Tennis coach Ian Iggleton (77) died last Thursday.
Ian was the coach for many years at Selection Park Tennis Club.
His parents were originally from Durban, but he grew up in Springs.
He attended Potchefstroom Boys’ High School as a boarder.
He had an extremely interesting life and spent a portion thereof in Central Africa.
Johan du Plessis, Ian’s friend for the past 35 years, says at one time he was a mercenary in the Congo and he would from time totime tell stories of his experiences in the Congo. “He always used to say that more people died through carelessness, recklessness and own fire than in skirmishes.”
Not only was Ian a diamond prospector in Tanganyika but he tried his hand at big game hunting and also shared stories about his experiences.
He then returned to Springs and has lived here since.
Ian was always a keen sportsman and played rugby as a hooker and when he stopped playing, he took up boxing.
He used to say ‘at least in boxing you knew what the bugger was going to try and do to you’.
Everyone knew him as a tennis player and coach with a passion for coaching beginners and children.
He would often coach children for free when parents could not afford to pay him.
Tennis was his absolute passion and whenever you drove past the club, come rain or shine, you would see his car parked at the club and he would either be on the court’s coaching or supervising the coaching.
The club was his home and his fellow club members were his friends and family.
“In the years that I have known Ian, his greatest passion was tennis, coaching children and his tennis friends,” says Johan.
He could spend hours telling tennis stories and would laugh uproariously about the funny incidents that he had experienced in his more than 40 years of playing the game.
Ian was young at heart and kept on playing tennis even though he had difficulty with his legs.
In the last Veterans’ Club championships, Ian and Ernst de Wet won the men’s doubles club championships.
He was a man of stature in the tennis circles and played the game with honesty and integrity and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
He was always a friend to a friend and was eager to give advice especially if it could improve the life or tennis ability of the players.
He was a stalwart at the club and kept tennis and junior tennis in the news.
His seat at the club will be empty and his laughter will be no more.
The tennis fraternity and his friends will miss him, but he will be in their hearts forever.
Ian’s funeral was held at the Integrity Funeral Parlour in Benoni on Monday.
