Sally Jones
Encyclopedia
Sally Jones is a British
television news and sports presenter, later writing freelance on education and sport for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph.
and educated at Coleshill Parochial School, Coleshill Grammar School, King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham and St Hugh's College
, Oxford
where she read English and won five Blues and Half Blues for different sports including tennis
, squash
, netball
, cricket
and modern pentathlon
, a record for an undergraduate. In 1976, she became a member of Oxford
's first women's modern pentathlon side, which defeated Cambridge
in the Varsity match
at Uppingham School
. She performed in various Oxford University Dramatic Society
(OUDS) productions and was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society
. In 1976, she was Oxford University rock n'roll champion (Oxford Rock Soc) and began tap-dancing with the Oxcentrics
jazz band as well as gaining notoriety via a student prank, successfully dressing up as a man to stand for membership of the University's exclusive, all-male Gridiron Club.
county (Warwickshire LTA) and British schoolgirls tennis champion (Lawn Tennis Association
) and a finalist in the British Under 21 doubles championship (LTA). She played county tennis, squash (Warwickshire, Devon and South Wales squash associations), and netball (Birmingham Schools and Midlands First teams), captaining the Midlands junior netball side, the Oxford University netball (OUNC) and tennis teams (OULTC) and the Warwickshire senior tennis team (WLTA) for ten years, leading them to the County Championship in 1997. She won the Sunday Telegraph
Travel Writing Prize for an account of a tennis tour of Ireland
and two Catherine Pakenham awards for women journalists.
news trainee, a TV reporter at Westward TV in Plymouth
, and a TV presenter/reporter for HTV
(Wales) where she also made several documentaries, and Central TV in Birmingham
where she co-presented Central News and reported on the politics show Central Lobby during the 1980s. She has also reported for ITN and has written newspaper columns for the Daily Mirror and Today
newspapers. In 1986, she became the BBC's first woman sports presenter on BBC Breakfast News and presented during the Seoul
summer Olympic Games
in 1988 and for BBC World
during the 1992 Summer Olympics
.
She has presented a string of other TV and radio programmes, including several series of "On the Line", the BBC TV sports politics show, the daytime show "The Garden Party
", real tennis
documentaries for Channel 4
, coverage of women's British Open golf
(St Mellion
, Cornwall
), international tennis, women's rugby and NBA
basketball
(BBC TV), "Transworld Sport
" (Channel 4) and international gymnastics (ITV). She regularly presented "Woman's Hour
" from Birmingham (BBC Radio 4
) and was a member of the Radio Five Live Wimbledon
tennis commentary team during the 1990s.
and won the world championship at Bordeaux in 1993 (Ladies Real Tennis Association), beating Charlotte Cornwallis in the final, as well as two British Open and two US Open championships. She has won a string of major doubles titles including two world championships with Alex Garside, in 1989 and 1991. She was British Open doubles finalist with Jo Iddles in 2008. She is now press officer for the Real Tennis and Rackets Association and also does media training for a variety of firms and individuals.
but now lives in Warwickshire
and Birmingham with her family. She married property developer John Grant in 1989 and the couple have two children, Roland, born in 1990 and Madeline, born in 1992. She has written four books on Westcountry legends and several on sport including the Ladybird Book of Riding. In 2006, she co-wrote and edited a prize-winning local history book on Georgian Warwickshire ("Georgian Coleshill"). She works for several charities and is a Governor of the King Edward's Schools' Foundation in Birmingham.
A quiz enthusiast, she won "Sale of the Century
" aged 18 and has since appeared on celebrity editions of "Fifteen to One
" and "The Krypton Factor
." In September 2008, she appeared on Mastermind
, although (as a sports journalist), she could not remember who captained England
during the 2007 Rugby World Cup
Final, she redeemed herself by winning with a score of 25 points.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television news and sports presenter, later writing freelance on education and sport for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph.
Education
Sally Jones was born in CoventryCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and educated at Coleshill Parochial School, Coleshill Grammar School, King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham and St Hugh's College
St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
where she read English and won five Blues and Half Blues for different sports including tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and modern pentathlon
Modern pentathlon
The modern pentathlon is a sports contest that includes five events: pistol shooting, épée fencing, 200 m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3 km cross-country run...
, a record for an undergraduate. In 1976, she became a member of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
's first women's modern pentathlon side, which defeated Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in the Varsity match
Varsity match
A varsity match is a sporting fixture between two university rivals; in its original and most common form, it is used to describe meetings between Oxford University and Cambridge University.-Popular British and Irish Varsity matches:*University of Oxford v...
at Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
. She performed in various Oxford University Dramatic Society
Oxford University Dramatic Society
The Oxford University Dramatic Society is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England...
(OUDS) productions and was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society
Oxford University Broadcasting Society
The Oxford University Broadcasting Society was a student society at the University of Oxford, England. It covered radio and television broadcasting....
. In 1976, she was Oxford University rock n'roll champion (Oxford Rock Soc) and began tap-dancing with the Oxcentrics
Oxcentrics
The Oxcentrics were a Dixieland jazz band founded in 1975 at Oxford University. The band's name was derived from The Oxontrics, an original 1920s jazz band. Several members were from University College, where many of the rehearsals took place. They played at a number of Oxford Balls, for the...
jazz band as well as gaining notoriety via a student prank, successfully dressing up as a man to stand for membership of the University's exclusive, all-male Gridiron Club.
Sport
She was WarwickshireWarwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
county (Warwickshire LTA) and British schoolgirls tennis champion (Lawn Tennis Association
Lawn Tennis Association
The Lawn Tennis Association is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.As the governing body, the LTA is responsible for the coaching and development of junior players, offering courses and qualifications on coaching, as well as the...
) and a finalist in the British Under 21 doubles championship (LTA). She played county tennis, squash (Warwickshire, Devon and South Wales squash associations), and netball (Birmingham Schools and Midlands First teams), captaining the Midlands junior netball side, the Oxford University netball (OUNC) and tennis teams (OULTC) and the Warwickshire senior tennis team (WLTA) for ten years, leading them to the County Championship in 1997. She won the Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
Travel Writing Prize for an account of a tennis tour of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and two Catherine Pakenham awards for women journalists.
Broadcasting career
During her career, she has been a BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
news trainee, a TV reporter at Westward TV in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, and a TV presenter/reporter for HTV
HTV
HTV, now legally known as ITV Wales & West, is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, which operated from studios in Cardiff and Bristol. The company provided commercial television for the dual-region 'Wales and West' franchise, which it won from TWW in 1968...
(Wales) where she also made several documentaries, and Central TV in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
where she co-presented Central News and reported on the politics show Central Lobby during the 1980s. She has also reported for ITN and has written newspaper columns for the Daily Mirror and Today
Today (UK newspaper)
Today was a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, which was published between 1986 and 1995.-History:Today, with the American newspaper USA Today as inspiration, launched on Tuesday, 4 March 1986, with the front page headline, "Second Spy Inside GCHQ". At 18 pence, it was a middle-market...
newspapers. In 1986, she became the BBC's first woman sports presenter on BBC Breakfast News and presented during the Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
summer Olympic Games
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
in 1988 and for BBC World
BBC World
BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
during the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
.
She has presented a string of other TV and radio programmes, including several series of "On the Line", the BBC TV sports politics show, the daytime show "The Garden Party
The Garden Party
"The Garden Party" is the pilot episode of the Adult Swim animated series The Boondocks, although the production number, 103, suggests it was the third episode produced...
", real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
documentaries for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, coverage of women's British Open golf
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
(St Mellion
St Mellion
St Mellion is a village and rural civil parish in east Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish is three miles south of Callington and is in the St Germans Registration District. The population in the 2001 census was 377...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
), international tennis, women's rugby and NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
(BBC TV), "Transworld Sport
Transworld Sport
Transworld Sport is a Sports-related television programme produced by Trans World International and shown worldwide on a variety of television channels....
" (Channel 4) and international gymnastics (ITV). She regularly presented "Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...
" from Birmingham (BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
) and was a member of the Radio Five Live Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
tennis commentary team during the 1990s.
Real tennis
In 1986, she took up Real TennisReal tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
and won the world championship at Bordeaux in 1993 (Ladies Real Tennis Association), beating Charlotte Cornwallis in the final, as well as two British Open and two US Open championships. She has won a string of major doubles titles including two world championships with Alex Garside, in 1989 and 1991. She was British Open doubles finalist with Jo Iddles in 2008. She is now press officer for the Real Tennis and Rackets Association and also does media training for a variety of firms and individuals.
Personal life
She was based in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
but now lives in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and Birmingham with her family. She married property developer John Grant in 1989 and the couple have two children, Roland, born in 1990 and Madeline, born in 1992. She has written four books on Westcountry legends and several on sport including the Ladybird Book of Riding. In 2006, she co-wrote and edited a prize-winning local history book on Georgian Warwickshire ("Georgian Coleshill"). She works for several charities and is a Governor of the King Edward's Schools' Foundation in Birmingham.
A quiz enthusiast, she won "Sale of the Century
Sale of the Century
Sale of the Century is a television game show format that has been screened in several countries in various incarnations since 1969. The show found its biggest success in Australia, where it aired weeknights from 1980 to 2001...
" aged 18 and has since appeared on celebrity editions of "Fifteen to One
Fifteen to One
Fifteen to One was a popular general knowledge quiz show broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. It ran from 4 January 1988 to 19 December 2003, and had a reputation for being one of the toughest quizzes on TV. Throughout the show's run it was presented and produced by William G. Stewart...
" and "The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor was a British game show produced by Granada Television for broadcast on ITV. The show originally ran from 7 September 1977 to 20 November 1995, and was hosted by Gordon Burns and usually broadcast on the ITV network on Mondays at 19:00....
." In September 2008, she appeared on Mastermind
Mastermind (TV series)
Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...
, although (as a sports journalist), she could not remember who captained England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the 2007 Rugby World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
Final, she redeemed herself by winning with a score of 25 points.