Lyme Regis coffee shop contest raises £125 for the lifeboats

There were grounds for celebration when coffee shop owner Xanne Carey held a fundraising contest for Lyme Regis lifeboat.

Customers were invited to try and win a valuable prize by guessing how many beans were in a huge bowl – in return for a donation to the RNLI.

Xanne, who runs the independent coffee house ‘Amid Giants and Idols’ in Silver Street, called in town councillor Lucy Campbell as adjudicator and, by a method of weighing, declared the total number of beans in the bowl at 88,198.

The nearest guess was 85,500 and the winner receives artwork by local artist Annie Ward, valued at £265.

Xanne, whose bean quiz raised £125 for the RNLI, said: “I am delighted with the result for a very good cause. We had hundreds of guesses, including some from New Zealand and Canada.”