Richard (****) Birch 1913-2004 The OBA reports with sadness the death of Richard (****) Birch, a member of the Ontario Badminton Hall of Fame. Winner of nine Canadian mixed doubles championships (with four different partners), his first win was in 1934 and his last in 1953. He captained Canada's first Thomas Cup competition and won 3 of his four matches in the first draw against India. He and his partner were the only pair to win a match in the next draw against the U.S. **** also captained the Canadian team in 1951-52. In Ontario, **** won the Ontario Men's Doubles in 1950 and 1952 and the Ontario Mixed in 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953 and played many events in the Toronto area. He will be remembered as the mixed doubles king. ------------------------------ There was a half page writeup of **** Birch in the May 10, 2004 Globe and Mail. Filling the information gap of the above article, **** had to stop badminton and join the Canadian troop during the WWII. He continued his ambition in badminton after the war. He was an all around athlete, playing basketball, soccer and tennis but had chosen badminton as his sporting career. With his fame, he landeed a job in a sporting store doing sales and stringing rackets. Later he took up a sales job offer in Ontario working for Slazenger. Slazenger was then bought by Dunlop and **** gradually work up to the position of President of Dunlop. Due injuries, he got into his other pass time, golfing, in his latter years. He was elated when he met Ben Hogan, a golf legend and even struck a deal to be an exclusive Canadian distributor for Ben Hogan golf equipments. Hmm, that's all i could remember, i had to work you know
