Ceri Ann Davies

Personal information
Nationality	Wales  Australia
Medal record Representing  Australia 2006 Commonwealth Games 2006 Women's Triples 2007 Asia Pacific Championships 2007 Women's Fours Representing  Wales World Indoor Bowls Championships 2008 Women's singles 2008 Mixed Pairs 2009 Mixed Pairs 2010 Mixed Pairs 2023 Mixed pairs 2023 Women's singles

Ceri Ann Davies (born 15 December 1978), married name Ceri Ann Glen is an international lawn bowls player and four-time World Champion.

Bowls career

Davies made her debut for Wales aged just eleven.^[1] She has cited her pride of being from a working class community and learning her sport alongside her family.^[2] Davies competed for Wales from 1991-2004, Australia 2005-2008, and then returned to the UK and competed for Wales 2009-2010. After a lengthy break, Davies returned to the sport in 2023 and continues to compete for Wales.

She moved to Australia where she was courted by their Talent Identification Programme. After switching allegiance to Australia she won a silver medal in the triples at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.^[3] Davies received her Australian Citizenship two days before the Games, after being awarded a 'distinguished talents' visa and awarded the 69th Ladies Cap for Australia.^[4][5] In addition to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Davies competed for Australia in the Trans Tasman Championships against New Zealand, the Tri Series against New Zealand and Malaysia, Multi- Nations against South Africa & Scotland and the Asia Pacific Championships. She won a bronze medal at the 2007 Asia Pacific Bowls Championships in Christchurch.^[6] She won numerous state titles in Queensland, and skipped Queensland to the Australia Sides Championships in 2006 & 2007.^[7] Davies became the first female to compete in the inaugural Premier League, where she played third to Shane Globits to win the Premier League title for Paradise Point Bowls Club. She was a member of Helensvale Bowls Club and also had a professional contract with Mount Gravatt Bowls Club, all in Queensland.

In 2008, Davies qualified for the World Indoor Singles Championship, and in doing so became one of the only women, (and the first Welsh or Australian women) to qualify for the Open Singles Event. Davies went on to make history by becoming the first women to make the final stages of the Open Singles Event in 2008, defeating Glenn Skipp of England 7-6,7-7 and then Jamie Hill of New Zealand 4-10, 11-1,2-0. She reached the Last 16 of the tournament and lost to four-time World Champion, Alex Marshall MBE on a tie break, and he went on to claim his fifth World Championship.^{[8][9][10][11]} Despite this defeat, Davies went on to win two World Titles at her maiden World Indoor Championships. She won the Women's singles, defeating Debbie Stavrou in the final, and the World Mixed Pairs with her partner David Gourlay MBE.

One year later, at the 2009 World Indoor Bowls Championship with David Gourlay.,^[12] they retained their World Mixed Pairs Title, with Davies 6-month pregnant with her first child. The following year, going for the treble, the pair were defeated in the final on a tie break.

In 2023, after a 13-year break, and just five month after returning to the sport, Davies qualified once again for the World Indoor Championships. Representing Wales, she won the 2023 World Indoor Bowls Championship mixed pairs final, with Stewart Anderson.^[13][14] She also reached the final of Ladies Matchplay Singles.

Professional career

Ceri Ann Davies has worked as a sport psychologist, coach and high performance manager. She has worked as a Performance Pathway Manager for Olympic and Paralympic Archery for Great Britain and consulted across a number of Olympic Sports including Boxing, Swimming and Table Tennis.^[15]

Davies has been cited as being part of the UK Sport 'P3' Programme, established to bring back intelligence from across the World of Elite Talent Development environments to support the UK sport system. This included a tour of the USA, IMG Tennis & Golf Academy, NFL Draft, working with critical academics in the area of Talent Identification and Development such as K Anders Erikson, Scott Barry Kauffman and David Epstein. The programme also tapped into work across Asia Pacific, including the work of the All Blacks, and European-based talent development such as Chelsea Football Academy, Leicester Tigers, European Space Agency, Maclaren Formula One, Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, Royal Institute of Surgeons and the RAF fighter pilots school.^[16][17]

Following the death of her brother and former Welsh International Bowler Gareth, to suicide, Davies committed to working with clients to support the wellbeing of men's mental health. She was a Director of 'Get Active' for the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) to support men struggling with mental health and addiction challenges as well as homelessness. She also supported a number of male athletes with their wellbeing and performance. This included Liam Pitchford, Great Britain's Number-1 Table Tennis player. Davies is cited as playing a critical role in Pitchford's meteoric rise up the rankings into the Worlds Top 10.^[18] The first female coach psychologist to corner a Table Tennis player, Davies supported Pitchford to historic wins against Ma Long (CHI),^[19] and the then World Number-1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER).^[20]

Davies also coached Pitchford's teammate, Paul Drinkhall. Together, their partnership also made history when Drinkhall became the first British player to win two World Tour titles, and Davies became the first female coach to coach a male Table Tennis player to a World Tour Title.^[21] During this period Pitchford & Drinkhall won Doubles Gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, and the England Men's Team won Bronze at the ITTF World Team Cup in the Copperbox Arena, London, where Davies was Team Manager.^[22]

Davies now works in Risk & Performance in finance.^[23] She is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of Bowls Wales,^[24] as well as partner of a High Performance Consultancy firm, Apex Performance Solutions Ltd. She has held roles as a Senior Risk consultant, developing World Class Risk teams across multi-strat investment funds, and more recently as an Associate Director of Markets and Securities Services for a top tier Bank.^[25]

Personal life

Davies married Dr. Ian Glen in December, 2012 and together they have two children, Dylan & Nieve. She also has three dogs: Bale (after Gareth Bale), Bella Boo and Daisy-Delta.^[26]

References

External links

• Ceriann Davies at Commonwealth Games Australia
• Ceriann Davies at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)
• Ceriann Davies at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games (archived)