Taking Stock: Deloitte serves up Wimbledon umpire

TS has always known accountants like to spend their spare time pursuing all kinds of madcap endeavours, particularly in the world of sport.

Who could forget, for example, canoeist Ed McKeever’s gold-medal-winning turn in the London 2012 Olympics while he was still taking his ACCA qualifications?

Or the multi-marathon men from Haslers and KPMG who undertook the World Marathon Challenge from Antarctica to Sydney, Australia and the 777 Marathon Challenge respectively.

Then there’s the bizarre reverse scenario we saw in early April when former AC Milan and Italy star Demitrio Albertini oversaw the insolvency process underway at Serie A side Parma, which this week saw the side finally fold and become amateur.

We can now add Deloitte’s Alex Bosshardt to that pantheon, who is taking four weeks’ unpaid leave – part of its WorkAgility scheme – from his role as a manager in the firm’s sports business group in order to umpire at Queen’s, an ATP Challenger event in Manchester and  the big one itself – Wimbledon.

He has previously served as a line umpire, including in the 2009 men’s final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, and will now be taking the umpire’s chair itself.

“I started umpiring in 2005, after being encouraged by the LTA as a former junior player,” explains Bosshardt.

“Trying to work this around holiday always proved tricky and actually adds more stress to taking time off. I started working as a line umpire and I’m now a chair umpire, meaning the final decision of a game could rest on me – I need the time off to fully commit to the game.”