From: The Racketeer 53, April 2004
Frank Raistrick (1931-2004)
by Andy Lusis
FRANK died on Saturday 3rd April at the QMC following a long illness. He was 73. All club members, including those who knew him only through his writings in these pages, will want to express their sympathies to his family.
Long-standing members will remember Frank's association with and contribution to our club, which he joined in 1976, having previously been a member of the NALGO club. He soon took an active role on the committee and helped to keep several of the teams running during a lean spell in the late seventies. Perhaps his most important contribution was as a coach of junior players, something which comes across clearly in his articles for The Racketeer. He was not the sort of coach (in fact he was not a career coach) who would turn up, go through the motions then go home and forget about the kids until next time. Frank was more of a father figure, taking an interest in everyone's welfare, conveying his love of tennis in a practical way, organising outings for club members.
For a few years Frank was the club captain, but he was also something the club sadly lacks today: an on-court organiser, who would arrange people into fours on club and practice nights; who would encourage and advise. Above all he was an enthusiast for the game.
I remember an occasion one winter, a Sunday morning when frost had made our courts unplayable. Instead of letting us all go home disappointed not to get a game, Frank suggested we look for some courts not so badly afflicted. Using two cars we drove first to some public courts off Carlton Road, where the courts turned out to be as bad as ours, then on to the University, where we sneaked past a suspicious groundsman for an hour or two of enjoyable tennis.
Frank left the club in 1986, following some long-forgotten strife among committee members. He was sadly missed. His junior coaching continued at the West Bridgford Royal British Legion club (now Lady Bay), and for which club he was prominent in the early years of the Inter-Club Quiz held annually at Burton Joyce, until increasing deafness forced him to take a less active role.
Another achievement was Frank's running of the Notts Mixed Leagues. He became Mixed League secretary in 1965 and continued, despite illness in the later years until the start of the 2003-4 Winter League: an unequalled length of service. Uniquely, he ran both the summer and winter leagues. Now the match cards will no longer wing their way to that address - etched onto the brains of old mixed captains - on Carlton Hill.
Recently, readers of the Racketeer have been entertained by Frank's regular column of reminiscences and observations. In his first article (in issue 37), he wrote that Mapperley Park, when he first joined, had 'two of the most evil-bouncing courts it has ever been my pleasure to play on - I had this lethal spin service!' We grabbed the phrase 'lethal spin' and used it as the title for Frank's column. His own suggestion was Raistrick's Ramblings.
Good-bye, Frank. We'll miss you.