Johnston wins top BBC NI award

Margaret Johnston shows off her world outdoor bowls trophy

Ireland's top women's bowler Margaret Johnston is the BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year.

The 61-year-old Bellaghy grandmother finished 2004 on a high after she became the first women to win the World outdoor bowls title for a third time.

She continued her success last month when she won the Champion of Champions title in Australia.

Margaret pipped more established stars like football's David Healy, jockey Tony McCoy and golfer Darren Clarke.

Other sportsmen in the shakedown were rally champion Niall McShea, Olympic rower Richard Archibald and Ulster's latest rugby international Tommy Bowe.

However, BBC NI's judging panel felt that Margaret deserved the accolade because she had reached the very top of her sport against the odds during a career that has straddled four decades.

Worlds only come around every four years, so I made history Margaret Johnston

The modest bowler World Champion still works daily at Bellaghy Primary School where she is affectionately known as the 'famous caretaker'.

The goodwill goes both ways as Margaret recently returned from Australia with 31 toy koala bears for all of the pupils in the school.

They will be supporting her on Sunday night when she attends the big Sports Personality of the Year Awards night in London at BBC Television Centre.

"I'm really looking forward to the night after a very satisfying year," said Margaret.

"The World Championship only comes round every four years and no-one had ever won it three times so I made history.

''The conditions were even tougher at the Champions of Champions against the best players from every country, so that was the icing on the cake."