Scotland celebrated its most successful Commonwealth Games on foreign soil in Melbourne - with surprise as much as delight.

Forecasts were low-key going into the Games. Without judo, which delivered 10 medals in Manchester, we were warned there was no chance of matching the Manchester tally - 15 was the target.

However, from the surprise golds for Caitlin McClatchey and David Carry on the first day of competition to Kenny Anderson's stirring success in the boxing ring on the final Saturday, these have been a Games to delight Scots.

By day five, before the half-way point, Scotland had shot past 15 medals.

"We still believe our pre-Games target of 15 was realistic," chef de mission Paul Bush said.

"But we believe there have been a number of factors in the transformation.

"We continued to raise the bar after Manchester and set a selection standard of top eight, which meant that in terms of strength in depth we selected the strongest team we've ever had."

The most startlingly transformation was in the pool where Scotland have been little better than interested observers in past Games.

McClatchey and Carry won two golds each while Gregor Tait was also a double Commonwealth champion.

There were also silvers for Kirsty Balfour and Euan Dale as well as the 4x200m freestyle relay team.

In all, a total of 12 medals were won in swimming, not bad in a sport taken extrememly seriously by Games superpowers Australia and England.

So Scots will be hoping that the American coach of the swimming team, Chris Martin, does not carry out his threat to quit over concerns about the sport's organisation.

Cycling was the next best sport, despite the disappointment of Chris Hoy losing his Commonwealth title in the kilo on the opening night at the velodrome.

In partnership with Craig MacLean and Ross Edgar, Hoy would get his gold medal in the team sprint the penultimate race of a very competitive track programme.

The trio of Scots beat England in the final in a race which proved that British cycling claims the quickest two teams in the world.

In between, Edgar won silver in the sprint and bronze in the keirin and finished the Games as Scotland's most successful cyclist in a single Games.

Only athletics disappointed. Chris Baillie's surprise silver in the men's 110m hurdles redeemed an otherwise disappointing few days in the cavernous MCG with Lee McConnell's bronze in the women's 400m hurdles the only other medal.

Sheena Sharp proved a headline writer's dream as she won two shooting golds, on her own and in partnership with Susan Jackson, while there was also a gold in the lawn bowls.

Scots, who are represented as part of Great Britain everywhere else, take particular delight in the Commonwealth Games so Anderson's light-heavyweight win over Adura Olalehin of Nigeria provided a fitting bookmark.

Anderson revealed that he watches Mel Gibson's Braveheart prior to every fight. "It gets the heart going," he explained.