before it was discovered he had a malfunctioning thyroid. By the time this was diagnosed he was several years behind average both in height and attainment at school, but a course of medication put him on the road to recovery. This was not helped by having some allergies and contracting every common infectious disease possible, including pneumonia.

Bow School, Durham.

At the age of 8 he was sent to Bow School, (right) the preparatory department of Durham School, where sport is highly rated. Tim and his brother both played for the school cricket team, reportedly once bowling out an entire visiting team for 0 runs.

At about this time, a visiting relative gave the boys a chess set. Tim was immediately hooked, as it appealed to his competitive instincts without requiringany verbal or academic skills. He played the game from then till the day he died.

Both boys had their names put down for Repton, the noted private school on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border, whose alumni included such sporting legends as C. B. Fry, Harold Abrahams and Bunny Austin, and in more recent times, Jeremy Clarkson and Dr. Graeme Garden of the Goodies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with his track-record, Tim failed the entrance exam and was sent instead to Brickwall School, now called Frewen College, a school specialising in dyslexic and dyspraxic pupils, situated in a magnificent Jacobean manor house in the East Sussex village of Northiam, East Sussex. This recent aerial photograph shows a chessboard fashioned in topiary, created in 1980.

Aerial view of the present day school.

Brickwall School, now Frewen