It’s no secret who we’re supporting in this year’s Commonwealth Games! One of our own registration team members, Derek Oliver, is swapping Cockenzie for Australia’s Gold Coast this April as he joins the Scottish Lawn Bowls team. We caught up with him before he jetted off, finding out about his training schedule and journey to this year’s Games.

What do you do in your day-to-day role at Registers of Scotland?

I work within Registration in intake/legal settle dealings.

Congratulations on being selected for the team! How did you start playing the sport?

I began playing when I was ten. My older brother played and then quite a lot of my friends played during the summer holidays. It started from there really! By sixteen, I was playing at county level, by nineteen I was playing for the Scotland under 25s and I’d made the full Scotland team by the time I was 23.

What sort of preparation are you and the team doing in the run-up to the Games?

Since the announcement in October, we’ve had regular squad weekends throughout the winter in Glasgow and also some practice matches over Christmas against club opposition. That’s on top of our normal playing schedule, so it’s been a pretty hectic indoor season!

Lastly – how DO you balance your job with training as part of Team Scotland?

Luckily the majority of our training days have been at weekends to suit the work commitments of everyone in the squad – an understanding wife helps too!

Thanks Derek and best of luck for the Games!