The Other Ted Ray

Mention the name Ted Ray and those in the United Kingdom of a certain age and a good memory will frown and go silent for a few seconds while they rack their brains. Wasn’t he a comedian? Did he have a radio programme called “Ray’s a Laugh?” Was he in the “Gang Show” with Bud Flanagan or the “Goon Show” with Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan? And wasn’t he host of a Saturday evening variety show on television and perhaps top of the bill at the London Palladium?

He was indeed most of those things. He was a high-end comedian who was popular in the early days of television in the UK, the 1950s and early ’60s. He had a large nose, a barking laugh, a machine-gun delivery and an irrepressible character. One son, Andrew, was an actor and another son, Robin, made a name for himself in a game on television in which the panel had to guess the title of a piece of music based on watching a pianist’s hands.

But that’s not the Ted Ray we are talking about here. We are talking golfers not comedians though sometime...