An auction with a difference was recently held at Salwarpe Village Hall - instead of objets d'art, it was Crowle YFC members who were up for sale!

But before anyone thinks the white slave trade has taken hold in Worcestershire, these members were temporarily selling their labour to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund.

After all the weeks of preparations, printing of programmes, rounding up of the "slaves", sending out invites and the decorating of the village hall, the auction was all set to begin.

The invited guests began to arrive at 8pm, ready to bid for the 18 slaves plus two other lots - a meal for two at The Fir Tree Inn, Dunhampstead, and two tickets to the Air Show in London.

As the guests tucked into the ploughman's-style buffet, the slaves were collected up and shown to their dressing room hidden behind the stage. The stage had its very own selling ring, with huddles and straw bales to set the scene.

Once every slave got into their costume, made up of working clothes, lot numbers and some very unusual props, they paraded around the ring to show the buyers what type of tasks they were willing to do.

The included Steve Boaz as a landscape gardener, Tom Hill with a day of mini-digger hire, Johnny Wilkinson and Glenn Saunders as farm labourers and Lou Saunders, who was willing to do almost anything for a price!

Other slaves included Andy Parkes, Debbie Morris, Cathy Righton, Jamie Farmer, Penny Evans, Gaz Boaz, James Rowley, Lindsey Halford and Jane Hemingway.

At 9pm the auction started, with Jason Cottrill introducing the first lot, Alice Groves and Julia Tarver. Dressed in wellies and overalls, the girls danced around the stage as Dan Lovett, the auctioneer, began to take bids. After a great deal of interest from the floor, they were eventually sold to a phone bidder for a very encouraging £155.

Other lots made even more money, with Mike Shaw and Tim Evans, who were offering a day's fencing or hedgelaying, topping the bill with a fantastic £300.

As the sale went on it was obvious that a great deal of money was being pledged, but few people could believe it when they realised they had raised the stupendous total of £2,270. With the profits from the bar, the raffle and other donations, the total raised that evening was about £3,000, which will be presented to the charity at a YFC meeting shortly.

Crowle YFC would like to thank Dan Lovett and Jason Cottrill, who auctioned the slaves, Sarah Green, who kept a record of the buyers' names and amounts paid, everyone who helped with decorating Salwarpe Village Hall, everyone who helped with the food, bar and the running of the evening, the slaves for taking part and allowing themselves to be bought and everyone who bought slaves.

Didn't they all do well?

Worcestershire YFC members travelled to the County Showground in Stafford recently to compete in seven different competitions against YFC members from Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.

All members, including those from Worcestershire, have been previous winners in County rounds, so the calibre of the competition was high.

All the teams did very well, with the sporting finals reaching nail-biting climaxes.

Final results for the Worcestershire YFC teams were:

Junior Public Speaking: 6th

Intermediate Brainstrust: 6th

Senior Debating: 3rd

Club Promotion: 4th

Design a Website: 1st

Mens five-a-side Football: 4th

Ladies 7 a side Hockey: 3rd

The Design a Website winning entry will now go forward to the National Finals.