Shropshire Star
Close

Shropshire walking footballer plans to run 'distance from Bridgnorth to the North Pole' in fundraising drive

A Bridgnorth man is in a hurry to complete a 3,000-mile running challenge by the end of the year to raise £1,000 for one of the town's football clubs.

By Richard Williams
Published

Tim Nash, 54, is combining his sporting passions by running the distance from Bridgnorth to the Earth’s most northern point to raise money for Bridgnorth Spartans FC.

Back row, from left: Jon Tudge, Under-15 Girls Whites Manager, Mike Walters, Under-11s Reds Manager and Treasurer, Keith Davies, walking footballer, Dan Broster, Under-12s Blacks Manager and Junior Chair. Front row: George Walters and Frankie Tudge, Under-11s Reds Players, Tim Nash and Harvey Broster, Under-12s Blacks player. Three generations of Spartans are featured here – Keith is father-in-law of Dan, who also played for Spartans, and his granddad to Harvey.
Men’s and women’s walking footballers with Tim. Men have to be over 50 to play walking football and the women have to be over 40.

A keen runner for many years, competing in marathons, half marathons and 10k events, Tim also plays walking football for Spartans.

But he has never taken on anything like this before – and says he wants all the help he can get.

“I started off in January thinking that I hadn’t run 300km in a month for a while, and so started running 10k a day,” said Tim, a communications officer in healthcare. “I managed it for January then just carried on.

“Halfway through the year, I’d done about 1,300 miles and realised if I increased my daily distance a bit, I could maybe reach 3,000 miles by the end of 2025. This seemed like an achievable – if ambitious – target to aim for.”

Spartans offer football for people of all ages, from their grassroots soccer school for children from the age of three to evergreen walking footballers in their 80s.

And it was with that in mind that Tim – also a freelance football writer – decided to turn his challenge into a fundraiser.

Back row, from left: Jon Tudge, Under-15 Girls Whites Manager, Mike Walters, Under-11s Reds Manager and Treasurer, Keith Davies, walking footballer, Dan Broster, Under-12s Blacks Manager and Junior Chair. Front row: George Walters and Frankie Tudge, Under-11s Reds Players, Tim Nash and Harvey Broster,
Back row, from left: Jon Tudge, Under-15 Girls Whites Manager, Mike Walters, Under-11s Reds Manager and Treasurer, Keith Davies, walking footballer, Dan Broster, Under-12s Blacks Manager and Junior Chair. Front row: George Walters and Frankie Tudge, Under-11s Reds Players, Tim Nash and Harvey Broster,

“I thought to keep me focused for the final few hundred miles I’d try to raise some money for a local cause,” added Tim.

“Football has given me a lot of pleasure down the years – for example, I never thought I’d score a goal again, but I’ve achieved that through walking football, so I thought I’d try to give something back.

“Raising money for Spartans is a really positive cause, because the club touches so many people in the town.

“Whether through playing for the team as a kid, coaching a team, being a parent of a child in one of its teams or being a volunteer or walking footballer, there are so many connections forged through Spartans.”

Kelly Woodcock, co-chair of Spartans, said: “We are beyond thrilled at what Tim is doing.

“This is an amazing challenge in itself, not to mention raising funds for Spartans and we are behind him all the way.

“The club is always on the lookout for different ways to fundraise, especially now we have our new ground up and running at Norton.

“We have decided to put money raised towards a marquee there which can be used for teams’ social events.

“We will do whatever we can to support Tim and we are extremely grateful and touched that he is willing to do this for Spartans.

“It’s an incredible feat and one we’re very humbled by.”

Tim is currently running nine miles a day to ensure he stays on track to hit his target.

Also a keen member of Bridgnorth Running Club, he invites runners, footballers and anyone else to join him on his final daily 10k of 2025 on the Bridgnorth 10k route to complete his milestone on New Year’s Eve, finishing under the Town Hall some time between 10am and 1pm.

Anyone who wants to donate can do so via this link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tim-nash-3000-spartans.