The sport has taken him around the world while he’s officiated at Olympic and Commonwealth Games and world championships in all disciplines of cycling.

Now 60 and a citizen of the world, Bill was honoured for his efforts when he was awarded an OAM for services to cycling.

“It came out of the blue,’’ Bill said from the Gold Coast, where he’s involved with his latest venture of cycling competition manager for the 2018 Golf Coast Commonwealth Games. He had the post for the games at Glasgow in 2014 and Delhi in 2010.

He started cycling competitively at the age of 12.

“My grandfather, Ken O’Connor, was a prominent cyclist around here then and he had a lot to do with getting me into it, as did my uncles Ray and Ted (O’Connor),’’ Bill recalled.

Bill pursued the sport with enthusiasm and success. He was a long-term competitor with the Manning Cycle Club and cites two events, the Grafton to Inverell in 1986 and the Muswellbrook to Tamworth around the same time as highlights.

He won B-grade in the Grafton to Inverell and was second overall in the Muswellbrook to Tamworth. The Grafton to Inverell is regarded as one of the toughest races in Australia,

“That year the combined A and B-grades, so I was actually 12^th overall,’’ he said.

“You spend 17 kilometres climbing up the Gibraltar Range. The race goes for 230 kilometres so you spend seven hours in the saddle – that’s a long time,’’ he said.

Bill didn’t drift into administration when his days as a competitor waned. Just the opposite.

“I took over as president when I was 19,’’ he said.

The position had to be filled and Bill was encouraged to take it on by Tom Page, who he described as ‘one of my mentors.’

He  enjoyed the responsibility but added it was good to have Tom in his corner if needed.

“I was president for 13 years. In that time the club started to increase fund raising by running things like the local triathlons,’’ Bill said.

“That put us into a position to improve our facilities here and eventually be in a position to get things like the crit track at the recreation centre. I like to think that’s my legacy.’’

Cycling’s profile began to lift throughout Australia during the 1980s and 90s.

A painter by trade, Bill started to notice this in the workplace.

“We’d break for morning tea and all the talk would be about the football on the weekend,’’ he said.

“But then SBS started showing highlights of the Tour de France and more people started to take an interest. We’d go to morning tea and the talk would be about cycling.’’

In 1982 Bill made his next step in administration by gaining his referee’s certificate. In 1990, with his competitive days nearly over, he was successful in gaining a A pass in the Union of Cyclists International national course so was qualified to officiate in events up to Australian national level. Then came the big step and in 1995 he went to Malaysia where he was successful in gaining an A pass in the international course – becoming the first Australian to do so.

Bill said he was encouraged by Ray Godkin and Alex Fulcher.

“Just like Tom (Page), they’re great mentors,’’ he said.

That was life changing. He estimates he’s officiated in events in 10 to 12 countries since. He has been based in Saudi Arabia (for the Asian Games), India and Scotland while he was a technical officer at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.

Bill rates India in 2010 as his greatest challenge.

“The culture there is just so different and at the time cycling wasn’t a high profile sport,’’ he said.

There were problems with getting facilities built in time and a month before the games following a change of government, Bill was told he had to change the route for the road race.

“The new government didn’t want to going past the presidential palace,’’ he said.

“If we couldn’t work something out there wouldn’t have been a road race. But in the end everything worked out okay.’’

He was also involved in a tense situation in the Maddison race at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, where Australia eventually gained gold. The Maddison, for the uninitiated, is a scrambling and confusing affair.

There was a fall in one of the last laps and the chief judge wanted to disqualify the Australian team. Clinch, an assistant judge disagreed and following an inquiry the Australian received the green light and the gold medal because of Clinch’s intervention.

“Not many people know that story,’’ Bill smiles.

He’s just started work with his gig on the Gold Coast and that’ll keep him busy to 2018. He’s already looking for further challenges.

“I’d like to be a technical delegate for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in South Africa,’’ he said.

“And velodromes are being built all around the world these days and they need some to certify them, so that’s something else I’m looking at.’’

It’s been an interesting ride and now he has an OAM to add to his CV.

“But I don’t do this for the awards. I do it because I love the sport and I’ve been lucky enough to have a front row seat to watch it,’’ he said.