Doreen, sumo-ne big in Japan
THE world of TV wrestling has come a long way since handbag-wielding grannies raced from their seats to give Giant Haystacks a clip round the ear.
But Doreen Simmons, 85, has taken things to a new level by becoming one of the top commentators on sumo wrestling.
The former Cambridge University student, originally from Nottingham, got hooked on the ancient sport after moving to Japan in 1973.
Now she is a cult figure in the country after spending 25 years covering sumo bouts for a top television show, despite being a complete unknown.
Such is her devotion to the male-only sport that she lives in its heartland to the east of Tokyo in the suburb of Ryogoku.
Alongside writing newspaper and magazine articles, she is the “English voice of sumo” for broadcaster NHK, the equivalent of the BBC in Japan, and loves the “good rapport” with the other commentators, who are known as “play by play men”.
Doreen, who studied theology and classics at Cambridge, said: “I moved to Japan 44 years ago. I liked the challenge of living in an Asian country and I was also interested in getting to know a lot more about sumo and other aspects of Japanese life and culture. NHK set up the English-language commentaries 25 years ago to go out live at the same time as their very long-standing Japanese broadcast.
“At the beginning there were three play by play men who had experience of broadcasting games like baseball but their knowledge of basic sumo was newly acquired and pretty limited.
“They wanted the colour provided by commentators like me who were hired because we were already knowledgeable about some aspect of sumo, and had gained our specialist knowledge in our own time and, mostly, at our own expense.” Now the Japanese government is recognising her broadcasting career with a prestigious Order of the Rising Sun medal.
“I was amazed when I got the news of the award. I have simply never thought of myself in those terms.” She added: “At church most of the friends who spoke to me after the service were recalling their experiences of seeing sumo with me or learning something from me.
“They were clearly sharing the excitement, not simply congratulating me.”