Paul Lyall (1944 – 24 December 2021) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

para table tennis Para table tennis is a parasports which follows the rules set by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The usual table tennis rules are in effect with slight modifications for wheelchair athletes. Athletes from disability groups can ...

player who competed at three

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

winning a total of six medals including three gold medals. He was known as one of the British legends of the early years of the Paralympics.

Personal life

Lyall was born in

Writtle The village and civil parish of Writtle lies west of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It has a traditional village green complete with duck pond and a Norman church, and was once described as "one of the loveliest villages in England, with a ravishi ...

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

in 1944 and he spent most of his childhood living with his mother and grandparents in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

, he had a strong interest in gardening and nature at a young age while working at his grandparents' farm. He left school at fifteen years old and joined up to an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

to qualify as a plumber. In 1960, he was involved in a motorbike accident which left him paralysed and became a wheelchair user from then on. He was in

Stoke Mandeville Hospital Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service (NHS) hospital located on the parish borders of Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, England. It is managed by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. It was establishe ...

for a nine-month rehabilitation and was introduced to wheelchair table tennis and he was immediately interested in the sport, his sporting career developed quickly and an ex-county player was intrigued in Lyall and trained him up to take part in the

1964 Summer Paralympics The , originally known as the 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games and also known as Paralympic Tokyo 1964,

in Tokyo where he won his first international medals by winning two gold medals in the men's singles and doubles. Following his success from winning two medals at the 1964 Games, he went onto win more medals and won another two gold medals at the

1966 Commonwealth Games The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica, from 4 to 13 August 1966. This was the first time that the Games had been held outside the so-called White Dominions. They were followed by the 1966 Commonwealth Par ...

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

with Phillip Lewis in the doubles event. Lyall competed at the

1968 Summer Paralympics The 1968 Summer Paralympics ( he, המשחקים הפאראלימפיים בקיץ 1968) were the third Paralympic Games to be held. Organised under the guidance of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), they were known as th ...

and he won his fifth international gold medal and his second consecutive Paralympic medal in the singles, he won a silver medal in the doubles with George Monahan. His third and final Paralympic Games were the

1972 Summer Paralympics The 1972 Summer Paralympics (german: Paralympische Sommerspiele 1972), the fourth edition of the Paralympic Games, were held in Heidelberg, West Germany, from 2 to 11 August 1972. The games ended 15 days before the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Mu ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

where he won two bronze medals and he retired after the Games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyall, Paul 1944 births 2021 deaths Sportspeople from Chelmsford Paralympic table tennis players for Great Britain Table tennis players at the 1964 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 1968 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1964 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1968 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain