Alors! Visitors to the Three Horseshoes at Turves, near Whittlesey, might have been forgiven for imagining they were in France rather than in the Fens of England. The landlord of the pub, exiled Frenchman Christian Kolich, and his wife Terri, had organised a boules tournament in aid of lifeboat funds.

Members of Whittlesey branch were on hand to sell souvenirs and Volvo car draw tickets and a fluffy rabbit, christened Nine Carrot, was auctioned as a team mascot for £70. In all, £525 was raised.

Friends of Flamborough One hundred customers and friends from The Concorde public house at Ilkeston visited Flamborough lifeboat station. While there the landlady, MrsMaria Capill, presented a cheque for £800 to Bob Majors, coxswain of The Will and Fanny Kirby. This doubles the amount presented last year and was raised by various fund raising events. In return Councillor Hall presented Mrs Capill with photographs of the lifeboat in action for display in The Concorde.

A night of music The seventh in a series of ten annual Summer Evenings organised by Stephen Wood of Leeds branch was held at Hazlewood Castle under the patronage of The Marquis of Normanby, a vice-president of the RNLI. The theme was a "Glyndebourne Evening" presented by leuan Jones, the young Welsh harpist, and past and present members of Opera North, raising over £6,000. This means that together with the proceeds of the 1985 book auction and two generous donations, over £31,000 has so far been raised.

Street fair Fine weather brought out the crowds for the annual street fair organised by the Aldeburgh ladies' guild and ably assisted by the local Lions. A Punch and Judy show had the children joining in with great gusto and when the maroons went off later in the day there were still a number of visitors about to see the inshore lifeboat set out to the aid of a sailor. The total amount raised that day was a magnificent £2,454 which, with the total collected on flag day of £1,831, contributed towards a successful year of fund raising.

Relay-o-thon Claygate branch organised a relay race with a difference between five pubs in Claygate, each leg of the race being undertaken in a different way. The first leg was a walking race with the runners dressed as lifeboatmen, then a piggy back race, a running backwards race, a three-legged race and finally a straight race home of 1.7 miles. The whole course was 3.2 miles and there were 35 runners dressed in fancy dress. It was decided to make this an annual event and an RNLI shield was presented to the winning team to hold for one year.

The event raised £574 and another £108 came from an auction of a water colour painting donated by Whitbread Brewery.

Model support The Mid Thames Model Boat Club held their annual competition at Child Beale Wildlife Park, Pangbourne. The lifeboat section displayed 20 models and the chairman presented a cheque for £100 to the RNLI's area organiser.

In the Pink! Group Captain John Pink undertook to walk the 212 mile Southern Uplands Way in seven days to raise money for three charities, the Royal Air Forces Association, Leukaemia Research and the RNLI. He did not ask to be sponsored in the usual so-many-penceper- mile method but invited pledges that would be honoured if he completed the walk and on time. The walk was completed on time and a cheque for £2,596 was presented to Peter Holness, the RNLFs fund raising projects manager, at the Royal Air Force Club.

Fishpools bring the crowds Taking advantage of the good weather over 400 people visited Mr and Mrs Brian Thornton's water garden and, according to Mrs Vera Thornton, were staggered, surprised and delighted at what they saw. Vera has been a member of Bushey & Bushey Heath branch for more than 20 years and for the past ten has opened her garden in aid of theRNLI. In 1987 almost 1,000 visitors over three Sundays enjoyed the garden and £900 was donated to lifeboat funds.

The Captain's Table At a cheerful ceremony Sir Alec Rose, the president of Portsmouth South branch, presented an RNLI plaque to the joint licensees of the Captain's Table public house, Southsea, Ivor and John Warren, whose pub raised £1,000 for the Institution in just three months. This was achieved through a variety of activities including a pub crawl of 35 pubs and clubs, raffles, disco, etc and taking part in the branch's sponsored walk in May.

Two other successful events for the branch were Portsmouth Navy Days when a souvenir stall on HMS Ark Royal raised £875 and a sponsored eight mile walk which raised more than £1,200.

Garden party With the kind permission of the Earl of Pembroke Wilton branch held a garden party at Wilton House. Among the 150 guests who attended were the Mayor of Wilton, officers of HMS Wilton and regional and area representatives of the RNLI. The principal guest was Rear Admiral W J Graham, director of the RNLI, who presented the retiring chairman of the Wilton branch, Lieutenant Commander David Rylands, with the Institution's silver badge in recognition of his outstanding services to the branch during the past ten years. The garden party raised £400 for lifeboat funds.

Deep sea fund raising! As he was fishing the Irish Sea between Ardglass and the Isle of Man inthe fishing boat Green Hill, skipper Tony Zych caught in his trawl, not a submarine but a lifeboat! The lifeboat' was a yellow RNLI collecting box which had somehow found its way to the bottom of the Irish Sea. Tony gave the box to Captain Fitzsimmons, honorary treasurer of the Downpatrick branch, who was delighted to find that it contained an unexpected gift of £18.40 for branch funds.

Regulars support When regulars of The Little Manor public house in Thelwall decided to organise an open-air concert for charity the problem they faced was deciding which charity to support. However, that was soon resolved by the number of customers who were boat owners persuading the organisers that the charity had to be the RNLI. The result was £556 being raised for the Institution, with grateful thanks to local businesses which had sponsored the event.

Valuation day Picturesque Biddenden was the scene of a successful Sotheby's valuation day organised by Biddenden, Headcorn & District branch, raising £1,049 for the RNLI. A team of six specialists assessed articles brought to them by around 500 members of the public who each paid £1.50 for a valuation. No missing masterpieces were found but one young boy had the satisfaction of learning that the object he bought for a few pence at a car boot sale is worth £40. Volunteers and committee members helped throughout the day selling souvenirs, Sothebys catalogues, draw tickets and refreshments. Altogether a very busy and successful day for all concerned.

Generous gift Captain P R White, station honorary secretary at Dover, together with the coxswain of Dover lifeboat, Tony Hawkins, were invited to a presentation at the Moat House Hotel in Dover where they received a gift of a photocopier.

This was courtesy of Sealink British Ferries. The company had won it in a competition organised by British Central Electrical Company Limited of Weybridge. Captain White and Mr Hawkins were also presented with a surprise donation of £623 for RNLI funds, the result of several other customers of the company very generously donating their awards to the RNLI.

Cake or Bread Inclement weather did nothing to deter members of Norwich ladies' guild from supporting a coffee morning at the home of committee member Mrs Joyce Matthews. There was a magnificent cake and bread stall as well as many other articles for sale and in the space of only 90 minutes the handsome sum of £683 was raised.

Another fund raising event was a sponsored swim at the home of the guild's president, Viscountess Mackin-tosh of Halifax and £1,370 was sent to the Lowestoft lifeboat appeal.

Record collection? After one hour of collecting in the new Plymouth Marina at Queen Anne's Battery as the yachts were returning at the end of the Fastnet Race this year, Mrs Ruth Shaw, chairman of the North West Plymouth branch, decided the box was full—and rather heavy. On counting the contents she was pleasantly surprised to find £97.47 plus a few foreign coins! Glittering occasion Salisbury City Hall was transformed into a glittering ballroom for the first Wessex Lifeboat Ball organised by the Salisbury and Fordingbridge branches.

Anthony Oliver, head of fund raising for the RNLI, was one of the guests of honour and the evening also marked the retirement of Mrs Jean Carpenter, chairman of the Fordingbridge branch, who was presented with a basket of flowers to honour her 25 years of service to the RNLI. The 250 guests tucked into a lavish buffet and danced with enthusiasm to the Falklands Band of the Parachute Regiment. The Ball raised £1,700.

Reliable sources As part of the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Loughton & District branch Epping Forest District Council's parks and garden department planted a representation of the RNLI flag in a raised flower bed. In 1987 the fund raising efforts of the branch brought in over £11,000.

A coffee morning held at the home of the Leamington Spa branch honorary secretary, Miss Julia Johnstone, raised a very satisfactory £259. This event, an institution itself for the past 15 years, has proved increasingly popular. A more recent innovation has been a sponsored cross country horse/bicycle ride, which should top the £500 mark.

A salmon supper organised jointly by the Woodbridge & District branch and the Woodbridge Cruising Club raised £500 for the RNLI. One hundred people enjoyed the supper which was held at Seckford Hall and was followed by a talk on the raising of the Mary Rose.

A barbecue evening organised by members of the Boston Motor Yacht Club raised £900 and will be presented to the Boston branch.

For 12 years John York, president of Shanklin branch, has formed teams of five helpers to collect in local pubs, clubs, caravan centres, etc. He also tells guests about the work of the RNLI and they are always willing to donate small change. In 1987 £2,000 was collected and over the 12 years £15,500 has been raised in this way. Another branch member, Mrs Myrtle Mosdell, knits RNLI teddy bears during the long winter evenings to be raffled among guests at local hotels during the summer.

Last year she raised £350.

Business has been good during the summer for Anstruther ladies' guild. An encouraging number of souvenirs were sold and the coffee morning was a great success. The guild presented Anstruther lifeboat crew with a Kew pressure washer, to help them in their work.

A float entered in the Felixstowe carnival won second prize for Felixstowe & District branch. Three members entered as a mock-up D class lifeboat on wheels towing a casualty! The sum of £280 was raised from the sale of souvenirs, roll-a-penny and a collection box placed in front of Mr Mortlock's lifeboat models.

Up the Brae A sponsored cycle race Up the Brae was organised by Burnmouth branch and raised in the region of £400. Of a total of 21 entrants only 13 cyclists managed to complete the 575 yard course with a 20 per cent gradient, the winner being Michael D'Agrosa in a time of 1 min 58 sec.

Thirtieth anniversary Margate ladies' guild celebrated its 30th anniversary by holding an afternoon tea, bring and buy and raffle. This was extremely well attended and amongthe invited guests were five founder members, including Mrs Clare Ford, the original founder, who had travelled more than 80 miles to be present. There were also 11 past chairmen, including Mrs Lilian Heath the current chairman who kindly paid for the afternoon's celebrations. As well as achieving this landmark the celebration afternoon raised £212 for guild funds and a cheque for £1,000 was handed to Michael Ashley, regional organiser, as an interim donation from the guild.

Roaring success A very successful wine and cheese evening was held at the home of Sir Alec and Lady Rose, despite a fire caused by an electrical fault destroying the marquee erected in their garden just before the guests arrived. Wine glasses, chairs and tables were also destroyed but the party went on and more than 100 people crowded into Sir Alec's small old world cottage, standing shoulder to shoulder, sitting in corners and even on the stairs. However, this made for a very friendly evening and the splendid sum of more than £760 was raised. Sir Alec and Lady Rose thanked the chairman and committee members of Havant branch for their hard work in helping to make the evening such a success..