Winkie keeps bowling along

Published on Sunday 21 July 2002 01:00

WHEN Willie Wood first started his love affair with bowls, Clement Attlee was the Prime Minister, Mount Everest hadn’t been conquered and a king reigned in Buckingham Palace. Back then, in 1951, as a 13-year-old dweller in the East Lothian village of Gifford, Wood could scarcely have imagined he would travel round the world and dominate his sport with a resilience and sustained excellence to serve Scotland proud. But he did. And he has.

And although he is old enough to be not merely the father but the grandfather of the majority of competitors at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, please don’t suggest to the man himself that he is going South for sentimental reasons or to make up the numbers.

Instead, befitting a fellow with a steely temperament and unstinting resolve, Wood will ignore the lyrics of the Beatles When I’m 64 and prove that, unlike Dorian Gray, he can defy the passage of time without entering into any awkward Faustian pact.

"I remember telling the Queen four years ago that my sixth Games [in Kuala Lumpur] would be my last, but when you are still performing and competing well, then I don’t think you should worry too much about your age", says Wood.

"I will keep persevering as long as I can and until I think I am not good enough, but I am still fit, my delivery is fine, nice and smooth like a golf swing. When you get old, you can start to bounce the ball on delivery, but I’m not doing that yet, and the lure of winning another Commonwealth gold [he already has two in his possession] is a terrific incentive. Basically, I just want to keep going and breaking more records."

In an era when loyalty is often derided, and where footballers have no sooner signed for the club they’ve always wanted to play for, than they are cajoling their agents into fixing up a move elsewhere, Wood might be a glaring anachronism, but he is also a Scottish institution who deserves greater fame than he has been accorded. He won singles bronze at Christchurch in 1974, silver in the Edmonton pairs in 1978, singles gold at Brisbane in 1982 and skipped the four to a golden triumph at Auckland in 1990, so he clearly has an affinity with the Antipodes. Yet, as the more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed, there is a conspicuous gap in his cv. A sin of omission which rankles Wood even now.

"I was kept out of the 1986 Games in Edinburgh because the officials wanted us to pay our money into trust funds, but honestly, I wasn’t making that much in the first place! And I would have been the defending champion in my own country as well," says Wood, who will participate in the fours event in Manchester with thirty-somethings, Graeme Archer, David Peacock and Gary Mackie.

To make matters worse, the Commonwealth tournament was held at Balgreen in Gorgie, right behind Tynecastle; Wood is a long-standing Hearts supporter. "I know I would have enjoyed a terrific reception from the crowds if I had been involved. But it wasn’t to be, and I suppose I should really forget about the past and concentrate on the challenges lying ahead."

Wood springs from a period when the bowling club was the hub of every Scottish commu-nity: a place of silent endeavour, underscored by ancient rivalries and, occasionally, deep-seated enmity between the members.

To those on the periphery, for whom the sport has traditionally been the refuge of OAPs with Granpaw Broon beards and bunnets, the arcane rituals surrounding these locales may remain a mystery, but for the Woods of the world, the initial thrill of walking through the clubhouse door towards the green was like a born-again Christian seeing the light.

"My father and grandfather both played, so did my mother, and coming from a small town like Gifford, there’s not that much to do, and there was even less to pass away the hours when I was a boy because most people didn’t have cars and we had to go everywhere by bus," recalls Wood. "If I wanted to go to a swimming pool or anywhere like that, the nearest baths were at Port Seton or North Berwick, and that’s a long way from Gifford on a bus.

"There was a golf course, but it was only nine holes and golf didn’t appeal to me, so I decided to take up the bowls. The rest, as they say, is history.

"Obviously, given all that I have achieved, I am delighted I chose this sport, but sometimes it is a little annoying that bowls is downgraded by the press, especially considering Scotland’s record of winning championships.

"In this country, the media are all over you if you win a medal, but in the build-up to things like the Commonwealth Games, it’s always the athletes they want to speak to, and the majority of them haven’t got any chance of reaching the podium. I guess it was pretty much the same with the women’s curlers at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City."

Characteristically forthright, Wood is not content to utter platitudes nor settle for meaningless PR-speak in analysing the quality of the facilities in Manchester. In a nutshell, he believes they stink.

"No, how can I put it, they’re terrible. The organisers have built a new complex with new greens, and they have just not bedded in, so while we will probably be among the favourites, you can’t really predict what will happen because the greens will make it a lottery and take most of the skill out of the equation.

"That is a bit disappointing, but once the Games are up and running, I am sure we will be a force to reckoned with. The other home nations will be strong, as will the South Africans, the New Zealanders and the Australians, but we have nothing to fear if we fulfil our potential. I can hardly wait for July 25."

Empires have fallen, walls been destroyed and old countries dismantled during Woods’ life of being all right, jack. But even now, in his autumn vintage, he refuses to countenace thoughts of premature retirement.

"The 2004 World Championships are scheduled for Ayr, so that will probably be my swansong if I manage to maintain my form and not become a liability," says Wood.

"That’s my aim, and I’m going to try it, but whether I make it or not, who knows? If not, I have still achieved more than most over this period of time."

This week, the Scottish team will choose their flag-bearer for the opening ceremony and one trusts that a similar fate does not befall that of the standard-bearer of 1998, Dougie Walker, who

has subsequently endured a protracted drugs-and-injury nightmare. Yet on reflection, no-one merits the honour more than Winkie Wood, the old man who keeps bowling along.

• Did you know?

Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth Games competitor of all time is shooter Alister Allan, who won three golds, three silvers and four bronze medals from 1974 to 1994. But Scotland’s most enduring representative is bowler Willie Wood, who will be notching up a record seventh Commonwealth Games appearance in Manchester.