Arbroath copper a

The Arbroath ace, 46, is a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winner of five outdoor and indoor world titles and is the only Scot to have the full set of Scottish and British titles in juniors, singles, pairs, triples and fours.

His success has come alongside a 28-year career as a frontline police officer in Dundee and Arbroath, where he has witnessed horrors and suffered several injuries in the line of duty.

As a youngster, Darren enjoyed football, golf and swimming but admits: “Bowls was where I had the most potential.”

At the age of eight his champion bowler father Willie took him to the Perth Open.

“I played a guy from England but lost,” Darren says. “But a couple of years later I managed to win it.

“It was my first reasonably big trophy and I’ll never forget that.”

Darren says one of his biggest achievements has been winning all 10 national events in Scottish and British bowls.

His breakthrough came in 1998 when he won the first of four consecutive Scottish juniors (U25s) titles.

It was also the year he won the British triples title in Swansea, alongside his father Willie and Arbroath clubmate Doug Farquharson.

Darren says: “In the semi-final we played Tony Allcock, who was and is a legend in the sport and then we played John Price and Stephen Rees from Wales – two other legends – in the final.

“I was 22 and playing against these legends of our sport. When you win with other people from your club, especially with your dad, it is special.”

In 2016, Darren needed just the British pairs to become the first Scot to complete the set of 10 titles.

His brother Ryan, who plays professionally in Australia, flew in from Down Under to Llanelli in south Wales and the sibling duly claimed the crown.

“That remains quite special,” says Darren. “To have achieved the full set of titles, when you think of all the talent Scotland has in bowls, and helped by two family members is a massive achievement.”

If domestic success has brought Darren the most satisfaction, his victory at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow provoked the strongest emotions.

“The Commonwealth Games is the biggest prize in bowling because it is a multi-sport competition,” he says.

“It is our Olympics. That feeling of winning the gold medal will live with me forever.”

Four years later at the Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, he duly claimed his second gold.

Financially it is not feasible to be a professional bowler in the UK but there are opportunities in Australia and, increasingly, in Malaysia.

However, Darren – married to Linsey, 41, for 15 years, they have two daughters Isla, 13, and Evie, 11 – wanted to stay local so took on a full-time job as a policeman at the age of 17, soon after leaving Arbroath High School.

For the first 18 years he was a community officer in Dundee, before taking on a similar post in Arbroath where he still works.

Being a community cop also brings the father-of-two into some grim situations.

“We deal with death, unfortunately, quite regularly,” says Darren.

“That could be from the scene of a road traffic accident, to drugs. It could be people just dying.

“Some things, when you have your own kids, are tough to deal with.”

Receiving freak injuries on the job has also been hard to deal with.

One such incident took place just before the world championships a decade ago.

Darren was called to a disturbance at the former Lloyds bar (now Market Dundee) in Seagate.

“As I went in the door there was a girl with the biggest pair of stilettos you could find going out,” he says.

“She stood on my toe with her stiletto heel and it broke the metatarsal bone in the big toe on my right foot. It was a total freak.

“I still played but was hobbling up and down the green.

“I won my first game and then lost my second game in singles.”

An even worse injury occurred early last year when he fell

Darren Burnett with his brother Ryan, above, and a winner at Glasgow 2014.