Golf: Paying tribute to `Renegade' Jim; Leasowe golf stalwart to be remembered.

THE many friends of Jim Mackintosh who has died, aged 91, in Canberra, Australia will be at his memorial service on Merseyside next month with affectionate memories of a man who loved golf in general, Leasowe in particular, and Liverpool Football Club with a great passion.

He worked in Liverpool all his working life. Aged 14, he walked into Dutton's, the printers, in the city and simply asked for a job. Mr Dutton, the father of Peter Dutton, a past president of the English Golf Union, told him he could sweep-up and pointed to a brush.

Jim started work immediately. He stayed with Dutton's until he retired as joint managing director in 1976 after 51 years' service with the company.

It was not his only achievement of long association. He joined Leasowe Golf Club in 1940, in the darkest days of World War Two and remained a member even after he went to live in Australia. He was captain of Leasowe twice, in 1955 and again, at short notice, in 1959 and he was senior past captain.

He was also a member of several clubs and organisations. They included the Liverpool Sportsmens' Association, the Liverpool Society of Golf Captains and the group of golfers known as the Renegades. He helped found the Renegades which has several Leasowe golfers among its members.

Among those at the memorial service at St Nicholas Church, Wallasey will be Fred Griffiths, captain of Leasowe in 1976, one of many whose friendship with Jim spans the decades.

Fred, who now lives in Hartlepool, reckons he must have enjoyed between 50-100 dinner occasions with Jim.

``An incredible man,'' he says. ``He very seldom ate. Well, he very seldom finished a meal and never had a sweet.

``He was the greatest advertisement for gin and tonic, or rather Gordons and Schweppes. It had to be that. If he could not have that he would just have a half.''

He remembers him as a good conversationalist. ``We spent a lot of time together on the Shamrock, the Liverpool-London express, in the 1950s-1960s. There was a small bar on the train where first-class passengers could have a drink before dinner. One time we went in and just standing there was Brendan Behan, the Irish writer. We just talked together.''

Jim went to Lancashire cricket matches and followed the matches when the England Test teams went to Australia. He loved football and he was at England's greatest triumph, the World Cup final victory in 1966. But he was a passionate fan of Liverpool FC and in a lifetime of sporting memories the greatest must have been his five-day visit to Rome when Liverpool won the European Cup.

Jim's wife Ethel died some years ago. He continued to live alone on Leasowe Road until his daughter Jean persuaded him to move to Australia. He died peacefully in a nursing home. Jean is now bringing his ashes home to his Merseyside so he can be reunited with Jean.

After the memorial service a reception is being held at the Leasowe club he served so well and loved so much. Coincidentally it just happens to be the day members of the Renegades have their golf day at Leasowe which makes it particularly convenient for them, too, to say a final farewell.

The memorial service is at 11.30am on September 6 at St. Nicholas Church, opposite Wallasey Golf Club.

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SPORT: Jim Mackintosh as captain at Leasowe in the 1950s