ONCE again the Middle Bar Singers have come up trumps for Sidmouth Lifeboat during FolkWeek.

ONCE again the Middle Bar Singers have come up trumps for Sidmouth Lifeboat during FolkWeek.

For the past 30 years the group has sung at The Anchor pub and in recent years has held an auction to raise funds for the independent lifeboat.

Freddy Wedderburn, one of the lifeboat trustees, said they had done a "tremendous" 90-minutes work on Tuesday, raising �750 for the charity.

Two items auctioned during the evening were a painting of Jacob's Ladder by Alan Charlton, 98, a member of the lifeboat's support team, and a mounted aluminium propeller from the Sidmouth Herald lifeboat, which was replaced by the bigger four-man craft.

"Six crew members were there, it is nice to see them flying the flag," he said.

They included the only woman crew member, Pam Taylor.

Crewman Mark Roden, who also attended, said: "It went very well. It was on our regular training night so we could have a pint with them afterwards.

"It was a very nice evening and everyone enjoyed it, although we didn't know the words to the sea shanties."

The singers have buckets at the pub to collect fines for various activities, including swearing and singing songs no-one wants to hear.

Mark said the money would not go towards anything specific, but could help buy a dry suit or two for the crew.

*On Thursday the Middle Bar Singers marched to the seafront to take part in their annual dip in the sea before the end of FolkWeek.