John Ambrose Moore (born 6 July 1911) was an English amateur

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player.

Football career

Moore played for Old Alleyneans, Stone St. Michael's and Stafford Rangers before joining

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in February 1939. His only appearance was a 7–0 defeat at

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

on 18 May 1940 in a war league match. He departed at the end of the 1939–40 season as the club went into abeyance due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He later moved on to Michelin and also worked as a referee.

Tennis career

Moore was an accomplished tennis player and played at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

on seven occasions as an amateur (as almost all top players were at the time) between 1938 and 1950. Even the Australian champion,

Rod Laver Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...

, showed Moore a

cheque A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The pers ...

for £125 he received after he'd won the men's singles for the third time. With the prize money was a warning note saying it could not be spent on food or clothes, as this might jeopardise his amateur status. Moore's big moment came in

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

when he reached the second round of the singles and met

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the ...

's grandfather,

Henry Billington Henry Billington (12 November 1908 – 29 November 1980) was a British amateur tennis player, and the maternal grandfather of Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman pl ...

, a

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

international. He was beaten, but took Billington to four sets. The next day, the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' praised the performance of "the boy from up country", though it didn't please Moore himself. The tennis club at hometown Stone boasted an impressive list of Wimbledon performers and "up country", he felt, was a slur on the club and the whole town. Moore later took up a coaching job in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

and played tennis nearly all his life, well into his 80s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Jack 1911 births Year of death missing People from Stone, Staffordshire Association football goalkeepers English footballers English football referees English male tennis players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players English Football League players British male tennis players Tennis people from Staffordshire