Hertfordshire Archery Association

Clive Haywood

Our thanks go to Jeff Barham for giving the eulogy as we said goodbye to Clive on Monday 6th July 2009. The recurring word throughout the service from Jeff and from Clive's son Richard was, Gentleman, Clive was a gentleman in every sense of the word. The help and support he showed to me as Chairman of HAA was something I often took for granted but it won't be something easily forgotten.

Clive Haywood

I feel very privileged to be able to talk about Clive today. It's very difficult to remember when I first met him, but it was probably as an archer before he became a Judge.

Clive first joined Berkhamsted Bowmen in 1987 shooting a recurve bow. As years went by the Haywood family expanded their interest in the club and his son Christopher joined and still holds some junior club records. Clive was delighted when another generation showed an interest, and his granddaughter, Isabel, followed the tradition by joining the club. Clive didn't attend club events as often as he used to in recent times, but he never lost his love of them, and always tried to be there for the Good Friday Clout, the Club Championships and the Trophy Evening. He had a great gift for gently introducing people to the sport of archery, which he did at the Club's beginners' courses. For many years he was the Chairman of the club and latterly was very honoured to become the President.

Like many judges Clive changed his shooting style to the Longbow, and also like many of us, his archery with that was good for the grass and saved target faces, but he still thoroughly enjoyed himself. Clive trained and qualified as a coach in 1993 and joined the Hertfordshire Group of Archery Coaches at their meetings. He was an active Coach who helped many. When he decided to give up being an active coach, he kept his links by becoming the Treasurer of the Coaching Group and always ensured that there were enough funds to support coaching activity. In the 1990s he surprised people by announcing that he had applied to be a judge and he started travelling around to gain the experience he needed. Clive qualified as a Regional Judge, and for many years was in control of each of the county events. Clive was a fair judge and treated all the same. The hardest job others of us had to do with Clive was to convince him that when he was in charge, that is what it meant, because Clive being such a gentleman always wanted to defer to Judges either of a higher grade or more experience.

His health had suffered in more recent times and caused him to consider what events he could manage, he refused to take the easy option of sitting in a chair and letting others do the work. Eventually he was persuaded to join the motorised brigade of Judges and purchased and used an electric buggy, the problem with those is, he found, that people can always tell where you've been by following the wheel marks in the grass! Clive also got involved in administration, on the Hertfordshire County Committee and at the Southern Counties Archery Society meetings in London. Recently he added to his collection of President's regalia by being elected as President of the Hertfordshire Archery Association, a position which he filled with much enthusiasm. As this, he always attended county team shoots, travelling to Middlesex, Essex and Andover to support the senior and junior county teams.

Clive would always help another archer or a Judge if he could, and freely gave his time to chauffeur 2 blind friends to British Blind Sport events, either local or further afield as far as Lilleshall. Latterly, he still enjoyed attending any archery meetings from club level to prestigious events, such as the Southern Counties Meeting and the Dunster Archery week, just to be sociable and to enjoy the company of his many friends, the fellow archers.

Clive was a gentleman in its fullest sense, a man who was gentle and could control a tournament by his very gentleness. He lived as a personification of the G.N.A.S. motto of Union, Trueheart and Courtesie. He was a very good friend to all that knew him, and will be greatly missed for all his skills and gifts.

We send him on his way with the traditional appreciation of a Judge at the end of a Tournament, Three cheers for the Field Captain.