Sportsmen in general will regret to learn of the death of Charles Dawson, champion billiard player in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1903. Dawson was one of the old school, at his prime before the days freak players and when the leading professionals were only too willing to meet one another at the table and let the best man win, instead of} spending so much of their time quarrelling in the sporting papers. Dawson was from Yorkshire, the county which rivals Lancashire as the home of billiards. Also, like so many other professionals, he learnt real billiards as a marker, having charge of the score board at the Adega, Huddersfield, for many years. It was perhaps his daring in being the first man to insist on playing marvellous John Roberts on level terms that brought him more than anything else into public favour, and later the most popular battles of the time were ihis engagements with Diggle, the two being very evenly matched and both being quiet, clever and sportsmanlike players. Three of his championships he won against Stevenson and he might well have been counted on to continue in the front rank for many years, but his eyesight failed and he was compelled to give up the game, and in 1908 Inman was declared to be champion in default of a contest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.