Freddie Sore

Frederick (Freddie) Sore (February 2, 1911, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk – April 19, 2004 aged 93) was the longest-serving umpire at Wimbledon, officiating for more than 40 years until his retirement in 1989. It was Sore who produced the first outline drawings for the famous "droop snoot" that was to become standard on various combat aircraft and, eventually, on Concorde.

In 1948 he was invited to join the umpiring and management team of the All England Club and he was apparently a popular figure there during Wimbledon fortnight, getting on well with even the most difficult of players. According to his obituary he was noted for his powers of concentration, his decisiveness and fairness. That he continued at Wimbledon until he was in his early eighties, well beyond the official retirement age, was probably due to his sprightliness and his reluctance to disclose his exact age to the authorities.

He also officiated in Davis and Wightman Cup matches, and at the Professional Indoor Championships.

Frederick Harry Sore was born at Bury St Edmunds on February 2 1911. His father, a surveyor, was capped for England at football and was a champion skater.

After leaving Culford School in Suffolk, Freddie studied engineering at London Polytechnic and progressed as a designer into the aircraft industry, first at Fairey Aviation and eventually at British Aerospace.

In the Second World War Sore worked on the installation of radar in aircraft. Later he worked on the Blue Streak, Firestreak and Red Top missiles. And it was Sore who produced the first outline drawings for the famous "droop snoot" that was to become standard on various combat aircraft and, eventually, on Concorde.

Freddie Sore was a tennis player in his own right; in 1954 he won the Umpires' Lawn Tennis Championships, and he played for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. He also started the Slazenger Anglian Lawn Tennis League, a competition between the eastern counties that continues today. He coached at junior level, and some of his protégés later had successful tennis careers.

Tennis was not, however, the only sport which drew him. In his youth, he was keenly involved in competitive cycling, often entering road races over distances of more than 100 miles. In 1932 he was selected for the Great Britain B road racing team. Altogether, he won nearly 300 cycle racing prizes for road, track and hill climbing. In 1948 he was a cycling judge at the Olympic Games.

Freddie Sore died on April 19 2004, and is survived by his second wife, Jo, whom he married in 1977.

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* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/22/db2203.xml Daily Telegraph Newspaper Obituary]