Irish Tennis Legend Tommy Crooks - BLTC Junior Awards Morning (Guest of Honour)

Here is the BLTC Tribute to Irish tennis legend Tommy Crooks who will be our special guest of honour at our annual junior awards presentation! 

Many thanks to BLTC senior member Janice Chesney for collecting this information!

You can take a man out of Ballymena, but you can not take Ballymena out of a man!
That has been said before! And this evening we are delighted to welcome, as our guest, one of Ballymena greats.
 
Born in 1930 in Ballymena, Tommy today is a spritely “21-year-old”  not unlike our very own Barry.
 
Tommy was a member of the Irish and Ulster Tennis team in the 50’s and is the only Ballymena man to have played at Wimbledon.  To add to his glory, he was also on the Davis Cup team of 1956 to play Finland in Dublin. Tommy started playing tennis aged 14 at Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club and when 17 years old won the Ulster Junior Championship.  At the age of 22, he won his first cap and was swiftly elevated to no 4 in Ireland.  His successes spanned a tennis career of 20 years ;  Windsor, Ballycastle, Portrush, Cork, Omagh and The Boat Club, where in 1956, he beat the South African visitor D Black in the final.
 
As tennis players, good, bad and indifferent,  we all dream of stepping out onto the lawns of Wimbledon.  It is the greatest honour for any tennis player.  In 1958 and in 1959, Tommy played in the mixed doubles with his playing partner June Anne Fitzpatrick.
Tommy remembers those years as being……   “the truly great years.  Reaching the third round of Wimbledon was the proudest moment of my tennis career.  Those memories mean so much to me, I will never forget them”.
 
At Ballymena he added a string of titles.  The Ballymena boys covered the Ulster tennis circuit and for ten years they dominated the Ulster Senior tennis scene by winning the League ten years on the trot, which was some achievement !    As their number one player, Tommy helped develop a very strong team consisting of Bill Rainey, Ian Cameron, Maurice Grant, Ossie Bailie, Jimmy Kernohan and Maurice Taylor.  
 
His teammate Ossie Bailie said of Tommy “ he wasn’t the height of two daisies, but he had two strong arms the size of telegraph poles.  He was number one in Ulster for a considerable period and that title speaks for itself”.  
 
Tommy says of his Ballymena teammates “I could always rely on my colleagues from the People’s Park if I was not playing well.  We had a great team and we were well respected”
 
Just before playing against England for the first time Tommy said, “ I never fail to get a thrill every time I get out and play for my country,”   The words of a true sportsman.
Tommy Crooks is a tennis icon.   An example of the tradition and triumphs of Ireland, Ulster and Ballymena Lawn Tennis.

Our Junior Members are incredibly lucky to welcome Tommy to this prestigious event at our club. 

Many thanks Tommy.