Cardiff ladies' guild increased their income in 1976 by about 30 per cent.

Of the £5,010 they raised for the lifeboat service last year £1,460 was by way of their annual collection and £1,000 was the result of their very popular annual Sunday luncheon party at Atlantic College. At an April Fools Day supper, held on April 1 this year at The Great House, Whitchurch, by kind permission of Mr and Mrs Terry Daniels, 100 guests enjoyed cottage pie and vegetables followed by delicious deserts all made by committee members. The evening raised £280. Guest of honour, Vice- Admiral Sir Peter Compston, chairman of the Fund Raising Committee, made the draw for the raffle prizes.

South Wexford Riding Club organised a sponsored ride from Kilmore Quay across the beautiful Atlantic coast beaches of Wexford to the Lobster Pot, Ballyfane, on January 9. Riders under 17 years were charged 50p, riders over that age £1, and beagle followers and cross-country runners were also welcome.

Just over £50 was raised to help Kilmore Quay and Rosslare Harbour lifeboat funds.

When Gravesend branch held its seventh annual River Thames sponsored marathon row last year, over 100 rowers in 19 boats (everything from a fouroared waterman's skiff to a 20-man ship's lifeboat) completed the 40-mile course from Gravesend to Greenwich and back. They were accompanied by five escort boats, including Southend ILB, and a passenger vessel carrying 300 spectators to cheer them on. Many of the crews had over £90 sponsorship and £2,400 was raised.

Wolverhampton appeal, launched last December with a target of £30,000, has already passed £18,500. Pupils of Highfields School, under the supervision of a senior teacher, Mr Healey, have raised no less than £900 with numerous fund-raising ventures including the raffle of cakes they had baked and a football autographed by Wolverhampton Wanderers football team. The money was raised by joint and individual efforts and one senior pupil, Vanessa Povey, raised £26 on her own. West Park County School, covering an area where there are large immigrant communities of many nationalities, raised £166 for the appeal with a sponsored spell.

We are still hearing of 1976 carol singers. On December 18, despite heavy rain, about 500 people crossed the drawbridge into the keep of Portchester Castle to sing carols accompanied by Sholing Salvation Army Band; £95 was raised for lifeboat funds. Far away, at Abu Dhabi in the Arabian Gulf, Melinda and James Sharp (aged 10 and 7) with six of their friends collected 200 dirhams which they sent to Walmer ladies' guild; to accompany the carols, James played the guitar while three of the other children took it in turns to play two recorders. Back hi this country, at Kidlington, each evening for more than a week, RNLI branch members and parishioners of St Mary's Church, in full Dickensian costume, toured the town singing carols. The £140 raised was divided between the church and the lifeboat service.

St David's ladies guild raised £12 by selling used jamjars to honey producers: 2p each with a top or Ip each without a top.

A new branch formed in Camberley at the beginning of 1976 raised over £500 during the year. £200 was collected by committee members and their friends kindly allowed by a large departmental store to spend a day at its entrances with RNLI boxes. Already, in 1977, a cheese and wine party has resulted in nearly £100 and a number of other plans are in hand.

At last year's Tavistock Goose Fair a mile of pennies for the RNLI was completed on the church wall between the hours of 1000 and 1630. Altogether £57 was raised.

The staff of McMurdo Instrument Co.

of Portsmouth, makers of RNLI collecting boxes as well as numerous safety at sea lights, raised £355 in a recent lifeboat appeal.

News from two recently formed branches: Mortimer and District raised £200 with a jumble sale in April, and East Ham £219 with a 'flotsam and jetsam' bazaar last November.

Heronwater School, Dolwen, Abergele, gave half the proceeds of its first Christmas Fayre, £128, to Llandudno ladies' guild. Among those present when the senior boy, Andrew Lyons, handed the cheque to Mrs I. M.

Wood, chairman of Llandudno guild, were Glyn Roberts, crew member, and Dr Gareth Thomas, honorary medical adviser, both of Porthdinllaen station and both of whom have sons at the school.

Bridport branch honorary secretary, Eric Pickering, was given a giant panda to raffle for the RNLI by a friend at Bath. The panda toured caravan sites and local public houses over three months, 6,200 tickets being sold at 5p each. Tickets were bought by visitors from Hong Kong, Malta, Belgium Australia, Germany, France and Holland as well as from all over the British Isles. The winner, Alan Tilke, bought his ticket at the Mason Arms, Bridport. £307.30 was raised for the lifeboat service.

At a ceremonial shave in the bar of the Albion Hotel, Burton-on-Trent, just before Christmas Brian Roulstone and Pat Burke lost half then- beards and moustaches. The two-faced look raised £50 from sponsors, the money being divided between a children's home and the RNLI. Terry Turner went the whole way. At the Greyhound, Trowbridge, last January, his long black hair and beard were completely removed, snip by snip, by a barber, lOp a snip being contributed by his friends. The result: Terry Turner bald and beardless; £50 for his home town RNLI branch, Seaton and Beer.

Mr W. Van der Steen of Tilehurst, Reading, ex-RN and aged 74, took part in a sponsored swim this spring. He collected £16, 40 per cent of which to go to the Alexandra Day Fund and 60 per cent to go to a fund of his own choice; he chose the RNLI.

Datchet branch held a very successful dance at the new Datchet village hall on February 12, raising £220 for the RNLI.

Guests danced to the music of a professional London band, the Tommie Draper Trio, who accepted a greatly reduced fee for the evening. The cabaret artist was the international star illusionist, Manfred, who gave his services free, entertaining the company for over half an hour. Many of the prizes for the raffle were donated by the tradespeople of Datchet.

In the 1976 spring journal we published a photograph of a remarkable man, 75-year-old E. Mangold of Wood Green, saying that he had collected £925 for the RNLI. Since then Mr Mangold has continued his wonderful work and has reached a final grand total of £1,472.56 . Mr Mangold, you have set a record which will take some beating!.