A WORKOUT on an assault course was one of the services offered in an Auction of Promises organised by Bangor branch. Others included advice on gardening, French language lessons and even flying lessons.

The event realised £2,200.

THE Penarth ladies' guild were busy selling souvenirs at Penarth Yacht Club's regatta this year. They were also out along the esplanade with their collecting boxes and it was a good opportunity to join in the festivities and raise money for the Penarth lifeboat appeal.

THE WHITE elephant shop run by the ladies of Largs guild for a week in May raised just over £1,000.

AN EXHIBITION of paintings by Hamilton amateur artist Tommy Mansbridge was held at Calderglen Gallery in East Kilbride in May with part proceeds of sales in aid of the RNLI. Tommy ultimately presented £164 to the East Kilbride ladies' guild, and also donated one of his paintings for future fundraising. He has been donating paintings to raise funds for the Institution for many years.

IN FEBRUARY the recently reformed Newcastle ladies' guild held its first fundraising venture - A Night at the Races - and raised over £1,500.

CELEBRATIONS were held over the weekend of May 21/22 at the Old Manchester and Salford Docks to commemorate the opening of the Manchester canal by Queen Victoria in 1894. The Salford and Stretf ord branches joined forces and raised £870 over a rather cold and windy weekend. Fortunately, despite the choppy water in the docks, the D class lifeboat on display did not need to be launched!Not Such a Fun Run! While afloat in his powerboat Sea Dragon, Richard Buckman handed a cheque for £409.70 to the crew of the Littlehampton lifeboat, Blue Peter I.

Richard, a project engineer from Southwick, raised the money from sponsorship in this year's London marathon.

He has strong ties with Littlehampton, since he keeps his boat in the marina, but an unusual aspect of Richard's gesture is that although he loves active sports like hang gliding, water ski-ing and swimming he hates running! But he accepted the challenge to run in the marathon and finished the course in 3 hours 44 minutes 17 seconds.

Pictured are Richard Buckman aboard Sea Dragon, and crew members Peter Hooper, Ivan Greer and helmsman Jerry Norris aboard Blue Peter I.Ferry Interesting The Dover ladies' guild held another very successful house to house collection and flag day in July, raising £2,934 which was a 35% increase over the previous year.

A week after this event the Dover ladies embarked on their annual ships' flag day aboard the Stena Sealink ferries running between Dover and Calais.

This year the guild was able to collect on all the ferries departing from Dover between 0530 and 2030 on 30 July, which gave a total of 12 return trips. Each sailing was allocated two collectors and the boxes were issued from the Sealink desk and co-ordinated by Sealink staff.

When counting was completed a total of £706 sterling and some £200 in foreign currencies, gave a grand total of £906.A Great Goal! As a result of their association with Arsenal Football Club, Abbot Security Services monitored and guarded the FA Cup and the Coca Cola Cup during the last football season. As a result the club generously donated £1,000 to a charity to be .chosen by Mr D.J. Jeffrey, managing director of Abbot Security Services. He and his wife are members of the RNLI and Mr Jeffrey decided that, as he is a freeman and liveryman of the City of London, it would be appropriate to give the money to the London centenary appeal.A Good Racket The third annual American tennis tournament organised by Warminster and district branch proved a great success.

Forty-eight players from the West Wiltshire and Bath area enjoyed an afternoon of tennis, tea and competition on the 12 courts of Warminster school.

Playing as mixed doubles, seven games per round were played - the winning partnership staying on court but splitting for the next round, with all losing ladies moving down a court and losing men moving up. Thus the afternoon progressed with winners playing with losers at each change, much movement between courts and a great amount of new partnership introductions, handshakes, and celebrations or commiserations as competitors won or lost.

Eight rounds were completed, with a break after five during which the branch ladies' committee provided a magnificent tea. Play was noticeably slower after tea! The afternoon concluded amidst frantic adding up of score cards with the winners being presented with RNLI trophies.

The event raised £468, with everyone looking forward to play and renewed acquaintances at next year's tournament.Jump to it! RNLI area organiser Pauline Speed took the plunge to put the Humber lifeboat appeal in the spotlight. Taking a downto- earth approach, plucky Pauline abseiled off the Humber bridge - and still kept smiling! The event raised over £250.

Pauline is one of the team pushing the boat out to raise funds for a new £1,250,000 Severn class lifeboat for coxswain Brian Bevan and his crew at the Humber lifeboat station, which stands at the extreme tip of Spurn Point.

A Drink to Success! Penny Drinkwater, a member of the Circle of Wine Writers, hosted a quiz and wine tasting evening - adding £552 to the coffers of Hampstead Garden Suburb branch which had organised the event.

Penny gave her time for a very modest fee and if any other branch is interested in this fundraising idea please contact chairman and honorary secretary Caroline Smith on 081 -4551472 for Penny's number - she lives in Hampstead but does travel! The Big Box Thornbury and District branch has thrown down a challenge! What is the record amount ever collected in one box during Flag Week? One of the branch's supporters, a Shoreline member, offered to take two boxes into his place of work. When they were counted one contained £88, the other, putting the red seal under great strain, contained no less than £186.90, including £116 in £1 coins!In Brief THE SAUDI Arabian RNLI Eastern Province Fundraising Society, based in Ras Tanura, held its third annual event in April and forwarded £2,077 to HQ. Over a hundred people attended the residence of Don Noakes who organised the event and a good time was had by one and all! Sponsorship by British Airways, P&O Channel Ferries, the Regency and Hilton hotels in Bahrain and Arabian Foods all went towards achieving such a good result.

COMMITTEE members of Belfast branch spent a Saturday in April selling ballot tickets to shoppers at Supermac - the prize a 90 second trolley dash through the store. There was an excellent response and £1,400 was added to branch funds.

A SPECIAL RNLI evening was held in May at the Whitehouse BoatingClub, St Neots in memory of Don Blake whodiedin!993. Don was a founder member of the club and was also a hard working assistant box secretary for St Neots branch since 1986.

Laura Fagg, Eastern region area organiser gave a talk and a video presentation on the work of the lifeboat service. A buffet was served and the profits from the evening, almost £300, were donated to the RNLI.

A RECENT film and talk presentation given by two members from the Downend branch to a 150-strong group of pensioners at nearby Filton was received very well. In addition to a £55 donation the enthusiastic group spent £142 on souvenirs and asked for a return visit in the near future.Hot News from Yorkshire This year's Great Yorkshire Show held in July must have been one of the hottest on record and many thousands of visitors travelled to Harrogate for this popular agricultural show.

In addition to the annual support of Leeds Shoreline branch selling souvenirs and raffle tickets, British Gas ran a 'hook a tug' competition, Volvo draw tickets were sold from the Volvo stand and Filey's ex-lifeboat Robert and Dorothy Hardcastle was on display, thanks to the generosity of her new owners, Nuclear Electric of Hartlepool.

The 'hook a tug' competition was great fun and raised £500 which, together with the £1,200 raised by John Porter and his son Matthew from the sale of Volvo tickets, was donated to the Humber lifeboat appeal to raise funds for a new Severn class lifeboat to be stationed at Spurn Point.

The ex-lifeboat looked magnificent and proved quite an attraction, with visitors being asked to donate 25p to look over the boat. £984 was raised, with an additional £1,141 from the sale of appeal souvenirs and the proceeds of collectingboxes. John Brooker and friends from the Tees Endeavour branch ably manned the boat, ensuring the safety of visitors and describing the boat, its history and achievements.Pride of the Crew At only 11 years old Katy Malcolm is the pride of Wick's lifeboat crew, branch and guild. Since September 1992 Katy, a member of Storm Force, has raised £650.83 by organising sales outside her parents home, raffling a doll and by having a stall at the annual Christmas fair.

At Wick Harbour Day in June the branch surprised Katy with a plaque, presented by the Lifeboat Queen, Caroline Peirpoint and Coxswain Walter McPhee.

Round Britain for the RNLI on four wheels.. and two wheels A to Z Endeavour A conversation between two brothers in their local pub has led to the RNLI benefitting to the tune of £1,430. When Jamie and David Churches were in The Endeavour, Chelmsford debating whether to go on a skiing holiday or a drive around Britain the obvious question, 'why drive around Britain?', had an equally obvious answer - for charity! The A-Z Round Britain Endeavour was born.

To give their journey a purpose the brothers decided to visit an alphabetic selection of lifeboat stations. A for Aberystwyth, B for Berwick and so on, although a little poetic licence had to be employed - with X represented by Exmouth and Z by Zetland in Redcar museum! Sponsorship forms were distributed from the pub and the pair left Chelmsford on 5 March, completing the journey in a week after visiting the Isle of Wight, Lands End, Anglesey, Oban, John O'Groats, Cromer and back home - 26 lifeboat stations, a total of 2,719 miles.

It was not until August that all the sponsorship money was in and a cheque was presented by Jamie and David to Derek Scales, honorary treasurer of Chelmsford branch. This presentation at The Endeavour brought the total raised for the RNLI since Walter Jenkins became landlord in 1983 to £5,916.35.

Le Tour de Southends Southend lifeboat crew member Mike Whistler, together with three friends, Paul Tanner, Tony Ayre and Mike Thomason, came up with a novel fundraising idea - riding bicycles from Southend on the Mull of Kintyre to Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

Initial problems with a shortage of bikes were overcome by the donation of two mountain bikes by Universal Cycles of Rayleigh, followed by event sponsorship from computer games giant SEGA.

Hopes of starting the event from the lifeboat station at the Mull of Kintyre Southend were not realised as the station was closed some years ago and moved to Campbeltown.

However, the four bike riders received considerable support from Captain Black, honorary secretary at Campbeltown who kindly started the event from the lifeboat house.

Early fears that the Scottish mountains might prove too difficult for the team proved unfounded and they soon got into their stride to arrive some three days ahead of their estimated time of arrival at Southend's inshore lifeboat house, having covered the 683 miles at an average of 60 miles per day in a total of seven days.

The event raised £3,500, which was divided equally between the RNLI and Cancer Research.In Brief IN SUPPORT of the Humber appeal, the Harrogate ladies' guild ran a highly successful giant tombola and 'guess the weight of the salmon' on the forecourt of Ramus Seafoods in Kings Road, Harrogate. With 400 attractive tombola prizes the venture raised £455.

A DISPLAY of model lifeboats arranged by David Steadman at the entrance to the Northampton branch of Tesco attracted much attention and contributed £491.23 towards the Northampton branch total of £1,352 from the May collection in the store.

PETER Speight has been the Biddenden butcher for about 5 years and during this time has raised in the region of £1,700 for the Biddenden, Headcorn and District branch. He has done this with annual Christmas raffles, his 'bone box' (a lifeboat collecting box for donations for bones, for which Peter does not charge), his foreign coin jar and other donations - all done entirely of his own volition.

AFTER 30 years of fundraising on behalf of the RNLI, John Harrison of the West Mersea Yacht Club has decided to hang up his collecting box.

Having created the Pennant Race in 1964 as a fun event to be raced for annually, John has organised it ever since. Every entrant is displayed on the club notice board together with a promise of a donation to the Institution and in this way John has raised something like £10,000 for his favourite charity.

By the Book Ramsey station branch is celebrating the fact that the station's history/The Ramsey Lifeboats 1829-1991', has produced a clear profit of £10,000 for RNLI funds in its third year of publication,.

Well over 1,000 books have now been sold and orders have been received worldwide from New Zealand to Canada. The book, which has even reached such farflung places as the Philippines and Argentina, contains 232 pages of details of the boats, the men and the services, with 150 illustrations.

Copies are still available from the author, Captain W.N. Seybold, 36 Ballaterson Fields, Ballaugh, Isle of Man IM7 SAP at £12.95 plus £3 P&P (UK) and £4 (overseas). Cheques payable to Ramsey RNLI History a/c.Air/Sea Fundraising Marine artist Christopher Southcombe is the Marine Society's sea-going art tutor, teaching drawing and painting at sea, currently in Shell oil tankers.

While flying out to join a tanker in the Gulf Christopher was signing certificates to accompany prints of his painting of the Padstow lifeboat James Burrough - the original had fetched £1,000 for the Padstow fishermen's appeal following the accidents in 1992, and prints are now helping to raise funds for the RNLI.

Next to him on the aircraft was an American, who became so interested in Christopher's story that he wanted a framed print - without even having seen the picture! He now wants one of every lifeboat print Christopher issues, and will have one of the first of the new print of the Trent class lifeboat (which is advertised on the inside back cover of this issue).

Once aboard the tanker, Lima, Christopher spent more than 100 hours on a detailed painting of the ship off Table Mountain. The master, Captain John Briand, gave him a cheque for £250 for the RNLI and many of the officers and crew have bought prints of the Padstow lifeboat.

On his recent return flight from a ship in the Far East he sold a print to the chief steward of the aircraft somewhere over central Asia! With Christopher at work in the air and on the high seas, and the Padstow ladies' guild at work at home, the image of James Burrough is spreading around the world and funds are growing, slowly but steadily.

Christopher is hoping to raise more than £4,000 from the issue of his most recent print of the first Trent class lifeboat.

Whisky Galore Sir Charles McGrigor (convenor of the Scottish Lifeboat Council) and Lady McGrigor recently attended a reception and presentation at Oban Distillery. Also present were members of Oban lifeboat crew and Captain Norman MacLeod, station honorary secretary.

The chairman of United Distillers, Tony Greener, presented a cask of malt whisky to Oban station branch in recognition of the close connection between the RNLI and the company - for the past six years distillery employees have supported the station's annual fundraising events.

The cask will lie unopened until 2012 when it will be auctioned on behalf of the lifeboat station to celebrate its 40th anniversary.City Celebrates with a Concert Monday 13 June 1994 was an historic day for the City of London branch, as it marked the 100th anniversary of its formation.

As the centrepiece of the centenary celebrations, a very special concert was staged in the splendour of St Paul's, sponsored by Messrs Sinclair Roche and Temperley a leading city law firm specialising in the maritime field,.

Some 1,700 people, including the Lord Mayor of London and the sheriffs, filled the cathedral for a wonderful programme of music and words with a wholly maritime theme.

The script for the concert had been written by Patrick Garland, artistic director of the Festival Theatre, Chichester, and a piece of music - a cantata entitled 'Stronger than the Storm' - was specially commissioned for the occasion by the well-known English composer Alan Ridout.

The City of London Sinfonia, the choir of St Paul's, the internationally acclaimed baritone Benjamin Luxon and the Treverva Male Voice Choir from Cornwall, comprised mainly of fishermen and sailors also performed at the concert. Interspersed with the music were readings by Patricia Routledge and Timothy West.

In all it was a splendid and evocative evening and one could not think of a finer way to mark such a special anniversary. More than £35,000 was raised for the RNLI, part of which will go to fund two D class lifeboats.

Paddle Aid West Cumbria canoe club joined with Churches Together in Silloth to support the new Silloth lifeboat house appeal with a sponsored paddle.

In poor visibility five kayaks headed out into the Solway with the Workington lifeboat, on a routine exercise, standing by. With the help of the tide and a gentle breeze the kayaks headed off towards Silloth, 20 miles up the Solway coast. As the kayaks arrived at Silloth out of the fog, builders working on the new lifeboat house were really taken aback. The new station stood just seven breeze blocks high! Generous sponsorship from Lendal Paddles, Cumbria Canoe Club and the good folk of Silloth raised £929 - the extra £29 coming in after the official handover and being more than welcome as a few more breeze blocks are needed to complete the boathouse! Blue Peter Update The total raised so far from auctions of the vast stock of 'booty' sent in by viewers of the BBC TV programme 'Blue Peter' is approximately £750,000, with another four auctions still to come.

The appeal has replaced six existing 'Blue Peter' inshore lifeboats and well over £500,000 has gone towards funding the new Trent class lifeboat Blue Peter VII stationed at Fishguard.

Profits from Plaques Hubert James surprised the Birmingham RNLI office recently with a donation of £246.38 from the sale of Battle of the Atlantic plaques which he had made for the benefit of charities connected with the sea.

Mr James served on HMS Cheshire, HMS Anson and HMS Tintagel Castle during the Battle of the Atlantic and was aboard HMS Anson during the bombing of the Turpitz. He started having the plaques made to mark his annual meetings with German survivors of the sinking of the Bismarck. The polished wood plaques are 9in by 7in, mounted with nine pieces of sold brass depicting a flying boat representing the RAF, cargo ship and tanker representing the Merchant Navy, corvette representing the Royal Navy, Captain Walker's sloop HMS Starling, a German U-Boat, the Royal Naval Association badge, the Merchant Navy badge and the Battle of the Atlantic Star.

The plaques are made entirely for the benefit of the five charities and cost £21 including post and packing. They would make excellent draw prizes for fundraising events or indeed excellent presents for those who have a special interest in this period. Mr James can be contacted on 021-327 2479.Launch Day Goes Live On Sunday 24 July Selsey Launch Day once again took place at the conclusion of the flag week in the area. Stalls of all kinds were set up on the village green, run by local RNLI supporters and other organisations in the village. On this occasion BBC Radio Solent presented their 'Sunday Scene' live from the event, hosted by Nick Girdler and Sandi Jones.

The sun shone throughout the day and over £2,000 was raised for the Institution - and £89 of that was collected in a bucket which stood on the BBC presenters' table throughout the broadcast! Lug-a-Lifeboat A team of Milford Haven 'posties' undertook a sponsored lug-a-lifeboat and raised a remarkable £2,506 for Hakin Point (Milford Haven) branch.

Members of the branch committee saw the posties off on their 26 hour 'lug' of a D class lifeboat by road to Pembroke Dock where they crossed to Rosslare and back by B&I ferry.

Members of the public, local pubs and clubs generously supported the team and the 'lug' also received donations of £250 each from the Royal Mail and Elf Oil company, and £400 from B&I Line crews.

Accepting the cheque with thanks Ethel Clark, branch honorary secretary, praised the posties for their enthusiasm and commitment and presented the team with a framed certificate of thanks saying:' Aren' t our posties wonderful!' Due to the very large number of Fundraising reports received during the summer months it has been necessary to hold a number over for future issues of THE LIFEBOAT Stepping Out The third Castlemartin Chapels Fun Walk and Run to be organised by the Pembroke ladies' guild in conjunction with the Royal Armoured Corps Ranges, took place in July.

Far from perfect weather did not deter hundreds of people converging on St Govan's to take part in the sponsored walk and run. As they waited for the start entertainment was provided by the Pembroke Borough silver band and there was also a hornpipe display by members of the Pembroke Dock sea cadets.

A tug of war competition drew the crowds, there was a chance to have an hour of rock climbing instruction, and many of those present sampled the delights of a barbecue provided by the German Army staff at Castlemartin - this proved so popular that at one stage they ran out of food! Refreshments were also provided by the ladies of Bosherston WI.

The walk was started by Councillor Malcolm Grossman, Mayor of Pembroke and nearly 350 adults, children and dogs took to the coast path to complete either a four or eight mile course - twenty-one runners set off for the fun run. With sponsorship money still coming in, the very successful event has so far realised £4,280.

Underground Activities Two members of Bishopston branch found an unusual way to make a street collection on Bristol flag day.

Liz Kearns and Fred Kirk took part in a charity walk under the streets of Bristol through a newly constructed sewer complex which stretched for 6km.

Wessex Water gave the RNLI and other charities the opportunity to raise money in this novel way, as well as adding a generous donation of £50.

Liz and Fred thoroughly enjoyed themselves and raised more than £400.Anstruther Gala The firing of a maroon signalled the start of Anstruther's sixteenth annual lifeboat gala - where a crowd of 10,000 had flocked to the fishing village in Fife.

The Kirkcaldy and district pipe band led the procession of floats and rafts from the nearby holiday village through the streets to the beach for the start of the raft race, won this year by The Ship Tavern which also took the award for the best dressed raft and for the highest sponsor with £600.

As well as a variety of stalls there were also many static displays on the sea front by the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF while the Arbroath sea cadets bugle band provided musical entertainment. A Sea King helicopter from HMS Gannet was parked on the jetty at the harbour and later took part in a sea rescue demonstration with Anstruther lifeboat. A record £7,500 was raised from the enjoyable day.IT is NOW ten years since the Petts Wood and Grays branch re-formed and a party was held in July to celebrate the occasion. Although only a small branch it is very active and, thanks to its supporters, £97,000 has been raised in the ten years.

JULIE Morley was out and about with a collecting box in Port Talbot when she went into labour. Julie and her mother got home just in time and Thomas was born (three weeks early) before the midwife arrived! Father, crew member Graham, was delighted to have a potential crew member! ONE OF the prizes at a fund raising event at the Winter Gardens in Cleethorpes in aid of the Humber appeal was a hot air balloon trip over Yorkshire. The event raised over £300 and Storm Force member Stuart Hardcastle from Leeds was the lucky winner. Stuart proudly wore his Cleethorpes RNLI sweater for the one-and-a-half hour flight.

ACTRESS Sarah Finch shared the limelight with Storm Force member Gregory Smyth during her visit to a Watlington Players workshop. Over the past year nine-year-old Gregory had collected the family's loose change and raised £50 for the RNLI.

John Owen, area organiser (south east) accepted the money from Gregory.

A DONATION of £10,000 was made to the RNLI by Vic Turner, committee member of Stanmore branch at an afternoon tea organised by the branch which raised another £381. Mr Turner has provided the branch with many forms of practical help, so a personal donation of this size was indeed icing on top of an already large cake..