About The Lord's Taverners Ltd
The Lord’s Taverners’ mission is to give ‘young people, particularly those with special needs, a sporting chance’.
Since 1950, it has given away more than £30 million in grant aid to schools, clubs and special needs organisations, providing opportunities for young people, able bodied or with disabilities, under the age of 25, to participate in sport and recreation.
In 2002, it distributed £1.6m of grant aid. This included:
- 39 specially adapted minibuses at an average cost of £30k
- Over 1500 cricket equipment bags
- Over £253k of grants to fund non-turf pitches in clubs and schools
- Over £236k of special needs sports equipment
The Lord's Taverners also funds more sizeable grants (in excess of £25,000) towards community or group orientated projects. These include a Street Cricket programme in Bristol, designed to bring cricket coaching to youngsters in inner city housing estates, and a specially designed soft playroom for Springfield School in West Oxfordshire. The latter providing a safe and secure environment of visual, tactile and sensory stimulation for young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, who are unaware of their surroundings.
Throughout the year it organises a full programme of fundraising events ranging from concerts to gala balls, celebrity cricket matches to celebrity-am golf tournaments, dinners, concerts and quizzes. 80 per cent of the money it raises is through these events.
Our history
The Lord’s Taverners started life as a club founded in 1950 by a group of actors who used to enjoy a pint watching the cricket from the old Tavern pub at Lord’s. Key early figures were Martin Boddey, the Founder, and fellow actors and friends like John Mills, Jack Hawkins and John Snagge, the sports broadcaster.
In the early days, the money raised each year was given to the National Playing Fields Association, whom the Taverners still support, to fund artificial cricket pitches.
Since then, The Lord’s Taverners has developed into both a Club and a Charity. It has about 4,000 members. These include The Lady Taverners (founded 1987), as a separate fundraising arm, and The Young Lord’s Taverners (founded 1988).
Since 1975, it has developed 25 Regional groupings (all volunteer) throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. The Lady Taverners also has 19 Regions.
The charity’s mission is to give ‘young people, particularly those with special needs, a sporting chance’. Since 1950, it has given away more than £30 million in grant aid to schools, clubs and special needs organisations. In 2002 its grant aid amounted to nearly £1.6 million and was distributed in the following proportions:
- 50 per cent to youth cricket
- 35 per cent to supplying recreational transport (minibuses) for organisations supporting young disabled people
- 15 per cent to supplying sports and recreational equipment for young people with special needs
The Taverners continues to draw its members from the world of acting and showbusiness. They also include many sportsmen and women, particularly cricketers, members of the professions and of the world of business and commerce.