'I was the first woman to present sports news on the BBC'

In 1986, in a TV studio in London, Sally Jones broke a glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to present sports news on the BBC's Breakfast Time.

She had the perfect credentials for the role - having won five Blues and half Blues while reading English at St Hugh's College, Oxford, playing netball, cricket, tennis, squash and modern pentathlon.

"I grew up at Wainbody Avenue, just off the now-A45, so I used to be taken to the Memorial Park nearly every day in a pram. So I've had a lot to do with sport, I played squash, tennis and now real tennis, which I took up in my late 20s," Jones recalled.

Born in Coventry in 1954, Jones grew up in the city and then Coleshill in North Warwickshire, before heading to Oxford University and St Hugh's College.

From there, she joined the BBC as a trainee journalist, then left for the commercial TV world before returning in 1986, joining Frank Bough, Sally Magnusson and Jeremy Paxman in the relaunched version of BBC Breakfast Time, becoming the first woman to present the sports news on television for the corporation.

However, despite her sporting pedigree and knowledge, Jones still faced sexism from those who did not think a woman should be presenting and talking about football, rugby, cricket and other male-dominated sports.

"In those days, there was also a kind of looks-ism going on as well.

"I was told to go away and lose weight. I was a size 12 and nearly six foot. I brushed it off. You do get a skin like a rhinoceros."

Jones might have been a trailblazer for women in sports journalism and presentation, but she said some of the older attitudes still existed for the current crop of women in sport.

She said despite women being a more visible presence in sport, the sexist scrutiny remained.

"If you're a woman and mess up, as I and Sue Barker and several of our friends, Helen Rollason who was a very close friend of mine, all found that if we had the slightest mistake, people would line up to pour scorn on us.

"Usually elderly men, the sort that write in green ink on what looks like lavatory paper when they send you the nasty letters."

Jones said that if a similar slip was made by her male colleagues, viewers would say they were having a bad day. The same courtesy was not extended to the female presenters.

Although no longer a regular on TV, Jones still mixes her love of sport with journalism.

She works as a media trainer for sports organisations, while still playing real tennis for the Moreton Morrell Club in Warwickshire and said age was no barrier to becoming a champion in the sport.

She won her first world title in real tennis in 1993 at the championships in Bordeaux.

"I just thought I might as well go for it and I won in three very close sets. I was 38 and I didn't think there was any chance of me winning the world championship."

Jones said the strategic nature of the sport was what kept her going.

"I can play against a youngish man who hits the ball very hard, but maybe isn't that strategic and very often, push him all the way or beat him."

She admitted she had been lucky to take on the roles she had, as her parents did not push her into a career.

Although her father, who was the manager of a bank in Coleshill, suggested she should get a job there when she turned 16.

"It would have driven me out of my tree within about three weeks.

"I never, ever wanted to do that filing type, money-related job and thank goodness I've managed to avoid it so far."

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