Bob Dick to be awarded MBE
Bowls Scotland would like to congratulate Bob Dick after being acknowledged in the New Year’s Honours list to receive an MBE for his many years of service to Disability Sport.
Bob started out in bowls as a young 14-year-old in 1953 when he joined his local Leven BC in Fife. On moving to Cupar in 1970, he joined Duffus Park BC where he is still a prominent member today. He has also been a proud member of East Fife IBC since 1965.
An extremely talented player in his own right, Bob has amassed a total of 17 club championship wins and six Fife county titles. The highlight of his career came in 1986 when he earned his first Scottish international cap at the Home Internationals held in Paisley. Bob went on to gain 18 international caps outdoors and also represented Scotland on four occasions indoors.
He first became involved in coaching under the original SBA scheme, which became the Scottish Bowls Coaching Scheme under the stewardship of the late Bob Sutherland and latterly Graham Robertson. Bob graduated through the ranks quickly from Area Coach to Regional Coach and latterly a Coaching Supervisor. His knowledge and understanding allowed him to be able to take on major roles in coaching and managing bowlers of all age groups and abilities.
Bob’s development through the coaching ranks meant he quickly became one of the most respected coaches in the country. In 2002, he had the honour of being Team Manager at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. His role was to support the men’s team, but the men’s disability triple also fell within Bob’s remit for the event. He was extremely proud to help guide the disability triple of David Heddle, Ivan Prior and John Robertson to a famous gold medal. Alex Marshall also won the first of his five Commonwealth Games gold medals in 2002, securing gold in the men’s pairs with George Sneddon.
Following on from the Commonwealth Games, Bob took on the role of Head Bowls Coach with Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). He dedicated his time to developing a network of high-quality coaches to assist him with training programmes that would allow Scotland’s disabled bowlers to regularly compete on the world stage. These detailed preparations allowed Scotland to improve their performances at the Disabled World Championships from Manly, Australia in 2007 and Pretoria in South Africa in 2011 to eventually win an incredible five gold and two silver medals at the 2015 Championships in New Zealand.
In addition to these successes at World Championships, Scotland’s Irene Edgar and Robert Conway also secured a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the B2/B3 Mixed Pairs.
At 82 years of age, Bob intends to continue to play bowls and enjoy the sport for as long as possible. Yet with his unselfish nature and willingness to help others he is still determined to assist in any way he possibly can, from club level right through to currently being a Scotland Men’s Senior International Selector.
Delighted at receiving this tremendous news, Bob said: “I feel highly honoured to be awarded an MBE for my services to Disability Sport, but I also feel it is an honour for the sport in general to be alongside my MBE friends, Willie Wood, Alex Marshall, Paul Foster and David Gourlay.”
Bob’s long-term friend and current Scotland Men’s Senior International Team Manager, Andy Meekison, added: “I am absolutely delighted that my lifelong unofficial mentor Bob has been honoured with this award. The word legend is often overused but in Fife, Scotland and throughout the bowling world Bob’s status is without a doubt legendary.
“He has held many club positions at Duffus Park BC and the club is immensely honoured to have him as a member. He taught me lifelong values of sportsmanship, integrity, tactical awareness, leads by inspirational example and is a beacon for everything that is good about our sport. Especially his commitment to give something back to the game he loves.
“As if that’s not enough he was and still is a remarkable player with an aura on the green that provides confidence to his teammates and gains respect from his opponents. A dual international both indoors and outdoors, at club and county level in Fife he’s won everything worth winning, usually many times over, and is without a doubt a thoroughly honourable man and a great ambassador for bowls in Scotland.”