Doreen Simmons

Doreen Sylvia Simmons (née Clarke; 29 May 1932 – 23 April 2018) was an English sumo commentator. After moving to Japan in 1973, she became an expert on sumo and was hired by NHK in 1992 to provide commentary for their English-language sumo broadcasts. She was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in 2017.

Early life She was born in Nottingham, England, the daughter of a civil servant and a store manager. She attended Mundella Grammar School and sang in its choir.

She studied theology and classics at Girton College, Cambridge, and Hughes Hall, Cambridge from 1950 to 1954.

Career After graduation from college, she became a Latin and Greek teacher. She spent much of the 1960s teaching at a British Army school in Singapore, where she married. She made a three-month visit to rural Japan, where she stayed on a farm and saw her first sumo match on television during the March tournament of 1968. before deciding to return to Japan five years after her previous visit, securing a teaching post there in September 1973.

She saw her first live sumo match in January 1974 and began to regularly attend tournaments in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. She wrote a bi-monthly sumo column for Kansai Time Out from 1983 and was a contributor to Sumo World magazine from 1987. In 1985, she revised the book Sumo: From Rite to Sport, originally published in 1979 by Patricia Cuyler. In 1992, she became a commentator for national broadcaster NHK, on their newly established English language sumo broadcasts. She was hired for her specialist knowledge to complement NHK's play-by-play commentators, who were more familiar with baseball broadcasts. She was a financial sponsor of Dewanoumi stable, one of the many training stables or heya for over 20 years, and had friendships with many sumo wrestlers and officials.

Personal life Her marriage to Bob Simmons had ended in divorce, and she had no children. She long resided in the Sumida area of Tokyo. An Anglican, she was a long-time parishioner of St. Alban's Church in Minato.

Death Simmons died at her on 23 April 2018 at the age of 85, of a pulmonary condition.