My Life in Sport, by Dougie Donnelly review: 'a truly intriguing personal story'

This autobiography is the first book he’s written - perhaps because he’s been so busy covering seven Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games, three World Cups, 33 consecutive Scottish Cup finals and countless golf tournaments around the world - but it’s been worth the wait.

As with many broadcasters, it’s Donnelly’s voice that makes him so recognisable - to Scottish sports fans in particular but, in the prime of his career with the BBC and, latterly, covering all those golf events, to a much wider audience as well.

At times when you watched him on TV, you got the feeling that Donnelly had been one of those child prodigies you often hear people talk about in sport. Tiger Woods, for example, or Steffi Graf.

It’s fascinating, therefore, to discover that his career wasn’t actually planned to out from an early age. Far from it, in fact. He initially studied to become a lawyer, and, boy, could he have made some serious money in golf through its civil war over the past few years if he’d stuck with that plan.

As revealed in the book, his father was far from happy that he didn’t complete his law degree, but his decision to head down a different path led to a truly intriguing personal story.

A stand-in stint as a DJ at the University of Strathclyde Student Union led to him getting a foot in the door at Radio Clyde and eventually becoming one of the station’s main presenters.

He then got started with BBC Scotland, and those who remember the days when the likes of Donnelly, Alistair Dewar and Fraser Elder used to appear on our TV screens just before 5pm on a Saturday night will no doubt have a chuckle when he recalls how different the football reporting world was back then compared to now.

As well as commentating on some of Colin Montgomerie’s greatest moments in the game, Donnelly also caddied for his close friend at Augusta National and, of course, will forever be synonymous with calling the gold medal-winning delivery from Rhona Howie (formerly Rhona Martin) in the curling competition in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. “She’s done it” may have been all he said, but sometimes less is more.

Add in his tales about Paul McCartney, Elton John and having a bit of fun in an interview with a former US President and one of Scotland’s most successful and best-loved broadcasters certainly delivers when it comes to recording the highlights.

“Lucky? You better believe it,” he writes, but it’s not just down to that. Not when you’ve enjoyed a career like this one.

My Life in Sport, by Dougie Donnelly, McNidder & Grace, £22