corresponds to the reddening estimated for bright cluster members and is unlikely to be uncertain by more than a factor of two (see Jeffries & Tolley 1998)[^2]. The metal abundance was a free parameter (in the form of a multiple of the solar metal abundances of Anders & Grevesse 1989) while the normalisation of the [mekal]{} component was allowed to optimise independently for the three EPIC instruments to counter the effects of any cross-calibration uncertainties. In general, good agreement was found between the three normalisations. The best-fit parameters and $\chi^{2}$ values of these model fits are given in Table \[tab:fits1\]. An example spectral fit is shown in the top panel of Fig. \[specfig\].

The 1-T model fits are on the whole statistically acceptable. In two cases (stars 3 and 10), the 1-T model is rejected at 99 per cent confidence. A second [mekal]{} component was added to the models (a 2-T model), which of course improved the fit in all stars (Table \[tab:fits2\] and see the lower panel of Fig. \[specfig\]). For four objects the upper bound to the temperature of the second component could not be constrained; these stars are indicated by an asterisk in Table \[tab:fits2\]. All of 