Tim Spanton is a British journalist and amateur international chess player. Born in 1957, he was educated at

Churcher's College Churcher's College is a private co-educational fee-charging day school, founded in 1722. Churcher’s College is regarded as a leading private school in the south of England. The Senior School (ages 11–18) is in the market town of Petersfiel ...

Petersfield, Hampshire Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth ...

Guildford College Guildford College of Further and Higher Education (GCFHE) in Guildford, Surrey was a Surrey County Council-funded educational establishment for students of age 16+ undertaking full-time and part-time studies, established in 1939. It became pa ...

, Surrey, and Highbury College, Portsmouth.

Career

He passed a one-year pre-entry journalism course at Highbury College, Portsmouth, before completing his indentures on the Sharman newspaper group's Ely Standard and Cambridgeshire Times. He worked on the Doncaster Evening Post and The News, Portsmouth, before joining the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

'' in 1987. In April 1990, he launched the Captain Cash page (later called William Wallets in Scotland), which set a world record for a newspaper column by attracting 500,000 letters in the first eight months (1). In 1997 he joined ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' where he has become well known for his stunts. In 2002 Spanton was in charge of launching ''The Sun's'' first Page 3 Idol contest. Female readers were invited to send in topless photographs of themselves. One overall winner each year won a contract to appear topless on ''The Sun's'' ''

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature in Novembe ...

''. In 2005 Spanton walked from Hyde Park, London, to Edinburgh, covering 449 miles in 21 days to support the

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005 ...

series of concerts. The walk was recognised by Live 8 organiser

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part ...

who flew in a helicopter to meet Spanton when the journalist reached South Clifton, Notts, on Day Seven of his walk. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

, invited Spanton to his home near Edinburgh and later wrote an article for The Sun in which he praised Spanton's efforts and those of other supporters of Live 8(2). In 2006 Spanton walked 592 miles from London to Frankfurt in 66 days to arrive at the venue of England's first game in the 2006 football World Cup. The number 66 was chosen to remind readers of England's World Cup-winning year of 1966. His journalism awards include Sharman Group Junior of the Year in 1977 and 1978 (the latter shared with two others) and News Corp Global Excellence winner in 2005. He left The Sun in February 2016 to become a freelance writer concentrating on travel and chess. Spanton is also a keen amateur chess player, blogging at beauchess.blogspot.com. Tournaments he has won include Scunthorpe Minor 1980, Hastings Weekend Major 1990, Isle Of Man Major 1991, World Open Warm-Up (Philadelphia) 1995, Folkestone 1996, Ilkley 2021 (August) and Hull 4NCL U2000 2021. Spanton was awarded the title of Correspondence Chess Expert by the International Correspondence Chess Federation in June 2021 and the title of Correspondence Chess Master in September 2024.

References

* (1) Source: Sunday magazine, 16 December 1990. * (2) Source: The Sun, 4 July 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spanton, Tim Living people British male journalists People educated at Churcher's College 1957 births