In Brief DURING 1993/94 Brian Davey, the box secretary of Frampton Cotterell branch collected an amazing £1,739.25 from collecting boxes placed in pubs, shops, railway stations and clubs.

THE 20th annual buffet dance of the Selsey lifeboat association raised £430.

AN AUCTION of promises organised by the West Wight guild and held at the Royal Solent Yacht club realised just over £4,703 for the Yarmouth boathouse appeal.

During the last financial year the guild forwarded £16,306 to lifeboat headquarters.

THE Isle of Islay branch/guild held an Easter bazaar and raised £1,757. The whole community was involved with local schoolchildren making cut-outs and paintings for the walls, all adding to the colourful display.

THE City of Oxford branch celebrated its sixth birthday this year. Although a very small branch it is very active in its fundraising events which range from flag days to carol singing to taking part in Oxford's annual Lord Mayor's parade.

The branch has raised approximately £20,000 since it was founded.

FOR 70 years Ramsgate ladies' guild has been raising money and to celebrate this milestone 100 people attended a dinner dance at the Regency Hotel. Seventy years ago the guild raised just £8 6s. 8d. - last year more than £15,000 was forwarded to Poole.

FOUNDER members of Cromer ladies' guild cut a cake specially baked for the occasion of the guild's 21st anniversary. One hundred and fifty members and guests attended the celebration, and a total of £850 was raised during the evening. Over the past 21 years the guild has raised £92,000 for lifeboat funds.

THE Coventry ladies' guild held an auction at Quicks car showroom and raised £928 in 1.1 /2 hours. Use of the showrooms was given free of charge as were the services of the auctioneer, Harvey Williams FRICS.The taste of Scotland A taste of Scotland in the form of highland dancers and 40 different malt whiskies helped raise more than £700 for the lifeboat at Cullercoats on Tyneside.

The whisky tasting went with a swing thanks to Eric Winter, manager of Thresher wine shop in Whitley Bay, who organised the event at Whitley Bay holiday park.

More than 100 whisky lovers sampled malts from across the highlands and islands and were entertained by the Susan Donachie highland dancers, accompanied by local Scots piper Stewart Todd.

Scottish cheeses and shortbread by Sullivans added to the Celtic flavour of the evening when the funds raised were handed over to Ray Taylor, honorary secretary of Cullercoats station branch.

Pictured are Eric Winter (kilted) pouring a glass of malt for Ray Taylor.New for Oldham Although Oldham has a long history of supporting the RNLI its most recent RNLI branch folded. Plans were made to start a new branch and at the inaugural meeting held in March officials were elected and a fundraising programme for the coming months was planned.

The first event was to publicise the new branch over the Easter weekend in the town's Spindles shopping centre. A display featured moving furry bunnies in sou'westers pulling a boat towards a distant lighthouse and the centrepiece was Europe's largest chocolate Easter egg - two metres high! In just three hours the branch recruited 130 members to swell its numbers to 147 and with the support of the centre's management and the generosity of the shoppers £1,350 was collected.Five way split Five clubs which share a patch of water west of Birmingham combined with the Brierley Hill and Kingswinford branch to organise a get-together at Netherton.

In a slick three-hour programme, senior members made presentations covering their interests in sailing, dinghy racing and sub-aqua diving with common gratitude to the RNLI. Kay Stone, area organiser, responded with the latest RNLI film and supper was served to all 90 members crammed into the clubhouse, rounded off with a professional Black Country cabaret.

After accepting a cheque for £482 Mr Hodgson, chairman of the branch, thanked members of Dudley water ski club, Dudley yacht club, Dudley Dolphin SAC, Nautilus SAC and the Midlands coastal cruising club for their enthusiastic support of the lifeboat service.Music makes money An audience of 300 enjoyed an evening of melody with the Ipswich Gilbert and Sullivan Society Singers at Needham Market community centre raising £1,047 for the Stowmarket and Needham Market branch.Please note that we are unable to publish details of forthcoming events in THE LIFEBOAT due to the vast numbers involved. Every effort is made to include all reports of functions which are received before the publishing deadline.

Please forward items for the fundraisers pages as they become available rather than waiting until the deadline approaches.

Photographs are welcomed (black and white or colour prints, not transparencies please) although we cannot guarantee inclusion because of space limitations. Photographs should have an obvious RNLI connection (perhaps a flag or logo) and include human interest where possible, preferably not just grinning at the camera or holding a cheque!In Brief LADIES of the Montrose guild held a successful Hats Galore coffee morning and the princely sum of £663 was raised.

THE two rowing crews of Walton and Frinton ladies guild have been very successful, with Gilded Lady raising £1,237 and The Lizzie Ann £2,233 in sponsorship from their participation in the 22 mile Great River Race on the River Thames last September.

The rowers are hoping to increase these totals this summer.

OVER the past 13 years the Kidlington Lifeboat Theatre Players have raised £35,000 from their traditional pantomimes.

This year's production of Jack and the Beanstalk realised £2,800 in aid of the Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) boathouse appeal.

REGULARS of The Swee in Girvan have helped the pub raise more than £1,000. A monthly quiz night and a collecting box on the bar helped towards this total. Derek Hemy, box secretary of Girvan ladies' guild presented a certificate of thanks to Brian Galloway, who runs The Swee with brother Sinclair.

A CURRY supper organised by Helensburgh ladies' guild proved so popular that over £2,200 was raised. Approximately 140 people attended the supper and assisting the ladies in serving the delicious dishes were two crew members of the inshore lifeboat, Caroline Alexander and Erica Smith.

THE Sanday (Orkney) ladies' guild arranged a variety concert and dance last January. The concert played to a packed house in the island hall and the total raised for the evening was over £400.

A COFFEE morning and bring and buy sale held at Maples Court was very well attended and resulted in a profit of £272 for Hitchin and district branch. The branch also organised an auction of promises and gifts. Over 80 items were auctioned and the final figure for this event was in excess of £1,000.Antique appeal David Battle of the television series 'The Antiques Roadshow' made a return visit to Cuffley branch recently.

His talk revolved round the objects brought in by the audience of over 200.

Estimated valuations were given and during his one- man roadshow David added anecdotes and advice on cleaning silver and testing real ivory.

His wide knowledge of pottery, porcelain and general objects made for a fascinating evening. The all-ticket event quickly sold out and raised over £700 for the RNLI. Raffle prizes naturally included a signed copy of the Antiques Roadshow book and the photo shows branch chairman Jill Fox with David Battie.

Photo In-Press PhotographyTrains of thought On 23 April 1994 the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Association ran a special train, The Lifeboat Express, in aid of RNLI funds. The railway operates a 15in gauge service over the 14 miles between Hythe and Dungeness, there being two lifeboat stations adjacent to the line at Littlestone and Dungeness.

The sun came out ten minutes after departure to help 100 passengers experience a steam-hauled trip between Hythe and New Romney behind locomotive No.

8 Hurricane. A specially commissioned headboard in RNLI colours was the starprize in a raffle which was drawn upon the train's return to Hythe, after which driver Phil Goodsell treated everyone to a spectacular run past to ensure that passengers had a photographic souvenir of the day.

The photograph shows Mike Neighbour, special events organiser of the association presenting a cheque for £930 to Derek Buckland, Dungeness branch and Nick Smith, Littlestone branch. The organisers were delighted to associate this event with the memory of Mrs Lilian Rodgers, a friend of the railway and prominent in working for the RNLI locally.

Her son is an employee of the railway. The association also raised the sumof£851indonations from passengers travelling on its Santa Specials.

Photo Andrew GoynsJoint initiative The Institution's lifeboat station at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Norfolk, has benefited from a joint fundraising campaign by the Civil Service Motoring Association and The Frizzell Group, which has contributed £21,000 towards the lifeboathouse refurbishment and a new mooring for the Waveney class lifeboat.

The money was raised through a series of competitions in the CSMA's own magazine 'Motoring and Leisure'. The Frizzell Group has been associated with the CSMA for over 70 years and provides insurance for over 250,000 of its members.

The two organisations began joint fundraising in 1983 and have donated nearly £140,000 to the RNLI.

Rafting up For the last four years Bill Sheane, a local vet, has been the prime mover in organising a raft race in aid of the RNLI along the Bandon river - which flows from the hills of West Cork to the sea at Kinsale.

From the town of Bandon to Innishannon, a distance of five miles, the current can flow at 10-15 knots after rain, and this was the stretch of water that saw 350 rafts taking part in this year's race.

Most of the rafts were from Cork, but some came from much further afield - Bude in Cornwall fielded a team as there is an informal 'twinning' between the two towns.

The race was started by Phil Coulter, composer of 'Home from the Sea' and, cheered on by spectators along the banks, the rafts set off at a great rate as the river was in spate! The amount collected so far is £16,000, with more still coming in.

Blue Peter's treasure trail Auctions continue to be held in Ringwood and London to clear the vast stock of 'booty' sent in by viewers of 'Blue Peter' for the Pieces of Eight appeal.

Each of the seven auctions held so far has raised up to £61,000 and the total so far is approximately £430,000.

Another two auctions are to be held in Ringwood on 1 and 16 July.

It's a pushover Over many months a two pence column built up at the Devon and Cornwall Inn in Millbrook - until in March it had reached the ceiling above the bar! A special RNLI evening was arranged by Joyce Goodacre, the landlady, and members of the Plymouth lifeboat crew were invited to demolish the pile.

A large crowd of regulars, including a number of Rame Peninsula branch members, gathered to celebrate the knockdown and carry out the counting. At the right moment down it came - and the number of 2p pieces had to be seen to be believed! With the help of customers the count was finished and the total result was £366.24. The collecting box on the bar was also emptied producing a further £67.95 and the raffle and 'guess the amount of the column competititon' added a further £96.50.

Joyce Goodacre then sprung another surprise on the branch by handing over a further £270, the result of various fundraising events she had organised personally.

The grand total for the evening was £800.89.By the book The Great Yarmouth and Gorleston ladies' guild committee, in association with Jarrolds, recently organised a lifeboat literary luncheon at Potter Leisure Centre at Hopton-on-Sea. It attracted some 260 guests, including members of the Gorleston Women's register literary group and the Society of Authors in East Anglia.

Three eminent speakers took part, Ronald Blythe whose book 'Akenfield' has become a film classic, Robert Malster with his epic stories of lifeboats on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts and Baroness James of Holland Park, better known as P.D. James.

Commandant Vonla McBride CB, a vice president of the Institution, was an admirable chairman and the afternoon was rounded off with a book signing session by the three authors. Jarrolds provided the books and guests were encouraged to do their Christmas shopping early.

The event made a profit of £1,200 and the guild has been asked to do it again next year! Racing certainty RNLI supporters and crew members in the north west donned overalls for a recent fundraising event.

Over 50 supporters, including crew members from Barrow lifeboat station, took up the challenge to compete in a three-and-a-half hour endurance race at Mona Mill Go-Karting track in Chadderton, near Oldham.

Drivers raised sponsorship to the value of £2,900 making it not only a fun day out for drivers and spectators but a successful fundraising event.

Teams of 8 drivers competed for the accolade of being the first RNLI north west region's go-karting champions. The winning team, Woodies Warriors, completed 398 laps of the track in the allotted time.

Shakespeare walk Martin Sanders, a member of the Stratford- upon-Avon branch committee, walked 100 miles from the New Globe Theatre in London to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

The sponsored walk took Martin five days and has raised over £1,000. He received active support from local branches along the route with overnight accommodation between stages and local sponsorship.

Martin's magnificent effort was inspired by his student days at Atlantic College where the Atlantic 21 lifeboat was developed.Marathon wheelchair winner Tanni Grey MBE, accomplished wheelchair athlete and holder of four paraplegic gold medals chose to support the RNLI when she took part in the Open Ladies' Wheelchair event in the London Marathon this year. Tanni won the event in a time of 2 hours 8 minutes.

In past years Tanni, a politics graduate of Loughborough University, has supported the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, but 'had always meant to support the RNLI because my father is very involved with the lifeboats'.

Tanni's father, Peter, is the vice chairman of Cardiff branch and £12,000 of the sponsorship money raised will go towards the Penarth lifeboat appeal.

So far £20,500 has been received, and it is still coming in!Eggshellent fun! The New Inn at Stratfield Saye shelled out at Easter on behalf of the Basingstoke branch by organising an egg throwing contest which lasted three days.

Yes, the eggs were raw and the skill lay in catching them unbroken. As these were thrown well over 100ft, it was no mean feat, but the most hilarious contest was throwing them over the roof of the pub from the car park to the unsighted catchers in the garden! The finale was a quiz evening, resulting in a total of £160, worthy of a great 'ov-ation'! Flying the flag Birmingham flag week was another huge success for the nine Birmingham branches and guilds, with the record figure of £21,250 being raised, a 32.5% increase on last year's total.

Twenty-seven firms took part in the 'Dash for Cash' competititon organised as part of flag week and raised £1,250.

In the firing line Crew members of the fire-boat London Phoenix based on the River Thames are keen supporters of the Sennen Cove lifeboat and a visit was arranged to view the station and its Mersey class lifeboat The Four Boys.

A raffle was organised to raise money for new lifejackets and a total of just over £713 was collected. This was presented to Coxswain Terence George together with a plaque of London Phoenix.

Challenging raffle and...

It is over a year since the finish of the British Steel Challenge but much has happened since Paul Jef f es, skipper of the Courtaulds and International sponsored InterSpray stepped ashore in Southampton.

Paul has travelled the length and breadth of the UK delivering an illustrated talk to yacht clubs about his epic race around the world.

During the lecture tour he has been raising money for the RNLI, InterSpray's adopted charity, by raffling prints of the yacht passing Cape Horn. Paul's tour and raffles of the prints raised a considerable sum and as a bonus Paul was still left with the original painting. There was no better purchaser of the painting than International Paint themselves who now keep the painting ar reminder of the remarkable feat of human endeavour.

The sale of the prints and the painting, brought the total raised for the lifeboat service to £5,000 and a cheque for this amount was presented to Ian Ventham, head of fundraising and marketing.Pulling power A team made up from members of the Huddersfield ladies hockey team pulled a D class lifeboat 19 miles and raised nearly £1,300 for the Honley and Brockholes branch.

The weather was just right, and the lifeboat was decked out on its trailer advertising the cause, along with two support vehicles.

After a press call the whistle was blown and the girls were away, armed with high spirits and collecting buckets, pulling the boat behind them.

Not only did they collect from pedestrians but also from passing motorists who all gave freely to such a worthwhile cause. Some collectors were even invited on to buses and coaches to collect.

A stop for lunch took place at the halfway mark, a time to take on food for energy and to rest tired feet and bones! The food and refreshments were all kindly donated by local people and businesses.

A further break was taken at Clayton West, calling at the home of Mr and Mrs Shepherd, members of Wakefield branch, who plied everyone with liquid refreshment.

Onwards again and finally the end was in sight - the Black Bull Inn at Midgley which kindly supplied an excellent buffet. While the girls were eating the task of counting the buckets of money began.

The girls have volunteered to undertake a similar event in the future and have also supported the branch at other fundraising events.Anniversary funds On the 25th anniversary of Poole ladies' guild, Mrs Margaret Adam, chairman and founder, presented Douglas Kingsbury, chairman of Poole station branch, a cheque for £50,000, the result of this year's fund raising. Since its inception the guild has raised nearly £500,000.

...challenging weather Supporters of Ascot branch braved the worst of the weather when they attended a buffet supper and a talk at the Chandler day centre by John Bagley who sailed in Pride of Teeside in the British Steel Round the World Yacht Race last year.

They were well rewarded by a fascinating account of the whole adventure from the training to the race itself through some of the most inhospitable waters of the world in the southern ocean.

His slides, many of which were taken in the most difficult conditions, varying from the top of the 87ft mast to scenes on deck in heavy weather, vividly showed both the pleasures and perils of the trip. It was very appropriate that as he talked the sound of the stormy weather outside gave just the right background to some of his superb shots.

His talk was followed by a supper organised by the ladies of the branch and the evening raised £555 which was donated to the appeal for refurbishing the Yarmouth boathouse.

Memorial funds In the summer of 1986 the vice-captain of Tylden Mills School in Upminster, Essex, was drowned while on holiday in Hong Kong. His fellow sixthformers led a memorial appeal which raised approximately £20,000.

From this remarkable result, a sum of £7,250 was applied towards the provision of an inshore lifeboat for Burnham-on- Crouch. The balance of the appeal fund was invested as a memorial trust fund and every half-year since then the net income has been sent to the RNLI to aid the upkeep of the Burnham boat.

So far a sum of £4,517 has been so contributed and this will go on in perpetuity in remembrance of a greatly missed pupil.

In Brief A SPRING Party organised by Lincoln ladies' guild realised a splendid £1,931 and a collection held at the local Tesco superstore added another £846 to funds. Many thanks to the generous people of Lincoln.

THE INSTITUTION has received a generous donation of £1,000 from the Football Association, the proceeds of a charity shield match.

MEMBERS of Portmagee Youth Club, County Kerry pushed a hospital bed from Valentia via Portmagee to Cahersiveen, a distance of 18 miles, and raised £800..