KEEN all-round sportsman Richard Hayes drove in as the new captain of Rochford Hundred on Sunday.

Educated at Westcliff High School, Hayes joined Westminster Bank in Southend in 1965.

He represented his school at rugby and also played for the bank. He played soccer for a local bank team in the Southend District League and subsequently in the Canterbury League when his job switched to Kent.

Tennis also featured strongly in his sporting calendar and it was at Crowstone Tennis Club in Leigh that he met his wife Anne.

They have two children, Lyndsay, a PE teacher at Hockley’s Greensward Academy, and Katie, a primary schoolteacher in Benfleet.

Hayes joined Rochford Golf Club in 1998 after early retirement following 31 years service with the bank and currently plays off a useful 12 handicap.

He told members at his inaugural dinner on Friday that being made captain was the pinnacle of his sporting life.

“I’m keen to maintain the strong traditions of Rochford and am looking forward to the challenges during the year ahead,” he said His charity for the year is Essex Air Ambulance.

A nine-hole Texas Scramble at the drive-in was won by the team of Paul Francis and Tony Hadley plus Howard and Richard Southwood. They shot 28.7, including two eagles. Members and guests were joined at the drive-in lunch by all the captains and their wives from the Kindred Clubs.

>ROCHFORD Ladies held a Stableford competition to mark Jo Rumsey stepping down as lady captain with Sue Myall and Karen Playle winning with 32 points.