RECRUITMENT agency Robert Half International is celebrating the success of its sixth annual charity quiz in Hampshire.

Staff from its branches in Basingstoke, Southampton, Guildford, Portsmouth and Bournemouth pulled out all the stops to ensure that last month's event, in aid of Breast Cancer Care, raised more money than ever.

The agency, which has offices throughout the world, invited clients and contacts from across Hampshire to the fundraiser on November 11.

Team tables were adorned with pink Breast Cancer Care balloons and heart-shaped pink sequin confetti, while organisers wore pink wigs and had their pink collection buckets at the ready.

Nearly 400 businessmen and women attended the event in the Mick Channon Suite at Southampton Football Club's St Mary's Stadium - and, during the course of the evening, more than £4,000 was raised for the charity.

After a feast of curry, the event began with the "50p game", for which everyone donated 50p for the chance to win £100 by simply guessing whether the giant coin would land on heads or tails.

As a room full of respected professionals placed their hands on either their heads or their bottoms, the numbers were narrowed down each time the coin was flipped until one lucky winner, Mark Warman, from Segensworth-based traffic signals company Microsense Systems, was presented with the cash.

Mr Warman, a mechanical design engineer, said: "Unfortunately cancer took the life of one of our colleagues recently, so we felt it was appropriate to help raise some extra cash for the cause. I felt extremely lucky to win the 50p game. I believe there were eight throws of the coin, which would make it a one-in-256 chance of winning!"

The quiz itself consisted of rounds on subjects such as film taglines, James Bond, pop music intros, this week's news, general knowledge and famous faces. Members of the winning team, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, from Capital Radio, each received a crate of beer and a Christmas pudding.

A raffle was also held, along with an auction, which included sporting paraphernalia from Southampton Football Club and Harlequins RFC, a complete health scan at The Nuffield Hospital, an X-Type Jaguar for a week, donated by Hendy Lennox, and a trip over London in the Flying Eye, courtesy of Capital Radio.

Rebecca Bowring-Kingman, Southampton branch manager of Robert Half International and event organiser, said: "I would like to thank all of our staff and clients for their generous contribution in raising this amount of money.

"We had the best time, and plan to do the same in March of next year."