Birmingham Post

The distinguished career of John Matthews, from Hyder Consulting, is being celebrated next Friday at a "long lunch" at Villa Park.

Sukhdev Singh Bhomra, president of Birmingham Law Society, nearly stole the show this week.
Speaking at the President's Dinner in the Town Hall he fell to reminiscing.

Bond girl Britt Ekland - at the Hotel du Vin for a Birmingham Press Club event - left the hacks shaken and stirred.
She was in Birmingham to help the Press Club's sponsors, Royal Mail, launch their new set of James Bond stamps based on the Ian Fleming book covers.
But Britt left an impression all round - ITV Central anchorman Bob Warman was given a lesson in kissing and Heart fm breakfast show host Ed James was given a dressing down.

Charles Barwell, of Barclays, nearly got caught "sloping off" from our top share tipping competition.
He came second with a 148 per cent profit on Vestas Wind.
And, unamazingly, after all this is The Birmingham Post, news reached him while on a skiing holiday in France. He tells me: "Was in Courchevel where the snow was amazing."
Except half his kit was still in Birmingham.

Not content with gentle post-Christmas liquid recovery, the aptly named MAD Club at The Meynell Arms are once again inviting those of a deranged or suicidal disposition to attempt the Hoar Cross Soap Box Downhill on December 29.

Reports of the annual St Basil's Sleep-Out are slowly reaching the Bright secret intelligence desk and my spooks tell me that the great and the good bedded down in record numbers this year; some 450 people I'm told.

A tale of two visits to Rome. My sympathies to Birmingham Chamber pair John Lamb and Tony Bell, and Lamb's partner Lisa Kennedy, plus two kids, for what must have been something of a nightmare.
It apparently went a bit like this . . .

I hear a successful night at the Birmingham Press Club Media Awards went quickly down the pan for photographer extraordinaire Tony Flanagan when he got to his room in the Radisson Hotel.
It being one of his rare nights off, Flan, one of the award judges, had drunk his fill as had many others.

Birmingham's corporate ski challenge seems to have caught the imagination.
There has been a huge 82-strong entry, with plenty of Bright column regulars in the frame.

Bravo to Steve Killigrew, project manager at Turner & Townsend's Birmingham office.
The brave boy celebrated reaching the landmark age of 50 by climbing Africa's highest mountain – the nearly 20,000 ft Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The most dreaded letter of the year has arrived!
No, not an invitation to join Alcoholics Anonymous or even a demand from the Inland Revenue.
But what could possibly be worse?

My spies at the recent opening of the Town Hall have been moaning to me about the usual Birmingham City Council own goal.

As promised here is the "Hotel du Van" tour of France in which the males of Birmingham's Jowett family experience the rugby World Cup.
As you have probably worked out, they were going round in a van. And as Moseley supporters, James (he's the near pensioner father) and sons Ben (plays for Selly Oak) and Spencer, are not quite used to such high powered international offerings. Here are some abridged highlights.

Moseley director of rugby John Beale is officially a liar and a cheat.
Of course some of his players may jest they knew this all along, but that would be unfair. The man is to be congratulated.

Jolly good show to a six-girl team from Birmingham PR agency Golley Slater who will be taking a dip for charity at this year’s Midlands Soroptimist Swimathon this weekend.

Financial guru Joyce Coakley, managing director of the all-girl Mortgage Centre Edgbaston, is continuing her training to be worthy of a place in the British Olympic swimming team.
The diminutive figure found herself wallowing in the river for the second time this year when returning to her boat moored at Upton-upon-Severn.

Can the West Bromwich Building Society hijack Birmingham’s corporate cricket trophy?
Whatever happens on Wednesday at Britannic Park, Moseley, there will be a new name on the trophy, as WBBS and their opponents St Philips Chambers have both reached the final of the four-year-old tournament for the first time.

So now the Government has given us Digby Lord Jones of Birmingham – or rather "Lord Rigsby" to his chums – the new Trade and Investment Minister.
But I am glad to hear that Diggers can still tell a story against himself.

As a refreshing alternative to interminable corporate golf days (the exception being the Post's own, which is marvellous), accountants Baker Tilly chartered a plane to fashionable Le Touquet for lunch.
Unfortunately, most of the invited clients, staff and other freeloaders clearly didn't pay attention in history class, and assumed a Dakota DC3 was a slick private jet like the ones you see on the telly. Oh dear...

Despite Britain's monsoon weather, the John Bright Trophy just about managed to keep afloat this week with two games played and two cancelled in Birmingham's corporate cricket tournament.

When Stoford Living's development manager Phil McConnachie accepted an offer from colleague Jon Andrews to be "shown the ropes", little did he realise it would involve bobbing about in a boat.
For seasoned sailor Jon, who runs Stoford Living, the residential arm of Stoford Developments, had invited the office out for a sail on his 32ft yacht Sundowner.

I was browsing the Law Review supplement of an unmentionable national newspaper last week when I noticed the claim that there are now over 200 City lawyers in London earning more than £1 million a year.

Is Moseley Rugby Club going after the pink pound? More likely it is into racy birds.
Or perhaps both after the first team were featured on a recent Channel 4 programme, Embarrassing Illnesses.
Sandwiched in between features on piles and flatulence, it showed the lads showing off their tackle and examining themselves for testicular cancer.

Please somebody, give TV presenter Llewella Bailey a spare set of keys that she can hide under some plant pot in the garden
It wasn't so long ago that, after some long-into-the-night bash, she had Birmingham Chamber chum Tony Bell clambering through a window in a bid to gain entry to her own home.
Now my spies tell me she got herself locked out yet again.

Here's a Bright exposure of what actually happened on a Skinbags Airways jaunt to Murcia in Spain.
The not very pretty sights on tour took in PR guru Andy Skinner, the host, film mogul and man about town John James, society photographer Tony Flanagan and Bright's vicar on earth John Duckers, Birmingham Post business editor. Much improved by Skinner's partner, the lovely Angela.
The couple have got a very nice holiday pad in Murcia ... except it's now been trashed. Far too much drink, far too much gluttony.

Top marks to PricewaterhouseCoopers batsman Syed Iqbal this week for a memorable course cricket feat.
Batting at Britannic Park, Moseley, in the opening match in this summer's John Bright Trophy, Iqbal produced a pioneering way of avoiding a certain run out when his sprawling dive ended a foot short of the safety of the batting crease.

Oh, no, another of those mobile phone disasters – this time the demise of Elisabeth Lewis Jones, of Midlands agency Liquid Public Relations.
Why do so many people commit their entire lives to a mobile phone address book? Far better to do like Bright and have nothing to do with the ghastly things.

I hear Midlands businessman Tim Blairs was caught changing nationalities at the Ireland v England rugby match.
My spies tell me the managing director of Antringham Developments and lead singer of Hot Property was sauntering into Croke Park when he got caught up in a Sinn Fein protest – upset at the English being allowed to play on such hallowed ground.`

OK, all you unfit businessmen out there, this is the launch of corporate tag rugby.
Pro-Tag Corporate Tag Rugby – yes, I know it's a mouthful – is being held at Moseley RFC on Tuesday evenings in May and Monday evenings in June.
It starts at 6pm and finishes by 8pm. It will run for eight weeks with a prize-giving on the final Monday

The famous Richardsons Black Country St.George's Day Celebrations have become folklore – renowned indeed.
This year's 10th Anniversary event, to be held on April 21 at the Copthorne Hotel, Merry Hill, is already sold out, with a queue of companies on the waiting list.
The VIP guests will be entertained this year by the band of Royal Marines, while guest speaker is ex-Minister Michael Portillo, now making a successful career in television and films.
Naturally there is also a cabaret and casino.

Can you believe that this man is a leading Birmingham businessman and runs Moseley rugby club?
Just look at the state of him.

A blow – literally – for Birmingham businessman John James who, in an unfortunate incident in Portugal, while on one of his many holidays, was accosted in his bed by a burglar.
Smacked him over the head and stole his money – winnings on the horses at Cheltenham.

Gosh I feel poor.

It's always the same after the Christmas blow out and New Year sales - however much money I have sneaked aside. And around this time it seems an eternity until pay day.

This, I believe, is why so many give up alcohol in January. It's nothing to do with weight or health - they haven't got any dosh.

Anyway, the savings took another bashing. But at least - vainly trying to follow Gordon Brown's golden rules - it is the capital account which has been hit rather than current spending.