Broughton's Ellen bowled over as she's made an MBE

A world champion bowler who lives in Broughton says being made an MBE is one her proudest moments.

Ellen Falkner - the most decorated English female bowler in Commonwealth Games history - received the honour for services to lawn bowls in the Queen's Birthday Honours list published last night (Friday).

The 41-year-old, who trains indoors in Desborough, was shocked after finding out she would be made an MBE in an email.

She said: "To have an email like that drop into your inbox was a bit of a surprise!

"I think I re-read it about 100 times to make sure it said what I thought it said."

Ellen, who is originally from Cambridgeshire and moved to Northamptonshire in 2018, first stepped onto a bowls rink as a child when her sporty parents John and Sue took it up after an invite from their neighbour Ian.

It wasn't long until Ellen began competing and she had her watershed moment aged 17 when she was selected to represent her country in the junior internationals.

And aged 23 she took part in her very first event at a world level - the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Ellen was part of the women's fours team, alongside Kettering's Gill Mitchell, who battled their way to a gold medal in front of a delighted home crowd.

Ellen said: "Standing shoulder to shoulder with people you would watch on TV was a completely unique experience and it was brilliant that so many could share it.

"We were really up against it to get to the quarter-finals and we had our backs against the wall but we then played some of our best bowls and came back with the gold."

Ellen's trophy cabinet doesn't just have one gold medal in it, however.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi she won gold in the pairs with Amy Monkhouse, before making it a hat-trick at the 2014 games in Glasgow in the triples.

She also won gold at the 2004 World Outdoor Championships and has four World Indoor Bowls Championships gold medals to her name, most recently in 2019.

Ellen said being made an MBE was right up there with her success on the world stage.

She said: "I think it's probably one of the proudest moments I've had. I feel very lucky to have been nominated."

Her career is showing no sign of slowing down and she was due to compete at the World Championships in Australia this year before it was postponed because of the Covid pandemic. Ellen is also in the high performance squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

She was chosen to be the team leader of Team England for the England bowlers at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa in 2015 and is part of the ‘Women Can’ initiative, which aims to encourage and inspire women to give the sport a try, be it on the field of play, as a coach, an administrator or official.

She enjoys coaching and sharing things she has picked up with bowlers of all ages and abilities, including total beginners, giving bowls master classes and also coaching groups of disabled bowlers in conjunction with Disability Bowls England. Ellen encouraged people to visit a bowls club and give the game a go.

This year's honours list was originally due to be published in June before it was postponed to consider nominations for people playing crucial roles during the first months of the Covid effort.

One recipient elsewhere in Northamptonshire was Duston's Emma Wimpress, who was handed the British Empire Medal for services to volunteer services at Northampton General Hospital during the crisis.

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