The Variety Club
The Variety Club has been helping disadvantaged children for decades as we discovered at this year’s Sunshine Classic
Golf, arguably, does more for charity than any other sport, what with the captains’ charities most golf clubs support, countless big charity days and competitions, foundations run by some of the game’s biggest names, and initiatives like The First Tee in the States, set up to introduce more kids to golf and its core values.
To many golfers, the Variety Club is an organisation synonymous with celebrities and our great sport. The Variety Club’s UK chapter (or ‘tent’ as they call it) was established in 1949, with the Variety Club Golf Society arriving 54 years ago in 1965 with the idea of raising money to purchase Sunshine Coaches (specially adapted minibuses) for schools and care centres looking after disabled and disadvantaged children. In this pursuit, it has been rather successful, with the Variety Club Sunshine Classic alone – its premier golfing event – helping to put 101 Sunshine Coaches on the road over the past 23 years.
In late June, I tagged along to the 2019 staging at Woburn to find out more about the society and to
Director of golf, Jamie Little, with the next Sunshine Coaches to hit the road
watch coaches number 100 and 101 being presented to their very grateful recipients – Romans Field School in Bletchley, courtesy of The Premier League, and Marshfields School in Peterborough, courtesy of Variety Club Golf Society member, William Saunders.
Among the celebrities of stage, screen and sport present were Len Goodman, John Conteh, Kevin Whately, Roger de Courcey, Sir Trevor Brooking and, almost unbelievably, two-time Major champion, John Daly, who not only
“We’ve gone from raising £56,000 at the annual dinner to £250,000 last year. I want to keep it going that way”
played with one very excited group over the Marquess’ course, but also stayed on in the evening for a Q&A session during the gala dinner.
The first man I speak to is David Redfearn, a magician who performed for Europe’s winning Ryder Cup teams at Celtic Manor and again in Paris last year. “It’s the cause,” he says when I ask why he’s been a member for 25 years. “What we’re doing as entertainers and businessmen in supplying coaches to disadvantaged young children is just an amazing cause. You’ll see that if you stay for the presentation – it will be the perfect explanation, better than I could ever give.”
Despite a number of famous names milling around the breakfast room, it’s a bit of a myth that it’s wall-to-wall celebrities at a Variety Club golf day, as I discover when I sit down to chat with Variety Club director of golf, Jamie Little, a pro who plied his trade on tour for over a decade before taking on the role three years ago. “I think back in the day it was 50/50 and probably more celebrities than members with Bruce Forsyth, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ronnie Corbett and those guys. But now it’s a little harder to keep that high-profile celebrity thing going, so we probably have about 70 celebrity members and around 300 business members.”
All in a good cause
I glance at the startsheet, and from just over 100 playing, recognise only about 15 names, so it really isn’t a closed shop for stars of entertainment or sport, and is relatively inexpensive too at £400 to join and then £150 per year.
“Membership is by invitation, but no, we’re not a closed shop,” Little confirms. “If someone wants to join, a lot of the time they do so because they’ve played in one of our days as a guest. Loads of members have brought guests today, but once they play and see what’s going on, they think, ‘I’d like to join’. The thing is, we want members who are coming for the right reasons, not just coming to have a golf day where it’s only going cost them £150 and they meet all these lovely people. We really want members who use their black book, use their contacts, to help us raise more money and I think the majority of members do that.”
I look at the remaining schedule for 2019 and it’s obvious that the appeal is two-fold – not only raising money for a great cause, but also playing golf on some very fine courses. The society still has visits to Loch Lomond, La Manga, West Hill and other great venues before its annual dinner in December. “Yes, we’ve got all the ingredients,” Little nods. “We’ve got the celebrities who want to support it and all the high net-worth business members, and it’s just a case of putting them all together and looking after them. We’ve gone from raising £56,000 at my first annual dinner to £250,000 last year. I want keep it going that way.”
As for the golf days, every event is sponsored by certain members,
allowing for a slightly reduced rate for other members and thus scope to raise more money. “There’s breakfast, golf, food and wine with the dinner and then we always use our celebrities to entertain us,” Little explains. “Tonight, we’ve got comedian Ian Irving and impressionist Aaron James. John Daly will do a Q&A, but sometimes we have people like Stan Boardman or Bobby Davro. Bobby’s fantastic – he’s a very funny man. We’ve got a lot of good guys.”
I head out on to the course to catch up with the action on a glorious summer’s day. Much fun is being had by all, including the lead group who are marvelling at Daly’s still prodigious hitting distances. I wander across to the par-3 17th where former LET player, Samantha Head, is hosting a fund-raising ‘beat the pro’ competition, a role she will now be playing at all the society’s events.
It transpires that the Variety Club is an organisation very close to her heart. “I have a disabled daughter, and although her disability is very, very mild, the partnership the Variety Club has with disabled golf really resonates with me,” she tells me. “It’s quite poignant that I’m now actually going to be working with them more.” That partnership is with Golf for Disabled Children, an organisation that currently operates from 12 schools in and around the West Midlands, but would love to have the funds to help many more.
What it’s all about
As for the Sunshine Coaches presented at day’s end, Little tells me that they can cost up to £40,000 for a 17-seater with rear wheelchair access. “We sell them at £25,000 for a sponsor to come in, and the school then contributes something towards it as well, perhaps via government funding. That’s how they do it. Last year we gave 20 coaches away.
“We have a team at Variety that reaches out to all the schools to see if they want to apply for one. We always need more schools, which is a great thing. There are loads of schools that probably don’t even know about it, so we’re trying to reach out to every school out there.”
As the day draws to a close, Little turns to me and says: “The coaches are a tangible thing. Someone’s going to be driving them around for 15 years. That’s amazing. A lot of our members say, ‘I drove past a Variety Club Sunshine Coach today,’ and they love that. I’ve seen members crying giving the coaches away because they’ve all got kids or grandkids.”
A few days later, I spot one on a road close to home – yes, a little faded and rough around the edges, but no doubt testament to years of gratefully received service.