Ruddington Grange Golf Club was established in our village in 1988. However, unless you’re a regular golfer, it’s possible you don’t know very much about it.
The attractive 18-hole course and facilities, accessed from Wilford Road, are also available to non-members. As well as the extensive, tree-lined grounds being a haven for local wildlife, there’s a pro-shop onsite, food and drink are available at the club every day and its clubhouse offers various venues to cater for special events – from weddings and funerals to small family functions. Moreover, it is home to a legacy of giving to good causes, via numerous charity fundraisers each year, which are supported by over 600 members who see themselves as a ‘family’.
‘Charity Days’ at Ruddington Grange Golf Club (RGGC) began with the Johnson family and then ownership transitioned to the late John Pownall and his family, who carried on the tradition. It was a propriety golf club then, upon Mr Pownall’s death, it was gifted to RGGC for its members to run – in effect ‘rent’ – although the estate is still owned by the Pownall family.
The golf club has three, key, annual fundraisers for charities; Kidney Research Nottingham City Hospital / ‘Padraic Fundraising Day’, The Children’s Society/’Children’s Day Fund’ and Nottinghamshire Leukaemia Appeal. These are organised by Eamonn Gavigan, Margaret Thorpe and Terry Bradley, respectively {pictured top}.
“It’s a golf club with the biggest heart I’ve ever come across, with the amount of fundraising that goes on” says RGGC General Manager Jennie-May Smith. “When I joined, the business in March 2022, I had no idea how big the community and the golf club was. We have these three significant Charity Days in the year, but we also have others – for example our Vice Captain this year is in a band and he ran an evening with them to raise money for Ukraine… and they raised £3,500.”
Eamonn, Margaret and Terry told RUDDINGTON.info they really don’t want to be in the limelight, however they do wish to promote that their fundraising work is so successful thanks to Ruddington Grange Golf Club and the continuing generosity of its members. Here are the trio’s stories about their own ‘Charity Days’.
- Eamonn Gavigan on ‘Padraic’ Fundraising Day – which has raised £274,000 so far for Kidney Research at the Nottingham City Hospital, local charities and numerous worthy causes.
‘Padraic’s Day’ was started in the early 1990s by Padraic Sweeney, Willie Tunney and Eamonn himself – all who were members of the Nottingham Irish Golf Society. It is named after Padraic, who was chairman and captain of the Society. He had kidney problems and had to have his leg amputated below the knee as he waited for a kidney transplant.
Eamonn explains: “Padraic never got a kidney and died in 2000, aged just 44. But we’ve kept his fundraising day going since, because of the generosity of the golf club here and McCanns – a multinational company who do the lighting on the motorways – who sponsor us every year for the prizes. Without them and the golf club what we raise wouldn’t be anything, or not worth doing.”
In the first year they managed to raise £25,000 and then got involved with the Renal Unit at Nottingham City Hospital. “In the early days, City Hospital transplant surgeon Magdi Shahata suggested when someone gets a transplant from somebody else they often like talk to them” says Eamonn. “So we bought laptops so they could talk to each other at different hospitals, wards or wherever they were. We also sent people on respite holidays, and the water bottles on the wards where you can get a drink of water, we sponsored those. We did the garden maintenance at the City Hospital, too – the little gardens between the buildings.
Padraic’s fundraising day takes place at the Golf Club on the 3rd Sunday in May. Eamonn adds: “We have the Padraic Award every year and whoever wins it nominates a charity, and we give them £1,000. We bought three dialysis machines for Padraic’s local hospital (back in Ireland) and the condition was that anyone going, from Nottingham to Castlebar, who needed dialysis, would get it. All they have to do is ring up. Those three machines cost forty thousand Euros. So, basically, that’s where most of our money raised goes and what’s left goes to the Kidney Research people at the hospital.”
- Margaret Thorpe on The Children’s Society / funding for children and young people – raising £150,000 for different charities over the past 30 years.
Margaret explains: “We call the charity ‘The Children’s Day Fund’. It started in 1991 and we used to give the money raised to The Children’s Society. I was adopted through them and so it was one way of returning a good life that my twin sister and I have through The Children’s Society. They then decided to give up their adoption agency and the Coram family took it on board, so we used to give money to them. We decided to pledge £3,000 pounds a year to the Corams and the rest would go to local charities. For example, a little disabled girl (in Clifton) needed a computer, so we brought her a computer.”
Margaret modestly admits her charity is slightly ‘low key’ in comparison with Brad’s and Eamonn’s, as they don’t raise quite as much money: “We made £6,500 last year and gave the NSPCC £3,000 and the rest to a new charity called ‘My Bag’ which we’ve taken on board now. This is a charity that provides for children to go into foster care – a bag of goodies. When they come out of foster care give them toiletries, and the rest of it – all ‘the necessaries’ – because some have no money, or very little. That charity takes one penny in the pound – that’s all it takes. We pledge them £3,000 (hopefully) every year, and the rest will be split between other charities.
This year they are also supporting the Little Princess Trust – which donates real hair wigs to young people who have an illness or treatment causing alopecia. She says they’ve banked £6,700 so far from the 2022 event, on August 13th, but anticipate the total raised will be over £7,000 when all the cash is collected. “It’s supported very well, and people also come from far and near. But without RGGC, the Johnsons and the Pownalls, and the members, none of this would happen. We are so, so fortunate for this terrific Golf Club.”
Margaret adds: “Also thank you very much to the people in Ruddington who are very generous with their raffle prizes and everything else – as they’re very, very good when I go in the village. I do appreciate all their support.”
- Terry Bradley (known as Brad) on his Nottinghamshire Leukaemia Appeal – a fundraiser dubbed ‘Leukaemia Day’ by the members at RGGC. Since it started in 1990, up to date, it’s raised in excess of £380,000.
Brad says this charity is close to his heart because he was the secretary of a local branch of the Leukaemia Research Fund when former golfer Mark Gill was the Chairman, and Mark’s 11 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukaemia. She went on to have three children but, sadly, it was her dad who died of Leukaemia.
Brad recalls: “The Johnson family owed RGGC and they gave us the course for nothing to have a Charity Golf Day and John Pownall also agreed to give us the course for nothing – and it went from there. It’s an annual event and it’s been successful, successful and even more successful! … to date we’ve raised in excess of £380,000. We get get sponsors from all of the country and 80% are RGGC members – these guys are so generous, as well as RGGC.”
Brad is already looking forward to the next Leukaemia Day on July 7th 2023 and adds: “These funds are used to sponsor the Nottingham University Hospitals – who’ve been pioneers in stem cell transplants from blood, helping kids with Leukaemia. The only reason I do it is to save kids’ lives.”
Jennie-May Smith adds: “Congratulations to our biggest fundraisers, and it’s an honour to be leading the ship. The three charity days are always full to capacity. The social aspect of this club is huge, with a brilliant community. There are things going on up here and you don’t have to be a member to come to Ruddington Grange. We’re incredibly welcoming to passing trade – pop in for a drink or lunch and there are options to join on a social membership, but it is absolutely not obligatory. We have got this gorgeous facility and I’d like to see the village become more involved with the golf club – AND the golf club become more involved with the village life!”
You can find out more at www.ruddingtongrange.com.
