Ignore my reference to VBA as I need a w/s formula

wrote:

2003-2007

Facts:

Range("A1").Value = "M7"
Range("B1").Value = "M9"

Challenge:
What would the syntax be to Countif(A1:B1,????) where ???? is the value of Left(A1,1) = "M"?
In short, I want to count all "M" regardless of the Number. Thus Countif(A1:B1,????) = 2


Is this possible?

TIA EagleOne