THE High Wycombe Guarantors provided an extra Christmas party last week for 129 of the town's oldest citizens, with a total age of 11,309 years between them.

Alice White, aged 103, was the oldest person to attend last Wednesday's event at Adams Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers.

She was joined by two other centenarians, Edith Roberts, 101, and Beatrice Chandler, 100, the first time the organisation had had three people of 100 or more at the same party.

The Guarantors were founded in 1910 by a group of the town's businessmen to provide a Christmas party for the oldest people in the borough and the tradition has continued.

There have always been 40 guarantors and new members are elected as and when necessary to maintain that number.

They have no rules other than to "guarantee" the funding of the occasion and an unwritten rule that if the son of a guarantor is put up for election when a vacancy occurs, his election takes precedence over others who may have been put forward.

After the traditional Christmas lunch, the guests enjoyed an hour's entertainment provided by the High Wycombe Music Centre Young People's Group and the Caroline Salmon School of Dance from Little Frieth.

In keeping with tradition guarantors act as waiters, wine waiters or carvers in fact everything but actually cooking the meal and every old person attending was given a bag of groceries to take home with them.

There were also special presentations for the oldest man, woman and couple at the party, handed over by this year's chairman Brian Hearn. After the guests were safely back at home, the guarantors had time to relax at their own dinner later that evening.