By The Roar
October 8th 2008 @ 6:08am
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Unveiling the next Roar columnist
We had some wonderful entries in the 2008 Roar Armchair Sports Writer Award, our search to find Australia’s next great sports writer and turn them into a paid columnist.
We now have a winner!
After Roar readers voted on the weekly entrants, we were left with five finalists. Our expert judging panel — Liz Ellis, Peter Fitzsimons, Philip Derriman, and The Roar’s own Spiro Zavos — then made their comments, and ultimately chose one winner. And now those votes are in.
The five finalists were: Benjamin Conkey for his piece entitled, China second on the medal tally? Only in America; Gabriel Knowles with Only four teams can win the EPL; Rory O’Donovan with What Next For Federer? A Coach Would Help; Benjamin with For the Wallabies, it’s Advance Australia bare; and Jason Gray with his article, The Mariners bring grassroots football to a rugby heartland.
We are now pleased to announce that the ultimate winner – and future Roar columnist is … wait for it … drum roll, please … Benjamin Conkey!
On behalf of all the Roar editors, we would like to congratulate Benjamin Conkey and welcome him on-board.
Of his insightful and well-written article, our judges were effusive. Peter Fitzsimons said:
“Good, conversational style, which works well in sports writing, and he made an interesting point, with a good light dressing of stats.”
While Spiro Zavos concurred:
“Benjamin Conkey got the vote from me, from an entertaining suite of articles, because he came at his subject from an interesting angle. The writing was topical, opinionated, informed and had a nice ironic edge, qualities that The Roar espouses.”
The very close runner up was Rory O’Donovan. Liz Ellis said this of his article:
“It was well written and articulate. Rory’s premise was clear and he established himself early as respectful of Federer before going onto critique an important part of his preparation. I particularly liked how Rory took a different approach to Federer’s season rather than falling into the “Federer is finished” trap. I am looking forward to reading more of Rory’s work!”
Philip Derriman said of O’Donvan’s article:
“It reads pretty well; it makes a point; and it holds the reader’s interest until the end.”
Congratulations to Benjamin Conkey and a big thank you to all the other finalists, whose writing was of such a high standard. The judges, all professional journalists themselves, were very impressed by the high quality of the articles, which really is a reflection on the all the talented Roar readers we have out their, getting their opinion across intelligently. Keep an eye out for Benjamin Conkey as he begins a new regular column on The Roar.
You can read all the nominated articles here. Should we run this award again? Let us know in the comments below.
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Brett McKay said | October 8th 2008 @ 8:52am | Report comment
congrats to Benjimin for the win, and I’ll look forward to the first regular artcile. Congrats to all the finalists too, and to the editors, yes you should run this again!!
One of my main motivations for getting into these sports columns was to see if I could take a fledging hobby, and if good enough, make something of it. Obviously, I should have come in earlier!! Great competition, would love to see it again..
Millster said | October 8th 2008 @ 9:20am | Report comment
I like it. A short, left-field, punchy article. Well done Benjamin and all other finalists. This site and the concept behind this competition are awesome.
Slippery Jim said | October 8th 2008 @ 10:54am | Report comment
Congrats Conkey!
Re another award – bring it on! Just about everyone who is into sports likes a bit of healthy competition.
Greg Russell said | October 8th 2008 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
All are articles of merit, however it is that by Gabriel Knowles that stands out clearly to me, as it gives me fresh information and insightful interpretation. Without meaning any disrespect, the points about the medal table, about Federer not having a coach, and about the paucity of talent in Australian rugby are all rather obvious. Further, sometimes it helps to look at the world from a different angle. A student once said to Wittgenstein “How could people ever have been so stupid as to think that the sun rotates around the earth?” The famous philosopher simply answered: “Yes, but I wonder how things would look from earth if the sun rotated around us?” Is it really only gold medals that count above all else on a medal table? Sally McLennan’s reaction would suggest otherwise. If a coach is so important in tennis, then how to explain that Federer has won so many grand slams without one? (not to mention that it would now seem that his main problem in 2008 was the lingering effects of mononucleosis, as opposed to the lack of a coach). As for the article on the Mariners, that’s a nice story but it doesn’t tell me anything I need to know.
Redb said | October 8th 2008 @ 1:46pm | Report comment
Greg,
If I may offer a view.
The criteria is not just the subject of the article, it is the hook that gets you to read the article that an editor looks for, the way it is written in terms of angle, pace, style. It can’t be just about the subject because that is of itself is subjective.
Redb
Slippery Jim said | October 8th 2008 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
Greg, no offence but writing an article about the big four in the EPL is not exactly cutting edge either – not that there’s anything wrong with that. I personally thought Jason’s article about the Mariners was great in that it was original, insightful and conveyed his passion for the game and the club.
Greg Russell said | October 8th 2008 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
Redb,
The ideal article has style and substance. Personally I value substance without style much more highly than style without substance. I stress this is just my personal opinion. It is true that much of Australian sport reporting seems to value style over substance. One of the reasons I like The Roar so much is that it has a greater emphasis on substance.
Greg Russell said | October 8th 2008 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
Slippery Jim,
Indeed, you have correctly identified me as the EPL ignoramus that I am. But certainly I am far less ignorant now than before reading Gabriel’s article!
Slippery Jim said | October 8th 2008 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Greg, I certainly don’t think you are an ignoramous of any kind – it’s just fairly bleedingly obvious to point out that the big four have dominated the EPL in recent years.
I can personally can read and enjoy any article about the most mundane topics if it is written well. I personally love reading the articles by award winning British writer Giles Smith who often writes about trivial issues in sport (think Roy and HG) but in a fantastic humorous style.
Here’s a link to one of his many regular blogs:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/giles_smith/
He also writes for the Chelsea website – highly recommended.
Redb said | October 8th 2008 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Greg,
Unless your looking for the inside scoop before it hits the maintream press I think that is unrealistic with what most of us have at our disposal in terms of information and more importantly access. Accredited journalists are on media release listings and are often sent information that helps them craft the substance in their stories.
At the end of the day, the substance can be treated differently by two writers, it is the style that makes the story more itneresting to read IMO.
Again it is highly subjective.
Redb
Jason said | October 13th 2008 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Well done, Benjamin! I reckon run it again, guys. That bloke who wrote the Mariners article needs another crack. Especially after tipping Melbourne to win the league gf!
Congrats to all the finalists. Was happy to be included.