Bill 1933-2025
Bill died on 16 August 2025. On 2 September 2025 he was buried next to his parens in the churchyard of St Hilary.
On 17th September 2025, his life was celebrated in the Barn at Coed Hills, his home for the previous 60 years.
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There were a number of tribute paid by various people, including these :-
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Lawtie Williams :-
1. I was aged about 8 when I first became aware of the three tall Clay boys who lived at The Cottage in St.Hilary. Billy was contemporary with my elder brother Wyndham but at that age all three seemed to me much older and very superior. They all three have been my closest friends throughout my life and now very sadly the last one has gone.
2. My father used to organise boys’ cricket matches on the Grammar School field, next to Verlands where we lived, and Billy and Wyndham were our opening attack. On a few occasions those two bicycled to the golf course at The Leys, before the Power Station was built, a very testing bike ride, carrying their golf clubs on their backs
3. Bill’s parents lived at Boverton House before the War, but all three sons were actually born at Penllyn Castle, Their granny Homfray arranged this partly because she said that there would be more staff to look after her daughter in childbirth, but also so that the Castle would appear as their place of birth on their birth certificates.
In 1938 their parents bought The Cottage in St Hilary, a good big house with lawns for Johnny’s cricket net, used for practising his bowling every day through the winter, and ample stables for hunters.
4. Billy went to Repton School. After National Service and a short spell in London he bought the Red Dragon Travel Agency in Bridgend which he then ran successfully for many years as Clay Travel.
5. In 1962 the Radcliffe Estate which covered some 7000 acres spread around the Vale, was offered for sale, to be sold as one Lot and to be completed within 5 weeks of the auction. HLK organised a consortium of tenants to buy it and found investor buyers for those farms which were unlet or where the tenant did not wish to buy
The sale price for the whole Estate was £500,000 - £70 per acre. Billy came in and bought Coed Hills farm, where the elderly tenant, Joe Staien, ran a good stud farm but did not wish to buy.
My firm dealt with the conveyancing in the very short time allowed and then the further transfers to the individual buyers.
Joe Staien died soon after and Bill moved in. He never lived anywhere but St Hilary throughout his life
6. We his friends thought Bill was in danger of becoming a confirmed bachelor, but at the South Wales Hunts cricket dance in 1968, held at The Manor House, St Hilary, then lived in by my parents, he suddenly produced a stunning young lady, a cousin called Gilly. About 1 a.m. my father turned all the lights out in order to get rid of the guests. Billy led some of them over the road to the Cottage where for some hours more he dispensed his father’s brandy. Very soon after that, he married Gilly and they settled at Coed Hills, which Billy claimed has the best view in Glamorgan.
7. Cricket was always his main sport. He played for the School at Repton and occasionally for Cowbridge, but his principal love was for the South Wales Hunts which was founded by my father and Bill’s uncle Peter Clay in 1926, originally for Members, Landowners and Subscribers of the Glamorgan, Llangibby, Monmouthshire and Lord Tredegar’s Hunts.
Billy played for the Hunts before leaving school, and was still playing well into his forties. He opened our attack in the two-day games at Cardiff Barracks and then for many years at Cwrt-y-Gollen against Harrow Wanderers, I Zingari, the Welsh Brigade and others. Also in one-day games against Hereford Gentlemen at Brockhampton, on the ground owned by his uncle Peter, and against the Berkeley Hunt and many other clubs. William Taylor the indefatigable secretary and recorder of the Hunts has analysed that in his career Billy took 268 wickets for the Hunts, far more than any other bowler including his father. He took 8 for 42 versus Carmarthen Wanderers in 1961, and 7 for 38 versus Downside Wanderers in 1962, and he took 6 wickets on several other occasions.
He was match-manager for many games, a role that tested his organisational skills considerably, in making sure the correct number of players turned up on time, sober and properly turned out, as well as actually captaining the match on the field.
For the games against Builth Wells and the Welsh Brigade, we used to stay at the Metropole, Llandrindod, where the proprietor, Spencer Miles, and then his nephew, David Baird-Murray, looked after us in splendid style. Bill once made a serious mistake by sampling the Spa Waters, which nearly caused his complete collapse with disintery and diarrhoea.
When his knees finally forced him to retire from playing himself, he became a qualified umpire and later President of the Hunts. He continued going to many matches including at Highclere and Oxford, taking his tent with him from which he would dispense liquid hospitality to the players.
8. One year when we were playing against Cresselly and Manorbier, the Match Manager arranged for Billy and me to stay in a bungalow in Saundersfoot. We found to our consternation that we were expected to share a quite small double bed. We both had the most uncomfortable night. I am sure that Bill was not promiscuous but I am probably the only person other than Gilly who ever actually slept with him
9. Billy was always a great reader of P.G. Wodehouse books. He will be remembered by everyone - in the words of Bertie Wooster about his friend Bingo Little, as
“a top-hole spiffing old crumpet,
absolutely sound,
a chap you can count on
when things get sticky,
always ready for a bit of fun,
and generally
a thoroughly decent sort of bloke“
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