James Clay

James Clay started playing basketball during his lunch hour at school at Darlaston, Staffordshire during World War I and went on to become one of the leading figures in the sport in England. He was one of the founding members of the Amateur Basket Ball Association of England and Wales in 1936, and was their first honorary secretary and later president. He was also a founder member of the West Midlands Basketball Association.

The J. A. Clay Trophy, which is presented to the winners of the English Schools Association National Championship, was named in Clay’s honour. Clay worked as a commercial manager at Ductile Steels in Willenhall, before being appointed a joint managing director in 1957

Clay was a good standard lawn tennis player and was a keen cricket fan. It was ironic that he was taken ill on a coach travelling to London to watch his home-county Worcestershire play Sussex in cricket’s first ever Gillette Cup Final at Lord’s in 1963. He was taken by ambulance to a local Coventry hospital where he died, at the age of 60.