TRIBUTES have been paid to the last of Rhyl Golf Club’s ‘Artisans’ .

Ted Hughes, who has died aged 93, was a member of the club for more than 70 years and has been described as “one of those characters in life that you never forget”.

A past captain in 1995 and president, 2003 to 2005, he was also made a life-long member of the club.

Ted was married to Margaret. The couple had one son, Darren, who is married with one son.

The Artisans was established before the First World War and helped to maintain the club as volunteers in return for membership. Rhyl Golf course then was 18 holes and had extended from behind the Marine Hotel, on the seafront Rhyl to the Ffrith in Prestatyn, with the Artisans hut by where the clubhouse stands today.

Good friend Peter Parry said: “Ted was a wonderful, wonderful guy. There wasn’t anything about the golf club that he didn’t know. He was the last of Rhyl Golf Clubs Artisans,

“He was a good golfer. I can’t remember his handicap but he played a lot. He actually played until about five or six years ago, a couple of times a week.

“He was so friendly to anybody. He was a true gentleman. He thought the world of the golf club and did a lot of work for the club. Most of his life was spent in Rhyl.

”If my memory serves me right, he had a pet shop in Rhyl. You honestly couldn’t meet a nicer guy. He was very humble, just one of the characters that you meet in life that you never forget.

“I started at the club in 1973. He was at the club so I guess I must have met him immediately. I was also on the committee with him. He was the stone wall at the club and was made a member for life. He made a lasting impression.”

[Pictured: Ted Hughes on the bottom row, second from the left, outside the Artisans’ hut in 1947]