Charles Richard Read (1 March 1889 – date of death unknown) was a professional squash player from

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where professional squash began in 1907. Read was based at the

Queen's Club The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "HSBC Championships" for spo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and beat C. Bannister of the Bath Club 15–5, 15–13 at the Bath Club to win the first English professional championship title. Read then defended his title as English champion three more times until 1928. Read was born in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London to Alfred, a whitesmith, and Clara Read.''1891 England Census'' When the British Open men's championship was instituted in 1930, Read was officially designated the first title holder, and thus played in the first final as the 'defending champion'. The 41-year-old Read, however, lost the inaugural final series, played in home and away legs, 6–9, 5–9, 5–9 and 3–9, 5–9, 3–9 in December 1930 to the 25-year-old challenger Don Butcher, a professional player from the

Conservative Club The Conservative Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved, which was established in 1840. In 1950 it merged with the Bath Club, and was disbanded in 1981. From 1845 until 1959, the club occupied a building at 74 St James's Street where ...

. Read was a versatile sportsman, having also been British professional champion at

Lawn Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and Rackets.

References

External links

History of Squash article at Worldsquash.org
1889 births Year of death missing People from Kensington Sportspeople from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea English male squash players English male tennis players British male tennis players Professional tennis players before the Open Era {{England-squash-bio-stub