Clarence Medlycott Jones

Background

Clarence Medlycott "Jimmy" Jones was born on 10 July 1912, in Norwood, London, United Kingdom.

Education

Jones was educated in radio technology at London Polytechnic.

Career

Jones was a British tennis player and coach, sports psychologist, radio technologist, journalist, lecturer, and author. He played at Wimbledon, 1932-1951, and at Davis Cup, 1938. He was a captain and manager of Rhodesian Davis Cup team in 1964. He established tennis coaching center at Hampstead, England, with Angela Baxton. Jones was an editor of magazines, including British Lawn Tennis & Squash in 1939-1976; Tennis, 1976-1978; Top Tennis, 1978-1985. Also, Jones was a founder and editor of British Bowls (later known as World Bowls) in 1954-1986. Jones was a contributor to London newspapers Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, and Sunday Telegraph.

Having competed at Wimbledon during three different decades - the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s - and having represented his native Great Britain at the Davis Cup in the 1930s, Jones went on to the captaincy and management of the Rhodesian Davis Cup team in 1964. During his later career, he advised eminent players, including such notables of their era as Christine Truman and Sven Davidson; and he lectured on tennis and other sports. He co-founded a coaching center at Hampstead, England, with the prominent Wimbledon tennis player Angela Buxton, to whom he had also served as an adviser. Meanwhile, during the course of his career, Jones edited three different tennis magazines and founded and edited a bowls magazine. In addition to tennis and bowls, badminton was another popular British sport to which he applied his coaching techniques in print. His 1977 Starting Badminton, co-written with Judy Hashman, and published in the United States as Beginning Badminton, was meaningful for players at all skill levels, according to a reviewer for Choice, who wrote, “The title is too modest for this excellent book.”

In 1959 Jones wrote a treatise on bowls with the well-known British player Norman King; and with his business partner Buxton, he collaborated on the 1975 Starting Tennis. Another collaborator was Owen Davidson, with whom Jones wrote The Great Women Tennis Players and Lawn Tennis: The Great Ones, both published in 1970. Jones’s total output of books numbered more than thirty, according to the London Times obituary; they included Match-Winning Tennis: Tactics, Temperament, and Training, and Tennis: How To Become a Champion, two titles that indicated the strong psychological component of Jones’s approach to the game. As an editor, he was responsible for the annual shaping of a British yearbook, Dawson's International Lawn Tennis Almanac. In addition, he was a frequent contributor to the London newspapers the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph, and to the latter’s Sunday edition, the Sunday Telegraph. His keen technical mind steered his World War II service into the area of flight and aircraft production; it was also demonstrated in his design and construction of one of the first hi-fidelity sets.

Achievements

• In 1935 Jones won the Queen's Club Championships but had to share the title with Wilmer Allison. As a coach, Jones designed a computer program to analyze the patterns of tennis play and to assess players' reaction times; he also developed a course for improving players' concentration and anticipation.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Observer's Book of Tennis 1981
  • Tennis 1985
  • How to Play Tennis 1979
  • Successful Tennis 1982
  • Starting Tennis 1975
  • Winning Tennis: Doubles Tactics 1980
  • Tennis Guide 1975

Membership

• Institution of Radio Engineers

• British Society of Sports Psychology

• British Society of Sports Sciences

• British Association of National Coaches

Personality

Jones, as a player, had been thoughtful and hard-working.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Brought to all his labours an original and deeply analytical brain fired by inexhaustible enthusiasm. Jones was never superficial. His enquiring mind and searching questions explored the inner workings of the game and its players." - The London Times
  
  "A gentle, mild-mannered man with the heart and mind of an innovator." - The London Times

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 164