FRANK BRAND

Your Name.....Frank Brand

DOB.....1st May 1946

Place of Birth.....Sydney

Where you first started playing Squash.....Olympic Squash Courts, Parramatta

Your Fondest Memory of the time.....

When I started playing squash it was quite a different era. Without drink driving laws, the social side of competition squash was really special. When the fixtures were over, the night was only half finished. I still have the feeling that the social side was even better in Sydney than it was when I moved to Brisbane. There was a lot more diversity in Sydney squash with a much larger number of squash clubs and not such a preponderance of bigger, stronger clubs (for example Wavell/Nundah supplying half the teams in A1 - I do not think that was good for diversity or for squash in general). Alas, with the increasingly difficult drinking laws (not that I was a drinker) the social side of things dropped away.

Your best achievement on court, as most of us wouldn't have won Open Titles or represented the State, maybe list some of your Pennant wins or Club Titles.....

Best team achievement was probably winning the A1 pennant at Boomerang. I think that was the only pennant I won in Brisbane but I won a number of pennants in Sydney even though I played many more seasons in Brisbane than in Sydney.

Individually, I won a number of Club Championships - one at Cumberland Squash Club in Sydney and (I think) three at Kangaroo Squash Club in Brisbane and a number of Handicap tournaments.

Runner-up Gabba Club Championship to Nic Jeffrey in 1978.

I was Western Suburbs (Sydney) A Grade Champion and also won the Open Plate final on the same night but can't remember when that was.

Was a member of the UNSW team for the Australian Universities tournament at some time in the past, far to far in the past to remember.

Did you venture into administration or coaching or refereeing or managing teams or played Masters Squash.....

Was a Committee member, Vice-President and President of KSC and was a member of the BDSRA Committee at some stage too.

Who do you admire as the person who has either achieved great things on court or shaped the game off court.....

Obviously, Geoff Hunt and Heather McKay were exceptional performers in the sport but I notice the hard workers who never receive that sort of recognition. The enormous regard in which Joe Williams is still held by the members of Boomerang Squash Club (and Joe has been gone from Boomerang for many, many years) is testament to the skills that Joe developed and the great work he did. I have never heard anyone have a bad word to say about Joe but I think a watershed is approaching now that Joe knows for sure who put his name on the Women's ladder.

Funniest moment you remember.....

There must be lots of them but it is difficult to remember one over others.

What are you doing now. As a lot of us would be now retired, list some facts about your working life.....

I am now sort of retired but I do have a little computer business that gets me pocket money. I build and maintain computers and networks for individuals and companies.

Did you get married, have kids.....

Yes, I was married to Marilyn when we both played at Boomerang. Have two children...a son (Stuart) who now lives in Sydney and a daughter (Katherine).

Anything else you think people might find interesting.....

Not a real lot. I do try to do a bit of travel. Some of my travel pics are on the web at:-

http://www.fbrand.info

and the Boomeranmg/Gabba site is hosted (along with my Granddaughter's pics):-

http://franksplace.nfshost.com