Peter Bretherton had a fitting first official job as president of the Lawn Tennis Association.

The 65-year-old, who has been a member of Heaton Tennis & Squash Club for over 30 years, officially opened his own club’s outdoor floodlit courts.

Leeds-based Bretherton, who only started his three-year term as president last Wednesday, said: “I am delighted to be back at Heaton among so many old friends and it is entirely appropriate that my first official function as LTA president is here.”

The former Lancashire county player won the national father and son and national father and daughter tournaments with his offspring Andrew and Alice.

“I have many happy memories of playing at Heaton on Monday and Thursday nights and in Yorkshire League matches,” he said.

“My wife Anne’s happiest tennis memories are at Heaton and we both watched Andrew’s and Alice’s games developing here.”

Bretherton is a former 45-and-over national grass-court doubles champion and is Lancashire’s No 1 over-65 player.

“I am really pleased to be able to cut the ribbon because floodlit courts will dramatically increase the number of players at Heaton,” he said.

“It is my mission while I am LTA president to have more people playing tennis more regularly.

“Heaton have always been a progressive club, from having the clubhouse where the floodlit courts now are, to developing the squash courts, to gaining Clubmark status and developing the juniors, with the excellent club-school links with St Bede’s and Bradford Grammar School.”

Bretherton added: “It’s an enormous honour to be elected as president of the LTA at what is an exciting time for British tennis.

“Over the last few years, we’ve laid the foundations for growth and now we can build on that by focusing our attention on getting more people playing and enjoying our sport, as well as continuing our work to identify and support the development of talented youngsters.”

Heaton’s club manager Mike Brown said: “I would like to thank the executive committee of the club, because this project has taken three years to come to fruition.

“It has taken patience but we have had some help from the LTA, with the other half of the money coming from the club.”

Club president John Bray added: “I would also like to thank former Yorkshire Lawn Tennis Association president John Forster for his help.

“It has taken a lot of meetings, e-mails and discussions for the floodlit courts to come about but we can now play for 12 months of the year and when it is dark.

“We have also resurfaced the floodlit courts, not that you can see that under the snow!”

Bretherton, who was an in-house solicitor with Provident Financial and was their first company secretary, was also on the board of the Bradford-based organisation.

LTA deputy president for the past two years, he was also chairman of their operations board.

After the official opening, there was an indoor demonstration by the club’s junior squads under the guidance of club professional Matt McTurk.