One of the true legends of Sydney (and NSW and Australian) orienteering - Ross Barr - reached a significant milestone recently when he published his 200th blog article about the Sydney Summer Series.
Ross is sort of the Abraham Lincoln of our sport - liberating the street/oval running slaves by instigating the SSS 23 years ago as a way to bring orienteering to the masses, and to encourage people to explore the loveliest pockets of Sydney harbour foreshore, bushland and suburban parks.
His love of O is almost rivalled by his thirst for a Reschs post-run, and most Thursdays he devotes 3-4 hours to compiling a bright, witty and nickname-loaded appreciation of the previous evening's offerings.
And they're not just a few paras - 2,000 words is the norm.
His first website news blog was at the end of the 2006/2007 season, and then became a reasonably regular feature from the 07/08 season. Before this, he used to put out printed updates every month or so – always with a racing theme, hence his use of the ‘Pork Pie’ nom de plume.
Bennelong's pre-Christmas event at Georges Heights (the Chowder Bay map) was Ross' 200th blog. For a man who made a living from corporate design consultancy, you get the feeling he would have been equally at home reporting from the track (a la Les Carlyon) or penning the latest great Australian short story (a la Robert Drewe).
If you haven't had a read - and each week has a unique theme - go to the blog page and treat yourself to some wonderful volunteer sportswriting done out of love.
Ross is the last person to puff out his chest and self-aggrandise so we can allow him the moment of largesse when he realised he had reached the 200. He's even pondering publishing a best-of anthology!
Ross is always keen to hear the thoughts of participants and welcomes contributions to his blog. Several do this already, and occasionally we get interesting and controversial banter happening – especially from a wag using the pseudonym ‘Fly on the Wall’! So if you've got a few spare moments on a Thursday night or over the weekend, Ross would love to see more interaction.
Thanks, Ross, for a fantastic contribution to orienteering.
