ELLEN FALKNER conquered the cream of the Commonwealth in 2010 – and the 31-year-old bowler is desperate to repeat the trick on home soil in Glasgow in four years time.

ELLEN FALKNER conquered the cream of the Commonwealth in 2010 – and the 31-year-old bowler is desperate to repeat the trick on home soil in Glasgow in four years time.

St Neots bowler Falkner linked up with best pal Amy Monkhouse in the women’s pairs in Delhi in October, taking a surprise gold in the final against Malaysian duo HJ Ismail Nor Hashimah and Khalid Zuraini.

However with bowls not part of the Olympic schedule Falkner will now miss out on London 2012 fever and instead must prepare for the Scotland-hosted Commonwealth Games two years later.

She will be 35 when the showpiece event comes to Scotland and Falkner is only too aware there is plenty of hard work to come before she can dream of home glory.

“Delhi was tremendous and I have got very fond memories and what is wonderful for us at the moment is that the journey is still going on,” said Falkner.

“But there are lots of big events to come between now and Glasgow and the first big one of those will be the Atlantic Championships next year.

“So while we are having a fantastic time and enjoying ourselves at the minute we know we need to keep performing well.

“Yes, we have had a fantastic time and we won a gold medal but we still know that we have to prove ourselves and demonstrate that we can perform at that level.

“Personally I would love to go to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but it is four years away, and we will have to see what happens between now and then, but I would love to be able to be part of that.

“Amy and I were both fortunate enough to be in Manchester in 2002 and Melbourne in 2006 and subsequently Delhi and it would be a tremendous feeling to be going for a fourth Commonwealth Games – that is quite an achievement in itself.”

Falkner was part of an impressive English bowls display in the sub-continent which saw the team take away five medals – two golds, one silver and two bronze.

And with the Delhi displays littered with a large dose of youthful enthusiasm – 18-year-old Natalie Melmore won the other gold medal – Falkner believes England are a team on the rise.

“I think the fact that we have got such a young team has helped challenge some of the preconceptions about the sport,” added Falkner.

“As a team we did fantastically well and that has really helped to make people realise that bowls is a sport that anybody can play and we have a group of people who are fairly young and playing and competing at the highest level.”

National Express is a principal sponsor of the Commonwealth Games England team until the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, 2014. For more information go to www.weareengland.org