One to one with Fife bowler Lesley Doig, a medal contender at the Commonwealth Games

The sun-kissed (most of the time) lawns of Kelvingrove were the venue for some iconic moments for Scottish bowls and Scottish bowlers in the last Commonwealth Games.

There was the double gold and football-style celebrations of Tattie Marshall and the masterclass and the back story of Arbroath bobby Darren Burnett.

In a never to be forgotten sporting summer, bowls certainly did its bit to contribute to unprecedented Scottish Games success.

It was all men who were standing on the podium in Glasgow, though, and on the sun-kissed (all of the time) lawns of Broadbeach Bowls Club on the Gold Coast the women are determined to share in the glory.

You have to go back to 2006 for the last bowls medal from the women’s team and one of the five heading to Australia in the spring looking to end that barren run will be Fife’s Lesley Doig.

Although it will be her first Commonwealth Games, Doig’s recent World Championship success makes her a genuine medal contender.

“I think every bowler that gets picked for the team will think they have a chance of a medal but I just want to make sure I play well,” she said.

“If I come back with a medal that would be amazing.

“I got a silver and bronze at the World Championship in December. There was a lot of pressure. They put me in the singles, which was a bit of a shock, with it being quite new to me.

“I learned a lot from that. I was playing people who I only knew by reputation and I found out that it’s a different standard.”

For rugby players it is New Zealand. Curlers, it is Canada. Every sport has a country where the opposition and the territory is at its most daunting. Doig and her Scottish team-mates will find that out down under.

“Australia is the place where there is the most intense pressure,” she said. “They will expect a lot as host nation.

“They did really well in New Zealand at the Worlds.

“Most of their bowlers are professionals and they have a lot more competition on a regular basis.”

Professional bowls is not a concept Doig is familiar with and her sporting life has to be combined with a working and a family one.

“I’m a dental nurse in Cupar,” she said. “I work part-time with ProDental.

“They’re very supportive. It wouldn’t work otherwise. Staff have covered me and my boss has given me the time off that I need.”

Doig admitted that spending lengthy periods of time away from her two-yearold son to follow her bowls dream is a big sacrifice to make. “It is hard, but it’s worth it. “Going away from Cameron a couple of weeks at a time isn’t easy but, when he’s older, I’ll be able to show him what it was for and say ‘this is what you can achieve if you put your mind to it.

“It would certainly be nice to put a medal round his neck in Australia.

“Hopefully a lot of my family will be able to make it out there.”

Now living in Newburgh, Doig was brought up in Strathmiglo and that will always be her bowls home.

“That’s my club,” she said. “I managed to keep my selection a secret from people there but I’m sure they would have been really pleased for me when they heard the news.

“I actually got life membership when I came back from New Zealand. They were over the moon at what I achieved.

“It’s quite a big club for such a small village.

“They won the ladies’ senior fours at the national championships this year. I’ve got a wee while before I get into that team, though, I think!

“It was my dad who got me into the sport there.

“I started when I was nine. It’s one of the only things to do in a small village.

“I took to it straight away and I stuck with it and I won my first national title in singles when I was 16.”

I think every bowler that gets picked for the team will think they have a chance of a medal but I just want to make sure I play well