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10
Mar 2024
How a Birstwith man 'swapped tanks for tennis balls'
“I often refer to it as swapping tanks for tennis balls,” says Birstwith man John Crowther as he reflects on his career.
John oversaw British tennis for nine years as chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association.
But, his background was not in sport. He moved to Yorkshire from Cheshire in 1990 to work for Vickers Defence Systems, where he rose to become chief executive.
The company had factories in Leeds and Newcastle and manufactured tanks, such as the Challenger 2. But John always had an interest in sport, particularly tennis.
Leading British tennis
Reflecting on his career with the Stray Ferret, he says he sought to get out of the manufacturing industry in 1996.
He applied for the top job at the Lawn Tennis Association, which is the governing body of tennis in Great Britain. He says:
By his own admission, he did not play sport at a high level - however tennis was his first love.
Much of his time at the organisation was spent improving the governance and helping to develop talent in tennis.
This included introducing licensed coaches, who were made to commit to developing their knowledge and expertise year by year.
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But perhaps his biggest challenge was creating the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.
To do this, the association sold Queen's Club in West Kensington where its head offices and elite training facilities were based at the time.
The club was given back to club members on a long term lease and the funds were used to create the National Tennis Centre.
The centre, which opened in 2007, included facilities for strength and conditioning, physiotherapy and boasts more than 20 courts.
John points to the project as one of his proudest achievements and describes it as now being “fully embedded into British tennis”.
Picking Test match venues
John departed the Lawn Tennis Association in 2005 and undertook some consultancy work for a short period.
Around that time, he became involved with the England and Wales Cricket Board after being asked to join by his friend and then ECB chief executive, David Collier.
His role at the board was one which attracts a lot of scrutiny from cricket fans to this day.
John was asked to to join the host venue panel, which chooses where Test matches and other major cricket fixtures are held, and sat on the committee for 17 years.
Headingley Stadium in Leeds.
The purpose of the host venue panel was to hand over the designation of test matches to an independent committee.
As a result, the allocation for test matches became based upon a balanced score card which specified what would be required from each ground.
The role of the host venue panel has come under the spotlight recently after Headingley and Old Trafford were overlooked for the Ashes series in 2027.
John said he was disappointed to see Headingley miss out on an Ashes series, but felt that the venue and Yorkshire County Cricket Club as a whole had a bright future ahead.
'You only ever remember your good shots'
In recent years, John has chaired in a voluntary capacity. He has held positions at both Yorkshire Lawn Tennis Association and North Yorkshire Sport.
In both positions, he sought to improve the access to sport and increase participation among young people.
These days, he chairs the Yorkshire Tennis Foundation which helps to dispense funds to tennis projects.
For John, being involved in sport is a privilege and one which should not be taken for granted.
If you have any local sporting figures who you think should be featured in Sporting Spotlight, contact calvin@thestrayferret.co.uk.
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