Claremont can thank an opposition player for the acquisition of half back Doug Ringholt in 1965.It was South Fremantle fullback John Reilly who pointed the former Carlton player in the Tigers direction after three clubs, including Reilly’s former club the Bulldogs, had expressed interest in the defender. Despite his Port allegiances, Reilly, at the time with the Blues,  saw the reigning WAFL premiers, Claremont, as a good fit for Ringholt, and when regular half back Ken Mann transferred to St Kilda it turned out to be sound advice.  It was the lack of opportunity at Carlton that had forced Ringholt to look interstate, and offers weren’t scarce either, with a coaching offer among several from Tasmania.  Doug Ringholt played his early football at West Coburg juniors as a wingman, but it would be fair to say that it was his English and Social Studies teacher at Coburg Technical College, John Kennedy senior, who coached both Hawthorn and North Melbourne, who taught him about the game. Ringholt had a good football pedigree, his father Stuart Ringholt having won Coburg Football Club’s fairest and best award in 1940, played in six premiership sides with West Coburg Seniors , and was a leading coach in the Essendon District Football League while an uncle, Jack Conley,was a member of Carlton’s 1947 premiership side. A very good rover and back pocket player with the Blues in the forties, Conley playing a hundred and thirty five games in a career interrupted by war service.  Doug  worked his way up through the Under 19 and Reserve grades at Carlton to make his senior debut against Geelong in round six of 1963 at Kardinya Park.  A slim centreman with a bit of dash, Doug sat on the bench as twentieth man for most of the afternoon, while his team suffered their first loss of what would eventually be a deeply-disappointing season.As often happens to newcomers, Ringholt was omitted in his second week, only to be recalled to the bench again for Carlton’s clash with Collingwood. On that cold and drizzly Saturday afternoon, a huge crowd of  thirty eight thousand squeezed into Princes Park, and saw a tight, low-scoring, arm-wrestle of a match that eventually went to the Magpies by two points.After biding his time in the Reserves for almost twelve months, he earned a recall at last in round five, 1964, when he ventured to the other side of Nicholson Street for a rematch against Collingwood at Victoria Park. This time, Ringholt was included in the starting line-up, and forced to brave the gauntlet of spittle, rubbish and abuse that was hurled at him and his team-mates as he ran down the visitors race and out on to the arena to take up his position on a half back flank  beside Graeme Anderson and Bob Crowe. Sitting fourth on the ladder and playing at home, Collingwood were raging hot favourites against the eleventh-placed Blues, and their first quarter showed why. Well on top, they kicked 6.7 to 2.2 in the opening term and coasted after that to win by 19 points.Next game against St Kilda he was opposed to the six foot three beanpole who could play a bit, Ian Cooper ( later to turn out for Swan Districts and Western Australia), and seemed headed for the best players list when a collision with Darryl Baldock and Gordon Collis ( another who later came West), on a rock hard St Kilda cricket pitch turned the lights out and presented him with a life long back injury. “In consultation with coach Ken Hands we decided that the team may be better served if I went off,” Doug recalled. “In retrospect I think my career would have been different if I’d opted to stay on.”  The presence of backmen of the ilk of John James, John Benetti, Vasil Varlamos, and Bob Crowe, along with Collins, Stewart, and John Goold in the midfield, left Ringholt without many options at the Blues.    At Claremont in 1965, Ringholt was the centre of controversy in just  the third game of the season, against West Perth at Leederville Oval.  “West Perth captain coach Bob Spargo was dishing out some unfair treatment to “Buzz” Parkinson, so I evened things up a bit, much to the ire of the West Perth supporters,” Doug recalled.  A hard tackler with good pace, Ringholt went on to play a hundred and fourteen games over six seasons with the Tigers, almost exclusively as a half back flanker. It was on a club trip to Kalgoorlie that Doug discovered how resourceful his teammates at Claremont could be.The social activities winding up at a very late hour, the boys were feeling famished, and a quick search of the proximity yielding no solution to the problem, they decided to slip in to a local pub through a small window opening. The only edible thing they could locate were some frozen chooks, so they retreated back to their accommodation, where the sole power point was in a toilet. It was there that an electric frypan was used to thaw out and cook the banquet.“I hasten to add that the goodies were paid for in full next day,” Doug said.   Still playing good football, a disagreement with coach Denis Marshall in 1970 led to his retirement from league football after the 1970 season, to return to the fold as runner under new mentor Verdun Howell, in 1972,3, and 4. Reilly’s advice of 1964 was returned when Ringholt agreed to join the team John was coaching, South Perth, playing where he’d always wanted to play, in the middle.  But the new venture didn’t last long.  “I lasted seven games,” Doug said. “As an ex WAFL player I always had a target on my head, and got sick of being belted around behind the play.” Doug Ringholt’s departure from football was to herald the beginning of a completely different sporting career.Initially influenced by the sailing interests of several of his Claremont team mates, he quickly embraced the competitive side of the sport. Invitations to join the crews of bigger and better boats followed, and Doug was soon a regular on all the major ocean racing events in Western Australia. He was involved in seven Sydney to Hobart races, including Maxi Division honours on Freight Train in 1983, fourth overall plus second in division B with Prime Suspect in 1984, and other campaigns with Apollo Three(Allan Bond) in 1977, and Siska(Roley Tasker) in1979.In later years Ringholt coached all age groups between under twelves and seventeens at North Innaloo Football Club, where he also served as president. He also coached junior council representative sides.A technician at Telecom for most of his working life, Doug works part time these days as a course marshall at Wembley Downs golf course, where he also tries to get his handicap down. Swapping the golf buggy for a pushbike to keep fit, he and wife Dot love nothing better than the other wheels they have…a campervan, which is never idle for long, with trips to Melbourne to visit son Stuart, who is a leading artist in Victoria.  Stuart was a promising footballer as a junior, playing in a grand final with Claremont’s colts team and was selected in a State Amateur Colts team before a hamstring and back problems forced him out of the game. East Perth’s Syd Jackson was the player Doug found the hardest to get on top of, while Carlton star John Nicholls, was rated best team mate. Best he ever saw was South Melbourne’s Bob Skilton, “a nicer bloke you couldn’t wish to meet.”Doug Ringholt found his football feet and his sailing fins in Western Australia, and is still happily ensconced here. He was a close checking, dashing defender who found his niche at Claremont, his hard approach to the game winning many fans among the Tigers supporting fraternity.  Doug had a parting request.“Don’t forget my two goals.” (He kicked none for Carlton and two for Claremont)