Table Tennis: Douglas masters Japanese

DESMOND DOUGLAS heightened speculation that at the age of 38 he might revive his England international career with three wins out of four against the Japanese touring team yesterday, writes James Leigh.

It carried the British League champions, BFL Grove, to the final of the Cleveland Five-Star Open where they had a great battle with the second of the Japanese teams before losing 3-2 at the Thornaby Pavilion.

Douglas, national champion a record 11 times, is still capable of surprising changes of angle and spin, and the England manager, Donald Parker, saw enough to confirm that he is still good enough to be a valuable addition to his squad for the European Championships in Douglas's home city of Birmingham in March.

First the legendary left-hander saved two game points to beat the fierce-hitting teenager Kinjiro Nakamura 21-13, 25-23; then he contained and destroyed the attack of Yoji Morimoto - who had won twice against England in St Austell on Thursday - to win 21-11, 21-9.

This led the Shropshire team to a 3-1 win over a Japanese side who had earlier beaten the England pair of Alex Perry and Jonathan Taylor.

In the final against the Matsushita twins, Douglas beat Yuji 21-11, 21-18 by using the block against his opponent's pen-grip attack and then with slow loops and drop shots held two match points against the defensive Koji before losing a little unluckily 22-20, 23-25, 18-21. In between the two singles, Douglas won two doubles matches against the Japanese.