THE tributes have been pouring in this week for Peter Haydock, president of Blackburn Golf Club, who died aged 67 last Wednesday.

Haydock, who was a highly respected member at Blackburn, collapsed after a round of golf in Solihull. He has been in Birmingham for a meeting of the National Golf Advisory Association.

His funeral was held this morning and a buffet was held at Blackburn Golf Club this afternoon.

Haydock, a former Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School pupil, was a former secretary and captain at Blackburn and he was in his third and final year as president.

"He will be sorely missed at the club," said current secretary Keith Taylor.

"He was the best secretary the club has ever had and he has been like my mentor over the past seven weeks since I became secretary," he said.

"He made sure I was doing everything correctly because he was that kind of guy.

"He had great experience because he had been secretary for a long time.

"If I can do the job like he did I will be a success.

"He will be sadly missed by the golf club in general."

Close friend Bert Hargreaves played Winter League golf alongside Haydock for 23 years.

He said: "We never had a cross word in all the time I knew him. He was very astute. He would tell you something if he wanted to but keep it to himself if he wanted.

"I've known him since he was 16, when his mum owned the chip shop on Shear Brow in Blackburn.

"We played Winter League golf together since 1979 and we won it twice. But he played with his partner Val Hardcastle in the summer. We stayed away from each other in the summer - I'm not sure why!

"He was the competitions secretary when I was the captain and we played golf together on Sunday mornings in the winter."

Haydock was a member of the National Golf Advisory Committee and was assistant secretary of the East Lancashire Golf Association.

He had been a junior at Blackburn from the age of 16, but left when he did his National Service. He joined Accrington in 1977 but was again accepted as a member of Blackburn in 1979.

"He was a junior at Blackburn when there were only five of them. Now there are 130," said Hargreaves.

"In those days the juniors weren't allowed in the clubhouse. If they wanted their dads they just had to knock on the door and wait for someone to answer. If nobody did it was hard luck."

Lady captain Anne Lomas said Haydock had been a great help to all members at the club.

"He will be missed," she said. "He did an awful lot, especially with the juniors, trying to get them involved at Lancashire level.

He helped a lot with the Ladies as well.

"He was a Blackburn golf club man through and through and he was well respected. He was just a nice man."