SEEING a member of Holsworthy & District Lions selling draw tickets in the Town Square or cooking burgers on the Lions' barbecue is a common enough occurrence throughout the year. But what do the Lions do when they are not selling tickets or burgers, writes Robin Mitchell.

The first job of the new year is always to take down the Christmas trees we put up in the Town Square the previous month.

For the last few years we have alternated between a senior citizens' lunch in the new year and a trip to the pantomime in Holsworthy.

In 2014 it was the turn of the pantomime and, in early February, we took 70 guests to see the HATS production of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.

Raising money to give away to local and national good causes is obviously one of the main purposes of the Lions.

In February we donated £500 to help support the victims of last winter's terrible flooding in Somerset.

In March we organised a bucket shake at Morrisons supermarket in Bude, and in the Town Square, in aid of the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal.

Various Lions each took two-hour shifts over the whole weekend and raised £625.

In April we presented a cheque for £200 to Shebbear Community Primary School to help fund an educational trip to London.

Two of our biggest fundraising events of the year also take place each spring.

Many of our local pubs are shops are kind enough to hold an Easter egg draw on our behalf. We supply the beautiful eggs and they sell the draw tickets. We raised about £2,000 in 2014 and donated £500 each to the Devon Air Ambulance, the Bude Sea Pool Appeal, the Bude Nippers Life Saving Club, and the appeal to help fund the new chemotherapy unit at North Devon Hospital.

The St Giles on the Heath Post Office and Southcott Stores sold tickets for three eggs and raised £337 themselves.

The other big fundraising event of the year is the speed pool tournament in the clubs and pubs in and around Holsworthy. The point of this event is that it is money raised for us. Not money to be given away to particular charities, but money to be used to fund the events we pay for ourselves — such as the trip to the pantomime in February and fun-day in November.

The 2014 tournament took place on May 3 in seven different pubs in the area. Teams consist of six players who take it in turns to attempt to pot balls. The winning team is the team that can pot the most balls in exactly one hour.

For the second year running, the winners were The Shed who pocketed 512 balls.

Holsworthy Social Club also raised the most sponsorship money for the second year running with £450.

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week's edition of the Post.