Desmond Douglas

Desmond Douglas (born July 20, 1955 in Kingston (Jamaica) ) is an English table tennis player . He played for Borussia Düsseldorf for several years and led his club to five German championships with impressive individual results.

Style of play

Desmond Douglas resembled Wilfried Lieck and Stellan Bengtsson in terms of player type . Like Lieck, he had good reflexes and an extremely secure backhand block and played the forehand topspin more from the wrist and forearm than from the whole arm. He compensated for the less than ideal speed by surprising changes of direction. Like Bengtsson, Douglas shone with very good - almost catlike - footwork and agility. For the really big breakthrough at World or European Championships, he may have lacked the hard forehand "shot" or the very aggressive topspin, maybe in some crucial situations, but also just a little luck. Douglas is left handed.

Career as a player

At the age of five, Douglas moved his family from Jamaica to Birmingham. At the age of 15 he became a member of a table tennis club, two years later he was one of the best juniors in England. In 1972 and 1973 he was the junior European mixed champion (with Linda Howard ).

By 1990 he won the English championship eleven times in singles (nine times in a row) and several times in doubles (with Paul Day and Graham Sandley, among others).

Although Douglas was the measure of all things for several seasons in the German Bundesliga - from 1977 to 1985 he played for Borussia Düsseldorf - and was able to hold its own against top international players, apart from winning the Europe TOP-12 in 1987 in Basel, his success was due to him been denied a European or World Cup.

societies

• Central YMCA
• Borussia Düsseldorf (1977/78 to 1984/85)
• JKN Steel Stock Wolverhampton (1st League England) (1985 to ????)
• NFD Grove

Tournament participation

• WM : 1973 , 1975 , 1977 , 1979 , 1981 , 1983 , 1985 , 1987 , 1989 , 1995
• 1988 Summer Olympics
• EM : 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990
• Commonwealth Championship 1973, 1975, 1985
• Europe TOP-12 : 1978 to 1983, 1985 to 1987, 1989

titles and achievements

• 1st place Europe TOP-12 1987
• 2nd place Europe TOP-12 1979 and 1983
• 2nd place European Championship (team) 1978, 1988
• Commonwealth Championship (Individual) 1985
• Commonwealth Championship (doubles) 1975
• Commonwealth Championship (Mixed) 1975, 1985
• Commonwealth Championship (Team) 1973, 1975, 1985
• English champion (individual) 1976

Private

Desmond Douglas is married to his wife Margie and has two sons.

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1985	Douglas	IMN	gold	silver	gold	1
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1975	Melbourne	OUT		gold	gold	1
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1973	Cardiff	WHALE				1
CLOSELY	European Championship	1990	Gothenburg	SWE		Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1988	Paris	FRA				2
CLOSELY	European Championship	1986	Prague	TCH	Quarter finals		Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1984	Moscow	URS		Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1980	Bern	SUI	Quarter finals		silver
CLOSELY	European Championship	1978	Duisburg	FRG	Semifinals		Quarter finals	2
CLOSELY	European Championship	1974	Novi Sad	YUG			Quarter finals
CLOSELY	European Youth Championship (Juniors)	1973	Piraeus	GRE	silver		gold
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1989	Charleroi	BEL	10
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1987	Basel	SUI	1
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1986	Sodertalje	SWE	2
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1985	Barcelona	ESP	6th
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1983	Cleveland	CLOSELY	2
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1982	Nantes	FRA	3
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1981	Miskolc	HUN	6th
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1980	Munich	FRG	4th
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1979	Kristianstad	SWE	2
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1978	Prague	TCH	Scratched
GBR	Olympic games	1988	Seoul	COR	last 16	immediately excluded
CLOSELY	World Championship	1995	Tianjin	CHN	last 32	last 32	no participants	13
CLOSELY	World Championship	1989	Dortmund	FRG	last 64	last 32	no participants	9
CLOSELY	World Championship	1987	New Delhi	IND	last 16	last 32	Scratched	12
CLOSELY	World Championship	1985	Gothenburg	SWE	last 64	last 16	last 64	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1983	Tokyo	JPN	last 32	last 32	last 32	4th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1981	Novi Sad	YUG	last 16	last 16	last 32	6th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1979	Pyongyang	PRK	last 16	last 16	last 32	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1977	Birmingham	CLOSELY	last 32	Quarter finals	last 32	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1975	Calcutta	IND	last 64	last 32	last 64	12
CLOSELY	World Championship	1973	Sarajevo	YUG	last 128	last 16	no participants	10
CLOSELY	World cup	1982	Hong Kong	HKG	13
CLOSELY	WTC World Team Cup	1990	Hokkaido, Aomori, Niig	JPN				3

swell

• Elmar Schneider: Hearts are trumps - Desmond Douglas - Düsseldorf's Briton from Jamaica , DTS magazine , 1984/10 pages 39–40
• Rahul Nelson: Finally at the top , DTS magazine , 1987/2 page 33

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} tt-bundesliga.de: 1976/77 to 1985/86 ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed December 30, 2015)  
2. ↑ DTS magazine , 1990/9 page 51
3. ↑ Book 40 years table tennis Bundesliga , page 23
4. ↑ ^{a b} DTS magazine , 1985/3 page 13
5. ↑ ^{a b c} ITTF database ( memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ ^{a b} DTS magazine , 1986/6 page 27
7. ↑ DTS magazine , 1992/12 page 26
8. ↑ British Olympic Association (Eng.)
9. ↑ DTS magazine , 1992/4 page 20
10. ^ Desmond Douglas results from ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed September 5, 2011)

Web links

• DK: Desmond Douglas: Borussia's lightning-fast Englishman , report from April 9, 2014 on mytischtennis.de (accessed April 15, 2014)