THE Mersey Valley Golf Captains' Society launched its sixth season with a team Texas Scramble competition at Didsbury Golf Club as they welcomed their new captain, Dick Browne, of Sale Golf Club, into office.

The society has more than 100 members and 50 turned out for the first meeting of the year at Didsbury.

The winning team was Billy Wells (Didsbury), Dave Parsons (Sale), Ted Robinson (Ashton-on-Mersey) and Peter Gleave (Withington), with a fantastic score of 57.

Browne was welcomed into office by retiring captain Monty Milner (Northenden) and he has enjoyed a very distinguished history at Sale.

He joined in 1981 and after being in various roles on the committee he was captain in 1995 and president in 2011, and has served in a variety of roles in the club since then.

He said: “The idea of forming the Mersey Valley Captains is the brainchild of Peter Gleave – a past captain of Withington – who first discussed the idea with myself and founder members of the 1995 captains.

“We formed a steering committee to discuss the merits of having a society for past captains around the Mersey to forge stronger relations and we had our first meeting in Withington Golf Club in August 2013.

“I helped the society in the very early days and have now stepped down as a member of the committee, having first ensured Sale had a voice on the committee.

“I am honoured to have been selected to serve as captain of the society for 2019/20 and I would like to thank the past captains and our first chairman, Peter Gleave, for having the idea to start off with.

“I follow in the footsteps of a distinguished number of Mersey past captains and have got a very hard act to follow in Monty Milner.

"Our little society has grown strong and I believe this is due to the fact we have (a) kept our meetings to three per year and (b) maintained our aim to focus on local clubs meaning short distances and minimal costs.

“I am looking forward to enjoying my year as captain of the society and have no ambitions other than to follow what has gone before me in the last five to six years.

“I know I can rely on the current committee, and especially our secretary Peter Goodliffe, to keep me disciplined.”