Des Drummond

Des Lloyd Drummond is an English/Jamaican^[1] (born 17 June 1958 in Sauannah-la-mar, Jamaica^[2]) former rugby league footballer. He played on the Wing.

Full name: Desmond Lloyd Drummond
Date of Birth: 17 June 1958
Height: 5'7"

Des was a legendary figure throughout the 1980s, where he won 24 Great Britain caps, the first against New Zealand in 1980, the last against France in 1988. Drummond signed for Leigh almost by accident, having travelled to watch his older brother Alva Drummond play for the reserve team. Leigh found themselves a player short due to injury, and Des was persuaded to play. He made such an impact that he was offered a profesional contract within the week. Drummond quickly became a star player at the Lancashire club, particularly after a series of televised appearances during the club's run to the final of the 1976 BBC2 Floodlit trophy, a competition specifically created for television.

The arrival of [Alex Murphy] as coach in 1980 marked an upturn in fortunes for the club. In 1981, Drummond won his first silverware with Leigh, as the club defeated Widnes in the Lancashire Cup Final. Then, as the weather-disrupted season reached its end, Leigh needed only to defeat already-relegated [Whitehaven] to win their first league title since 1907. Despite trailing at half time, Drummond scored a try in a second half revival which made the unfashionable Lancashire club the National Champions.

Within three years, however, Leigh found themselves in a more familiar relegation battle, and were severely hampered when Drummond badly broke an ankle in an away fixture at Barrow. Although he recovered to return to the Great Britain team, he lost a little of his devastating speed. Even so, he recovered enough to score the BBC TV 'Try of the season' as a losing semi finalist for Leigh against Leeds in the 1985 John Player Cup Semi Final. Drummond left Leigh to join Warrington in 1987. He played his first game for "the Wires" (Warrington) on the February 8, 1987 and he finished his 182nd game career on the April 26, 1992 having scored 69 tries. This included an appearance at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final of 1990, where his Warrington team lost to Wigan.

His career enjoyed an Indian summer at the second-tier club [Workington], where he once again returned to Wembley in a secondary competition, this time playing against Hull KR. After retiring from the professional game, Drummond took up an amateur role as coach to the Bolton Rugby League Club. He still lives in the town.

All Round Athlete

Before turning to Rugby League, Drummond was a British Amateur Judo Champion. But his rise to celebrity status was precipitated by his performances in the televised all-around sports competition Superstars, finishing second in the 1983 Series final^[3] , and clocking a world competition record 10.85 seconds for the 100 metres^[4]

An exceptional power-lifter and all-round athlete, Drummond's 'party trick' in the competition came in the Assault Course competition, which began with three hurdles, a vaulting horse and an 8 foot wall. Drummond took the hurdles in his stride, hurdled the vaulting horse, and would leap to the top of the wall without using the scrambling rope. He competed in the international event, but was hampered by a change in the scoring - whereas in the UK, points were awarded in the lifting events for performance against bodyweight, in the international competition the spoils were divided for the dead weight lifted, a disadvantage to the 5'7", 12 stone rugby man.

References

1. ^ "The J squad". Sky Sports. 2009-08-24. http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,15532_5511470,00.html. 
2. ^ Ali, Arif (1988). Third World Impact. Hansib Pub.. pp. 333. ISBN 1870518047, 9781870518048. http://books.google.com/books?id=K4FxAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
3. ^ "Superstars roll of honour". BBC. 2008-12-31. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/superstars/2959150.stm. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
4. ^ "Superstars Records at a Glance". BBC. 2008-12-31. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/superstars/2958696.stm. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 

External links

• Des Drummond at eraofthebiff.com
• Warrington’s World Cup heroes – Des Drummond

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Name	Drummond, Des
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Date of birth	1958-06-17
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