When the Top Cats, Swindon's premier women's ice hockey team, decided that they needed to boost the club's coffers, one fundraising idea came out a clear winner: getting their kit except for the odd boot here or there off. SHIRLEY MATHIAS met some of the cool cats who skated on Hot Ice.

WHAT do Swindon's Top Cats have in common with members of a well-known North Yorkshire Women's Institute?

Members of both posed in the buff for a sensational fund-raising calendar.

When the Top Cats, Swindon's premier female ice hockey team, were looking for a way of raising cash to cover their playing costs, they followed the example of Rylestone WI members who sensationally featured in newspaper headlines last year by stripping off and posing for a monthly revelation of bare flesh.

The Top Cats' 2002 calendar, titled Hot Ice, is now on sale at £7.50.

The cameraman was Stephen Paul Townsend of WB Photographic, who is uncle to club member Janine Townsend.

The team is currently fourth among the nine clubs in the women's ice hockey league's premier division.

"But we don't have sponsors like many of the other teams," said club spokeswoman Vanda Tanner (the lissom brunette who represents November).

"It costs between £10,000 and £12,000 a year to run the club. We knew we had to do something and when Janine and I heard somebody talking about the Rylestone WI calendar we decided to produce one too.

"We had such good fun doing it and people around Swindon have been really nice about it."

Many of the pictures were shot at the Link centre, where the team's home matches are played, while others were taken in members' homes.

Most of the girls who appear in the calendar shots were covered by little more than a strategically placed pair of skating boots, or the steam from a shower. One posed in the bath, wearing just bubbles and boots.

"Nobody was embarrassed about posing," said Vanda. "It's impossible to recognise some of the girls because you can't see their faces."

The Top Cats' calendar, unlike the Rylestone WI one which sold thousands of copies all over Britain in aid of leukaemia research, has comparative rarity value.

The club ordered an initial print of just 400 copies, and half were sold within days of its launch at an event at Old Town bar Fusion.

"The launch event was packed," said Vanda, who lives at Wootton Bassett and works for Nationwide in Pipers Way.

Another 80 were snapped up when the club put up a stall at a super league fixture in Nottingham.

"The blokes down here all took the mickey out of us to begin with. Now they are impressed by the professional quality of the calendar.

"We have been asked who we engaged as models for the pictures. People have been gobsmacked when we've told them that they are all members of the team.

"We would love to talk to people who would be prepared to sponsor us," said Vanda. "We're fourth in the premier division but we're hoping to win it this year."

The calendar is available at £7.50, plus £1.50 to cover postage and packing, from WB Photographic, 85 Victoria Road, Old Town, Swindon SN1 3BB. Cheques should be made payable to Swindon Top Cats.