Tim Spanton
Encyclopedia
Churcher's College
Churcher's College is an English co-educational independent, fee-paying school which is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference . The senior school is located in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire with the junior school in nearby Liphook...
, Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...
, Guildford College, 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
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
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 (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
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 wins a contract to appear topless on The Sun's Page Three.
In 2005 Spanton walked from Hyde Park, London, to Edinburgh, covering 449 miles in 21 days to support the Live 8
Live 8
Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in 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; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid...
series of concerts. The walk was recognised by Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
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
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, 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.
Spanton is also a keen amateur chess player. Tournaments he has won include Scunthorpe Minor 1980, Hastings Weekend Major 1990, Isle Of Man Major 1991, World Open Warm-Up (Philadelphia) 1995 and Folkestone 1996.