Desmond Douglas

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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

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 
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)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ttbl.de
  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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ittf.com
  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