An analysis of the first total raised by Queensferry ladies' guild in the year 1981/82 makes interesting reading. Of the total £1,800, well over £100 was made from each of the following events; a country dance, a cheese and wine evening, a ceilidh, and a spring sale of work. Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon during the summer, the ladies go down to the lifeboat station to sell souvenirs, home baking, plants and secondhand books; gross souvenir sales for the year were £2,021. A late Christmas present was received by Howard Biggs, honorary secretary of Broadstairs branch. It came from a farmer: £30, the price of a lamb.

With the gift came a note: 'a sort of present from storm-tossed sheep to storm-tossed sailors'. The joint amount raised by Broadstairs branch and guild last year totalled £8,808.44, their best ever result.

A Trafalgar Day buffet social, held in picturesque Rockingham Castle, proved to be a very effective fund raiser for Rutland ladies' guild. Thanks to the generosity of Cdr and Mrs Michael Saunders-Watson, who own the castle and thus provided a setting for the evening, and thanks also to raffles and a souvenir stall, a total of £715.35 was raised. Special guest for the evening was the RNLI's director, Rear Admiral W.

J. Graham.

The Master of the Worshipful Company of Sailers, Mr Richard Scriven, invited Sothebys to Sailers Hall in the City of London to hold a valuation evening in aid of the RNLI. His wife, Gillian Scriven, and children Hilary, Andrew, Clare and David, provided a buffel supper and with a raffle, sale of Christmas cards, and a most entertaining and instructive panel of valuers, over £600 was made on the evening.

Howth branch has a splendid fund raising record and last year, with the added incentive of its appeal for a new lifeboalhouse, il raised £27,750. And what fun it had with its special appeal events! Dinner dances are not usually expected to produce sizable profits, but Howth's 1982 festive evening, organised by Coxswain Gerry McLoughlin and his wife Maura who were helped by Mrs Pat Connolly, a member of the ladies' guild, raised £2,319. Coxswain McLoughlin also invited the local community to elect (unofficially, of course) a Lord Mayor of Howth, the first ever.

The election took place over August Bank Holiday weekend. Paying lOp for the privilege, a vote could be registered for any one of the five contenders and the election of Joseph Cuddy by a large majority was announced from the balcony of the Royal Hotel by Norman Wilkinson, station honorary secretary.

Exquisite robes were provided by a local tailor, Jack O'Rourke, and the whole event raised no less than £3,000 for the lifeboathouse fund. Then there was a race between Ian Guinness, Ian Malcolm and Francis Ennis, three owners of 17 Footer Class yachts (the oldest one design gaff-rigged keel boats in the world). It started and ended with a pint of Guinness in Howth Yacht Club with, in between, a dash downstairs, the launch of rubber dinghies, a row out to the boats which had to be rigged, sailed round a course and remoored before the dash back to the clubhouse. That hilarious lark raised £611. As 1982 was Maritime England Year, Forest Area Floral Group, Epping, eight flower arranging clubs in all, chose the lifeboats to benefit from their annual two-day exhibition in September.

The exhibition was held at Sir James Hawkey Hall, Woodford Green, and after the event the RNLI North London regional office was given a fine cheque for £1,800.

Broadstone ladies' guild held a fork supper one Saturday in February at which, in addition to a delicious spread prepared by members, there was musical entertainment by five members of Broadstone Light Operatic Society.

With old, well-loved songs and topical monologues the 'concert party' had their audience with them from the start, and before the end everyone was joining in, singing sea shanties. With a tombola and raffle, a very happy evening made a profit of £250.

Ernest Jackson of The Fox in Palmers Green. London, held a 'Cockney-Nite- Out' for his customers. With the help of raffles and collections made at both The Olive Branch, Tottenham, and The Northern Star, New Southgate, the evening brought in a grand total of £164.79.

Mr and Mrs C. R. Sutton of Sutton Estates, Newburgh, Aberdeen, are long standing supporters of their local branch. An RNLI collecting box is always at hand in The Dairy House and for years Mr Sutton, a keen photographer, has sold his photographs of the area to tourists in aid of the lifeboat service. Last year, Mr Sutton added to his other donations the £210 received from fishing permits for the season. In all, £575 was given to Aberdeen branch. Last autumn Chief Petty Officer Dave Lea, of the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre, RAF Brampton, presented a cheque for £72 to Mrs Scriven, chairman of Huntingdon ladies' guild. He raised this money by sponsorship for his first ever marathon, the Huntingdon marathon, which took place on the anniversary of his twentysecond year of life in the Navy. There were some very interesting moments during the 31/: hours it took him to complete the course; at the 15-mile mark he had to hurdle over an Alsatian which barred his way! For 25 years Lerwick ladies' guild has held an annual ball which includes a full dinner and raffle. The meal is prepared by the ladies while their husbands and friends act as waiters. The entire profit from the 1982 evening was an amazing £3.293.

Leytonstone branch cannot be blamed for missing a single opportunity.

On October 30 they dressed up a guy in oilskins and put him in front of an 18ft model of a lifeboat. Then, outside the local swimming baths and near the bus stop, they set themselves up asking for a •penny for the coxswain' in direct competition to the number of small children at that time of year asking for pennies for a guy. Few people ignored them and donations were received not only from local shoppers but from passing cars and even from the top decks of buses. They raised a total of £193.37y2. Much better than the average guy.

Gourock branch, on the Clyde, claims that it covers every single street in the community with its annual houseto- house collection. In 1982 some 90 collectors returned £1.477 when not a house was missed and even all the high rise flats were visited. This yield is calculated to be just in excess of lOp per head of the population.

Music and fund raising go hand in hand for St Austell branch. In September they arranged a concert in the Cornwall Coliseum, where over 20 Cornish male voice choirs, comprising 600 voices, gave their time and talent for the RNLI. Almost 2.000 people enjoyed this musical evening which raised £853; a record and cassette of the concert have since been produced and are on sale and making money for St Austell branch (price £4 each plus 50p package and postage from Mr R. Kirkham, 24 Cooperage Road, Trewoon.

St Austell, Cornwall PL25 SSL). In December another concert was given by youngsters; the entertainment was supplied by the Restormel Youth Band and local students supplied and served a buffet supper. Member of Parliament David Penhaligon was the guest speaker and with the help of a Christmas draw, the concert brought in over £600.

Keith Scott has earned a well deserved place in The Guinness Book of Records by managing to devour no fewer than 90 whelks in five minutes 26 seconds. The previous record of 82 whelks was broken at The Castle Inn, Dover, during the annual whelk-eating contest. £181 was raised for the RNLI at this gruesome event. Meanwhile just outside Dover, at Lydden Circuit, £500 was brought in by the annual personpowered push, when 12 entrants pushed and pulled various contraptions around ten laps of the circuit. Brian Sackett of Dover branch is responsible for organising this somewhat bizarre but lucrative contest.

A fancy dress party organised by Mrs Olive Eades, honorary secretary of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth branch, brought in a remarkable £950.

The takings were shared between the RNLI and the King George's Fund for Sailors; everybody had a very enjoyable time and costumes ranged from Widow Twanky, RO(E) no less, to Captain Hook. There was an abundance of tombola and raffle prizes thanks to donations by local traders and other friends and supporters of the branch.

Thanks to the efforts of Grangemouth branch, the annual levee that it organises has now become one of the most popular social activities in the community. The two main features of this levee are the sumptuous buffet supper prepared by the committee and friends and the tombola stall, which, this year, had no less than 315 prizes all donated by .local businesses and firms.

Nearly £1,900 was raised in all.

When the passenger steamer Manxman made her last trip, the bars were manned by members of Preston South Rotary Club. As a result the Rotary Club was presented with a sum of money and part of this, £250, was handed on to David Jones, RO(NW).

Cdr Osmond Hebbes has a taste for Whitbread export lager, which, happily for him, has also had the effect of raising money for the RNLI. During a promotion Whitbreads offered to pay 85p to every customer who sent them four ringpulls from their cans of export lager.

With a nightly pint, Cdr Hebbes collected no fewer than 240 ring-pulls and sent them to Whitbreads: although the offer was supposed to be 85p for each customer, because Cdr Hebbes asked that the money be sent to Eastleigh and District branch, they agreed to send £51 for the lifeboats. Horace Greenslade of Shirley, Croyden, now in his eighties, still collects used stamps for the lifeboats. Last year he sent in to the RNLI City of London office 10,000 stamps all cut and sorted and by February had a further 5,000 ready to be taken up to London.

Among other functions, the ladies of Driffield ladies' guild organised two 'seconds' sales and a cheese and wine party, all of which were very well supported, bringing the guild's annual amount up to a new record of £4,560.

Bournemouth ladies' guild raised over £400 at its annual bridge drive at Bournemouth Pavilion last December.

To that amount was added a donation of £1,000.

Bradford Council have seven bottle banks for the re-cycling of glass. Because it is their policy to donate to charity any profit on re-cycling, the £1,000 that they made on 450,000 bottles between April and December last year was handed over to the Lord Mayor's appeal fund, which happens, this year, to be on behalf of the RNLI.

A contribution of £150 has been made by Down Cruising Club, Northern Ireland. This amount, given to Newcastle and Portaferry branches, represents the proceeds from the club's annual dinner and from the collecting box in the wardroom.

Carol Steel, a London Shoreline member, raised £550 for lifeboat funds by shedding pounds in a sponsored slim. Seven ladies and two men, led by Miss Anne Buttery, lost 101V* pounds in ten weeks to raise £180 for Exmouth D class inflatable lifeboat..