Sid Evans

In his youth, Sid Evans was an all-round sportsman. He was equally at home playing rugby for Berkshire Wanderers, cricket and football (association) for Aldermaston, or as a sprint and middle-distance runner with Reading Harriers. But it was as a boxer that he was better known. However, before turning his hand to pugilism, Evans was a wrestler and weightlifter of note in the Reading area, having attended the Reading School of Physical Culture.

Fighting as a heavyweight, Evans competed in his first ABA Championship in 1908, and came away as champion. It would be Evans’ only ABA final. Shortly afterwards, he had the honour of sparring in front of the reigning Monarch, King Edward VII, the first amateur boxer to do so. Evans went to the London Olympics later in the year, but a chronic bout of neuralgia leading up to the Games meant he was nowhere near peak form. However, he still managed to inflict first round knockouts on two formidable opponents, Albert Ireton and Frank Parks, on his way to the final. But he then came up against Albert Oldman, and was himself knocked out in the first round, in a fight that barely lasted a minute, but Evans still received a silver medal. Sadly, ill health forced Evans to miss the opportunity to defend his ABA title in 1909.

Evans spent six years with the Berkshire Yeomanry at the turn of the 20th century. He later ran his own Physical Culture School, became a boxing referee, and also wrote boxing articles for a local newspaper. In his spare time, he used to create and exhibit flower presentations, a hobby not normally associated with a heavyweight boxer. Sid Evans died in 1927 at the age of 45, after contracting double pneumonia.