ALEX ‘Tattie’ Marshall, Scotland’s lawn bowls superstar, spoke here yesterday about the honour he feels about taking his place at the head of the nation’s list of greatest ever Commonwealth Games competitors.
In his sixth games, the 51-year-old from Tranent won his fifth gold medal, in the men’s fours event, in the Gold Coast yesterday to climb above greats such as Allan Wells, Chris Hoy, David Wilkie and Liz McColgan in the all-time pecking order.
While he admitted last night that he may not have the same cachet nor athletic prowess of some of those figures, he said he was simply honoured to be part of the same team.
“I’m ecstatic, over the moon,” said Marshall, who skipped Scotland’s men’s fours team of Paul Foster, Derek Oliver and Ronnie Duncan to a 15-13 win over Australia, the win dedicated to Foster's late father Hugh. “I can’t believe I’m standing here with five gold medals. More importantly, it’s another medal for Team Scotland.
“The guys I’ve gone past at the top of the list are real athletes, but we’re part of the same team,” added the 51-year-old, who racked up a silver earlier in the games. “To win five gold medals is a dream come true. When you think of some of the names up there, it’s just incredible. We’ll definitely have a few celebrations tonight.”
The fours team’s triumph was just one part of a fantastic Friday where six more medals were added to Team Scotland’s tally, enough to move them onto 41 altogether as they close in on the whopping 53 won in Glasgow 2014. Seonaid McIntosh in shooting got the ball rolling with her second bronze in two days, before bowlers Lesley Doig and Claire Johnston secured bronze in the women’s pairs. Boxers Reece McFadden and John Docherty added further bronze medals – the former in hugely controversial circumstances – before Grace Reid memorably recorded Scotland’s first diving gold for 60 years.
Marshall, who will stay on with his wife Diane in Australia for a number of weeks to play club bowls near Sydney, has every intention of building on his tally in Birmingham in 2022. But he could be persuaded to get all those medals together in one place and get them framed.
“It’s going to be hard to get all five medals together because I’ve got them in frames in the house. Unless my wife wants to spend a bit more money, take them out of those frames and put them in a bigger one. She’ll probably do something like that, I would think.
“All of my medals have been hard-fought,” he added. “In Glasgow, that semi-final against England is something I’ll never forget. I threw two bowls within two inches of the white to give us a chance of going for the gold medal. Every single game at this level is hard, so I treat them all the same.
“Over here is the hardest challenge because the greens are a lot quicker than the ones we play on in Scotland. The preparation we had over here beforehand was definitely well worth it. We knew what the greens would be like, and also about the windy conditions which have been a big factor.”
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