Denis Neale

Denis Neale (born December 9, 1944 in Middlesbrough ) is a former English table tennis player from the 1960s and 1970s. Later he worked as a table tennis coach. He took part in seven world championships and five European championships.

Career

Denis Neale started playing table tennis at the age of 13. He then became the best player in England. In the national ranking he was led from 1967 to 1977 in first place. He has won the National English Championship 18 times , six times in singles, seven times in doubles and five times in mixed.

• Individual: 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1975, 1977
• Doubles: 1973 with Trevor Taylor , 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974 with Alan Hydes , 1976, 1977 with Desmond Douglas
• Mixed: 1970 with Mary Wright-Shannon , 1968, 1969, 1972, 1974 with Karenza Mathews / Smith

At the English Open he won in 1970 in mixed with Mary Wright-Shannon and in 1976 in doubles with Desmond Douglas.

His first international appearance in mid-December 1963 was successful. In a country tournament in Dublin he won all six singles and two doubles against Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

From 1965 to 1979 Denis Neale took part in seven world championships . Here was his greatest success in 1969 , when he reached the semi-finals in mixed with Mary Wright-Shannon . He was nominated for European championships five times . Also with Mary Wright-Shannon, he won bronze in mixed in 1968 and 1970 .

Denis Neale won six medals at the Commonwealth Championships. In 1973 he lost the final in singles against Trevor Taylor, with whom he won the doubles competition. There is also gold in mixed with Mary Wright-Shannon and with the English team. Two years later he repeated the victory in doubles with Trevor Taylor and also won in the team competition. In 1969 and 1973 he was ranked 16th in the ITTF world rankings .

In 1977 Denis Neale ended his career as a competitive athlete. He represented England internationally 495 times. The highlights of his career include his victories over several world champions: Chuang Tse-Tung , Hsi En-Ting (China), Nobuhiko Hasegawa , Shigeo Itō , Mitsuru Kōno (Japan), István Jónyer (Hungary) and Stellan Bengtsson (Sweden).

In 1977 he was hired by the Dutch club HIA PANELS Apeldoorn. 1994 still played at the Senior World Cup in Melbourne. He won bronze in the 50+ doubles with Brian Hill. He later worked as a coach and non-playing captain for the English national team.

Publications

In 1970 Denis Neale published the book The Way to the Top (Arthur Barker Ltd., ISBN 978-0213001261 ), followed in 1978 by the Halex Book of Modern Table tennis ( ISBN 978-0437106001 ).

Private

Denis Neale is married and has three children. After the end of his active career, he ran a pub in Northallerton. At times he owned 30 racing dogs ( greyhounds ).

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1975	Melbourne	OUT		gold		1
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1973	Cardiff	WHALE	silver	gold	gold	1
CLOSELY	European Championship	1976	Prague	TCH	Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1972	Rotterdam	NED	Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1970	Moscow	URS	last 16		Semifinals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1968	Lyon	FRA	Quarter finals		Semifinals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1966	London	CLOSELY		Quarter finals
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1976	Lübeck	FRG	11
CLOSELY	World Championship	1979	Pyongyang	PRK	no participants	no participants	no participants
CLOSELY	World Championship	1977	Birmingham	CLOSELY	last 32	Quarter finals	last 64	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1975	Calcutta	IND	last 64	last 32	last 64	12
CLOSELY	World Championship	1973	Sarajevo	YUG	last 16	Scratched	last 32	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1969	Munich	FRG	last 64	last 64	Semifinals	6th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1967	Stockholm	SWE	last 32	Quarter finals	Quarter finals	8th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1965	Ljubljana	YUG	last 128	last 32	last 32	7th

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Table Tennis" magazine, January 1964, page 4 Online (accessed September 25, 2014)
2. ↑ ITTF world rankings from 1947 to 2001 (Excel; 171 kB) ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on September 27, 2014)  
3. ↑ ^{a b} "Table Tennis News" magazine, September 1994, page 4 Online (accessed September 25, 2014)
4. ^ "Table Tennis News" magazine, March 1989, page 36 Online (accessed September 25, 2014)
5. ↑ Magazine DTS , 1977/12 page 18
6. ^ "Table Tennis News" magazine, June 1994, page 25 Online (accessed September 25, 2014)
7. ↑ Denis Neale Results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed September 24, 2014)

Web links

• Portrait ( accessed September 24, 2014)
• John Wood: Colorful Denis has mellowed and matured , portrait in Table Tennis News, October 1994, pages 18-19 (accessed September 25, 2014)