Des Drummond, flying rugby league winger who helped Leigh to win their first Championship title for 75 years – obituary

Des Drummond, who has died aged 63, was a rugby league winger with phenomenal pace and strength who became a national celebrity in the BBC Superstars competition; best known for his time at Leigh and Warrington, he was capped 29 times for England and Great Britain.

At only 5ft 7in tall and weighing 12 stones, Drummond was a comparatively diminutive figure in the physically demanding world of rugby league. But martial arts training in his youth made him a formidable opponent with a fearless tackling style and explosive speed.

He achieved national acclaim in 1983 when he finished second to the pole vaulter Brian Hooper in the BBC Superstars final in Hong Kong. Drummond set a competition record of 10.85 sec in the 100 metres, a time which would have qualified him for the Olympic Games the following year.

His bubbly personality and engaging smile made him a viewers’ favourite and he astonished rivals on the assault-course event by leaping to the top of an eight-foot wall without using the scrambling rope.

But it was his achievements on the rugby field which made him one of the sport’s all-time greats. He would have made more international appearances had he not been controversially omitted from the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour after a confrontation with a spectator who had ran on to the pitch and racially abused him during a match at Widnes.

Desmond Lloyd Drummond was born in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica, on June 17 1958 before moving to the UK with his family to settle in Bolton. A British amateur judo champion, he became a rugby league star almost by accident.

Drummond had gone to watch his elder brother Alva play for Leigh in a reserve match at Barrow when the team were a player short. The Leigh coach decided to