member of the squad won a medal.
“We are trying to implement a high performance structure in our sport so we don’t get left behind and I have to acknowledge the continued support of Sportscotl and The Institute of Sport, the Bowling Scotland board and the Scottish bowling community.”
He always stays back at home in Annbank when he is on official duties.
David added: “It is always great to see people who I grew up with and also I owe so much to the bowls grounding I had from Annbank Bowling Club.
“We have such a long history of top class bowls here in Ayrshire and I’m very honoured to say I learnt my bowls here.”
My parents were probably more excited than me