Hinchy, Bill

BORN 11 MARCH 1926 AT GLEBE in Sydney's inner west , William Arthur Hinchy was the son of Mildred and Frederick Hinchy of Glebe.10, 11 Part of the Ice Follies Trio with Dorothy Young (Dee) and Errol Lake, Bill Hinchy began skating in Sydney in 1942 and also skated in pair competitions with Thelma Homsey from Sydney. During the war he served as Sergeant at the RAAF Air Gunners School (1944-47).11 In 1946 he was a soloist in Icelvania at Sydney Glaciarium, written and produced by Cubby Lyons and Percy Wilson who were a significant influence on the skaters of Sydney. In 1947, he performed in Ron Priestley's production of Schooldays at the Glaciarium in a cast that included Pat Gregory, Dorothy Young, Errol Life-Smith, and the Ballet School. He skated in Rhythm On Ice at the Glaciarium and later on the Tivoli Circuit. In 1947 and '48, Hinchy and Homsey were New South Wales ice dance champions.[2] In 1948, they won the Australian Pair skating title, and Rona Thaell showcased their talents in her 1949 Ice Revue at Sydney Glaciarium.

Hinchy coached skating in Sydney including Doug Clarke who was four times Australian Senior Dance Champion with Barbara Heyward (1955-58).[9] He moved to Melbourne to coach professionally at the St Moritz Ice Palais in St Kilda, then joined the exodus of Australian skaters to London. He performed one of the principal characters (Jeremy) with Belita in Claude Langdon's Jack and the Beanstalk On Ice (1953) in which the Australian skater, Adrian Swan, played Hal and the King. Belita was an Olympic athlete at 13, a star of the London stage at 14, and toured the US at 15. Critically applauded for its production, 40,000 people saw Belita, insured for 600,000 pounds, climb a slippery 90-foot high beanstalk in the first week.

Next came White Horse Inn On Ice (1954), again starring Belita, Max Wall, Joan Connell and Bill at Empress Hall London. The BBC televised excerpts from a special performance before an invited audience.

Bill's sister Anne, a self-proclaimed "Saturday afternoon skater", went to see her brother in London in 1951. He taught her spins and flips and introduced her to the city's ice pantos. Anne skated in the chorus of Jack and the Beanstalk (1953) and Humpty Dumpty (1953-4) at the Empire Pool, Wembley. She joined the cast of Sonja Henie's Coronation ice show, which premiered in Paris, then toured Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Germany before returning to France to play many small towns.[1]

Meanwhile, Bill skated in Tom Arnold's production of Queen Of Hearts On Ice at Westover Ice Rink in Bournemouth in 1953, and won the World Professional Championship Pair title with local Maureen Pain. Australian skater Reg Park won the Men's title. Pain had played the Princess in Jack and the Beanstalk. The 21-year-old took ballet lessons from the Russian ballerina Nadine Nicolaeva Legat, who had trained Morra Shearer. She skated in Sinbad On Ice at Empress Hall Earls Court that Christmas.

Early 1955, Hinchy played Prince Charming in Cinderella On Ice, the sixth ice pantomime from Claude Langdon at Empress Hall London. Maureen, his professional skating partner, also skated in the show, and the BBC again televised a special performance before an invited audience. Later that season, the Australian skated in Wildfire, a new ice musical at Empress Hall with singer Frankie Vaughn and Belita. This Claude Langdon production was a lighthearted account of the conquest of Virginia by English settlers in 1609.

In the 1960s, Hinchy skated in the Vienna Ice Revue with the Belgian skater, Fernand Leemans.[12]The Revue still presented three World runners-up and European champions from Austria in one show in 1960: Eva Pawlik, Hanna Eigel and Ingrid Wendl, who made her debut as a professional skater in 1958. Claude Richard worked with Bill Hinchy at the Casa Carioca just after he left Wiener Eis Revue, 1965 or thereabouts. Bill planned to start a tank show and tour Europe, but that did not happen.[13]

In May 1966, Hinchy and Jill Kent of Britain placed seventh of ten competitors in the Horlick's World and British Open Professional Figure Skating Championship in London. The couple, who were paired at the Casa Carioca in Garmisch, Germany,[7] were the British Pair Skating Champions that year. [8] Reg Park placed third in the Men's Worlds Professional event.

When Hinchy retired, he moved to Barcelona and became Spain's national ice dance coach.[9] The former World Professional Champion died peacefully at 69 on April 19th 1995 in Sydney, late of Barcelona. A notice in a Sydney newspaper noted his friendships with Fernand Leemans, pupils and friends in ice skating. A service was held April 21st at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Sydney.[10]

The professional skating and coaching career of Bill Hinchy unfolded in Australia, the UK and Europe over four or five decades.