Conger cuddling and human skittles played with member of the lifeboat crew are all events taking place for Lifeboat Week in Lyme Regis this year.

The new event, a form of human skittles, involves two teams attempting to knock each other off a block by swinging the ‘eel.’ The team with the most competitors still standing at the end is the winner.

The conga dance will start at 3.30pm on July 27, the first day of lifeboat week, followed by conger cuddling on the harbour slipway at 6.24pm.

The event was first introduced to Lifeboat Week in 1974 by the organiser the late Richard Fox. It was cancelled as an RNLI event in 2006.

This year there is another event linked to conger cuddling...a conga dance, with music, around the Cobb and along Marine Parade.

Organiser of both events lifeboat crew member Brian Street said: “As it is the RNLI’s 200th anniversary we are aiming to get 200 people to do the conga dance in an effort to raise £1,824 the figure that coincides with the year the RNLI was founded. We will ask each participant to get sponsors in an effort to raise that total. The end of the dance will trigger the start of our much missed conger cuddling event."

Joe, also a crew member, is making the ‘conger eel’ from old lifeboat crew dry suits that have been decommissioned from service, particularly the legs. She said: “Making the conger will be a challenge, but I was happy to accept and looking forward to the game being back as part of lifeboat week.”

Conger cuddling is unique to Lyme Regis, is derived from an old West Country tradition of mangel dangling which is a similar game but involves the mangel wurzel, a root vegetable.

To book your place in the conga dance go to the lifeboat shop next to the lifeboat station. There will also be an online way to enter very soon which will be posted on social media sites.