From: The Racketeer 57, March 2005
Jack Britton (1911-2005)
by Andy Lusis
JACK BRITTON, a club member for 67 years and a long-time supporter of Notts tennis, died on the 2nd of March aged 93. I'm sure all members will send their condolences to his wife Margaret, his sons David and Rick, and the rest of his family.
While Jack had a life outside of tennis - past readers of the Notts LTA Handbook will remember the ads for Britton's Chemists in Long Eaton: 'Never buy another colour film!' - it is for his involvement with tennis that most of us will remember him.
Jack's first club was Victoria LTC in Sherwood, where he was a member until its closure after the Second World War. While still playing for Victoria, he discovered another club where, though playing standards were lower, the female membership presented other attractions. He therefore joined Mapperley Park in 1938.
After the war he encouraged many of the stronger players from Victoria to move to Mapperley Park, thus giving our club the impetus to join the Notts Men's and Ladies' leagues. In a cunning plan to avoid starting in the bottom divisions, our teams played for a while under the name Victoria, thereby retaining that club's pre-war league positions.
Our teams flourished for some years; Jack was part of the men's team that finished as runner-up in Division 1 in 1952, still the club's best performance. Later in the 1950s this team broke up; Jack himself was persuaded by the Co-Op to play for their NCS Western team.
In the early fifties Jack won a mixed tournament at the Plaisance Yacht Club in West Bridgford. He also enjoyed some success in our club tournament. Records are incomplete but he won the men's doubles in 1949, 1962, 1963 and 1971, and the mixed doubles in 1954. He was the club's first mixed captain in the early 1960s.
Starting in the 1940s, when he joined the committee, Jack was interested in the administration and welfare of the club. He was joint club secretary (1946-7) and president from 1972 to 1977, later becoming one of the club's trustees. He was invited to open the new clubhouse in 1994. Jack was regularly seen on Finals Day, cheerfully supervising the tombola with Margaret and, until recently, was a keen participant in the bridge club.
On the wider county scene, Jack was a prominent figure, particularly with his outstanding work for the Notts leagues. He was Men's League Secretary (1948-65), League Secretary (1965-7), Chairman (1968-81) and Life President from 1988. For many years he was editor of the Notts LTA Official Handbook. In 1960 and 1961 he was Chairman of the Notts LTA Council (now the Management Committee) and later was made Honorary Life Vice President.
In 1978 Jack began the sponsorship and organisation of a tournament for non-county players. Initially at Keyworth and later at the County Ground, Jack was always present, offering words of congratulation and commiseration, striving to complete his crossword puzzle while watching the action on court. When the number of entrants was a bit low he would ring up likely competitors to coax them out of their lethargy.
Jack continued to play tennis into his eighties. At Mapperley Park in the late 1980s and early '90s, when Sunday morning club play was still a feature, he would sometimes turn up, eager to get in a set or two of doubles. On one memorable occasion, he and I took on two first team regulars and won the set. Were they holding back or not taking the game seriously? Jack, ever the model of courtesy, would never have voiced any such thought. To less venerable members Jack was a gentlemanly figure from a politer, less hectic era. That time has now passed.