FINCHIE...BOB FINCH



Where the bloody hell have I been?????????...... when Joe, the Rays & Frank and others put the great website together for the Boomerang/Gabba Squash Club, I wondered what all of our mates have been up to in the intervening years. Having read with great interest the Steele story encouraged putting type to paper…

So I will start from the present. Suzanne and I (Dawn and I separated in the mid 90's) retired to Alexandra Headland on the Sunny Coast in 2004 after I worked for Australia Post for 51 years. The last 11 years were spent interstate - firstly, 5 years in Perth where I was General Manager of POST followed by 6 years in Melbourne. The first couple of years of the latter were as General Manager of Victoria and Tasmania, followed by a couple as National Manager of Retail and lastly as General Manager of the Commercial Division. The latter job is one of two operational positions reporting to the Managing Director (I acted in his job when he was away on holidays/overseas etc) responsible for all retail, sales, marketing, product development in Australia - some 12000 people. My work career was a fairy tale one of a Telegram kid from Monto Queensland who got to the top echelons of a really big business.

I had lots of great experiences in POST….. In the 90's I spent two different periods in Poland working for the United Nations in the Polish Post Office advising on its modernisation following the collapse of the Iron Curtin. Learnt how to drink vodka!!!!

My team in Queensland developed the concept of the Post Office becoming a retail shop selling all the various products that one see in today's outlets. I was responsible for the development of the Australia Post pavilion at Expo 88 in Brisbane - this was where the prototype of the Post shop (as it became to be known) was launched. From aged 30 to 40 I studied part time firstly matriculated and then graduated from the Uni of Queensland with an Economics degree. During my time in POST it changed from a crusty (probably mouldy) public service outfit (I learnt morse and for a few years sent telegrams as part of my daily tasks as a counter jumper) to one of the nations successful government owned businesses now earning more than $400M profit annually. And thankfully they have a really great superannuation scheme.

Squash wise, I spent many years helping with the development of the sport at the local, national and international level. Some may recall that I was Secretary of Boomerang from 1966 to 1968. Subsequently I was Secretary of Brisbane Districts Squash from 1968 to 1971 and Vice President from 1971 to 1973.

When Vic Belsham organised for the National Association to be relocated to Queensland in 1976, he asked me to be Secretary, a position held until 1981 when I became Treasurer until 1984. From 1985 until 1993, I was President of Squash Australia. It was a really great period of Australian squash, one in which not only did the nation hold every world team title but an era when we had significant influence in the sport worldwide. Initially the Association was run by volunteers - it was a period when the first full time National Executive Director was recruited, the position of National Director of Coaching was created and the Australian Institute of Sport, Squash Unit under Geoff Hunt and Heather McKay commenced. The management had great success in gaining significant funding from the Australian Sports Commission to develop the sport in those times.

From 1990 until 1997, I was Vice President of the World Squash Federation (WSF) under the Presidency of Tunku Pete Imran - again I was so fortunate to be a member of a great executive team, one which modernised the world body and made it totally professional and forward looking in all aspects of its operations. During the decade from 1989 to 1999, I was Director of World Squash Championships i.e. responsible for the efficient operation of all things associated with the various world individual and team's championships. In this period World Championships for junior women and men as well as Masters commenced. One of the many highlights was being Technical Director for Squash at the XVI Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. It was the first time that squash had been a sport in the Commonwealth Games and achieved another milestone for squash to be represented at all regional games globally - one of the WSF's strategies to get Squash into the Olympics. Executive meetings were held every 3 months at a major squash event around the world so I saw a lot of sensational squash, met great administrators and saw most of the universe.

In 2002 I was Chairman of the Organising Committee for the WSF Festival of Squash held in Melbourne, the greatest number of world events held at the one time.

These days I help at the office of Squash Australia located at Lang Park - amongst other minor tasks am developing a constitution for a Squash Foundation so the sport can raise funds from bequeaths etc to further our great sport.

Playing squash has finished unfortunately - had my last hit in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and played tennis up until when I had a hip refurbishment (traditionally the medicos would cut off the ball joint and insert a titanium ball with a nail attached which would be inserted into the top of the hip, but this newer Birmingham process simply places a titanium cup over the ball joint and inserts a socket….. this is a layman explanation as you will judge) a couple of years ago. Now ride a bike (almost going back to where I started as a telegram kid), usually 100 kms weekly. Did the 500 kms ride from Port Douglas to Mission Beach across the Atherton Tableland in 2006 - over 9 days …. yep, there are lots of bloody steep hills on that route.

My kids have all been successful - Angela has a PhD in Pharmacology and lectures at the Uni of NSW as well as being a researcher at the Victor Chan Institute, Natalie has a diploma in Child Care and works at a Centre in Nambour, Matthew and wife Jenny are graduates in Outdoor Education from Latrobe Uni. Matthew has recently relocated to the Anglican College outside Ipswich where he is head of agriculture (he held a similar position at Timber top at Mansfield in Victoria for the previous 4 years). Belinda has an International Marketing degree and MBA and is the Operations Manager at NICTA in Sydney.

Suzanne and I wander around the world enjoying ourselves. We always had a dream of going to all the grand slam tennis finals, a challenge that we achieved last September when we saw the last of them at Flushing Meadows. We are off to the Olympics where we expect that Suzanne's daughter, Tarren will wear the green and gold in synchro swimming. We have a Land cruiser and a Kimberley Kamper and intend to see the outback. Did 6500 kms in the north west and gulf of Queensland last year and after Easter we are off to Cairns and Cooktown and then across the gulf to Broome via the Gibb River Road etc.

So you can see that life has been great and playing squash at Boomerang all those years ago seems like yesterday.