The Story so far.

And so… In the beginning there was Barry, and Barry took a wife who was known unto him as Janice. And she was a good wife.

Man and wife, athletes both, and of stirling ability, honed their youthful athletic prowess in far off Cowra, but came the day, (in the year of our Lord 1975) that they yearned to master the greatest challenge the Antipodes could offer: Ballina.

Ballina, home of virile, musclebound manhood and statuesque amazonian ladies, held everything to dominate the world of athletics. Everything that is except an athletics club.

So, for five of Earth’s gyrations about the Sun, Barry did repair unto Lismore where he joined the Lismore athletic club (Summerland) followed by increasing numbers of exhuberant Ballina youth. Time passed, and as inevitably as cream will rise to the top of the churn, so did Barry climb the ladder of import within the Lismore club.

Eventually as President and chief money raiser of the club the great man did have the timerity to suggest that one of the weekly athletic meets each month should be held in Ballina to more fairly share the travel load of the runners.

A blunt refusal was followed by much gnashing of teeth, a plan to start a club in Ballina, disputation over which club would enjoy the spoils of Barry’s not insignificant money raising and eventual consultation with members of the legal profession.

Ballina Athletics Club was formed on 21/7/1980 with track and field alternating with Cross country from Shelly Beach every second week. Success was almost immediate as B.A.C. contested North Coast athletic events and, supported by nothing more than car washes and raffles, were conveyed by bus to Sydney, where they earned over 50 medals at the NSW country titles.

Success followed success as B.A.C. generated champions in many fields of athletic endeavour over the next 35 years, probably the best known being Kerry Saxby-Junna, daughter of Jan and Barry. Kerry competed at three Olympic games and picked up medals in many international events including gold at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada.

It is a sad fact that even the most devout teams of workers in amateur clubs such as B.A.C. rely on a host of volunteers to enable their clubs to provide their services to the public. And, as happens so often, volunteers were hard to come by neccessitating the abandonment of the track and field division of B.A.C. leaving just the Shelly Beach Cross Country intact.

Attracted by a throng of people milling on Shelly Beach one Sunday morning the writer first encountered B.A.C. at the start of the 2014 season. Amazed to see people hobbling, sprinting, being pushed in push chairs or carried across the beach it was an easy decision to join the party.

Barry, a strapping lad of only 80 at this stage was still “running” the 3K course while Janice was the all important custodian of the stopwatch. Behind the scenes, through the long winter evenings, teams of unpaid mathmaticians would use fingers and the occasional abacus to craft the recorded times into handicaps which would be applied against the athletes during the 6 month winter season. Frequent prize giving and barbecues, healthy exercise and an enourmous sense of pure family enjoyment made it easy to see why this wonderful club continues today still giving pleasure as it has for over 40 years.

N.B. Barry and Jan, even with their tireless enthusiasm could not have achieved this remarkable series of achievements alone. The list of helpers through the ages would be too long to catalogue here, and far too dangerous considering I would leave out more than I am able to put name to, but some of the earliest / longest serving deserve a mention. Thank you to: Michael Woods (coach), Narelle O’Donnell, Royla Morris, Gordon Smith, Carole Morris, George Morris, Ken Brown, Maureen Holmes, Ted Batterham, (space waiting to be filled in exchange for a small donation of moneys to the B.A.C. accountant or, just quietly, to the IT Guy).