HALF a century of golfing for charity by the carpet manufacturers of Kidderminster will be celebrated today at the town's golf club.

Lumanries from the UK carpet industry will swing their clubs in a bid to raise as much money as possible for the Furnishing Trades' Bene-volent Association and Macmillan Cancer Relief.

The tournament, which also continues tomorrow was conceived 50 years ago, in 1956, by Ivor Mills the sales director at Brintons and his counterpart Colonel Eric Redfern of Carpet Trades.

The concept was to organise a golf tournament over two days in Kidderminster, invite the retail trade, give them a good time, encourage them to place orders for carpets and raise money for charity.

The initial event was sponsored by 19 Kidderminster-based carpet manufacturers. It attracted hundreds of personalities from the retail trade and £732 - the equivalent of £11,000 today.

This year's tournament chairman, Shaun Lewis, sales director of Victoria and a director of the Carpet Foundation, said a great event was expected.

"We have set a target of £25,000 to share between the Furnishing Trades' Benevolent Association and Macmillan Cancer Relief, which is an increase on last year's £17,500," he added. "We bel-ieve the support will be there for this historic event.