Wednesday 18 April 2012

The John Hawley Pitch and Memorial Garden


Today was a special day as The University formally unveiled the John Hawley pitch at our Goodwin Sports Centre. John was a dear friend and colleague to many of us, and Deputy Director of CiCS until his untimely death in 2008. He left a substantial legacy to the University, which has been used to fund a number of initiatives around John's love of sport including he John Hawley Trophy and the John Hawley Trophy Cabinet in the Students Union. But, the majority of the money has gone towards a new pitch which has been specially designed, with soft grass apparently, for Rugby Training.


John was a keen Rugby League player, and would definitely have appreciated this. Also unveiled today was the John Hawley memorial garden, just outside the sports centre.


It's a lovely, colourful place where I'm sure many students will sit and relax, and if the weather gets better, it should get its first customers next week when many students will be taking exams up there.


It was lovely to see John's wife Pauline and children Andrew and Jennifer there, as well as friends and colleagues, representatives from the Student Union sports societies, and the grounds staff who had created the garden.


And, John's smiling face looking down on everything from the plasma screen in the centre. He is still sorely missed.

3 comments:

Paul Cooke said...

Sorely missed, amen to that. A true gentleman.

Janine Barraclough said...

Thank you for sharing this with us

Anonymous said...

Wonderful to see.He was a lovely man.