Football match to help orphans going home

People & Business

City bond dealers will turn out in Everton's 1970's colours next Monday evening in a one-off football match in aid of the Romanian Orphanage Trust (ROT), which is aiming to raise pounds 10,000 to enable orphans to return to their families this year.

Leading the market makers, who are known as "the Street" in the City, will be David Styles, an executive director with Goldman Sachs.

They are taking on a teamof international money and pensions managers, dubbed "Clients", at the Wadham Lodge Sports Ground in London's East End.

Mr Styles says: "I'm a keen Everton supporter, so I decided to order our kit in the amber and blue kit of the 1970s, when Alan Ball, the midfield maestro was playing.

"Unfortunately, the company I ordered it from up north sent us a bright orange and blue kit. We'll look like a bunch of Tango men."

Donations can be made to Mr Styles or to Jane Oldfield at the ROT, phone number 0171-248 2424.

Among the firms providing players for "the Street" are: ABN Amro, Creditanstalt- Bankverein, Bank of Montral, Deutsche Bank Morgan Grenfell, Salomon Brothers, NatWest Capital Markets, Goldmans, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Tokai Bank Europe and Union Discount.

Perhaps they'll all decide to merge in the pub afterwards. Watch out for "The Street Plc" financial leviathan.

Zetters, the pools company, yesterday lost its chief executive designate Leslie Hurst because he was "not commercially compatible" with chairman Paul Zetter.

Mr Hurst was due to take over on 1 April but will now "leave Zetters with immediate effect to pursue private business interests," the company said.

Mr Zetter explains that Mr Hurst was brought in last year when Zetters decided to re-enter the Bingo market by buying three halls from a private company called Jasmine.

"We were not commercially compatible - it's a pity, but we weren't," says Mr Zetter, who has been with the company since 1958.

"He's an energetic young firebrand with fire in his belly. Perhaps he's a bit hot for me. I want to consolidate and he wants to move more quickly," Mr Zetter adds.

Zetters sold out of bingo in the 1980s and now wants to get back in at the bottom of the market, he says. While Camelot and the National Lottery have hit pools companies hard, he sees bingo as a recovering sector. All together now, two fat ladies....

While everyone's talking about the Japanese car firm Toyota switching investment from the UK to a new factory in France, Michael Heseltine, the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday opened the headquarters of a Japanese- owned company in Hastings.

Hastings Direct, a direct insurance company, already employs about 100 people, and is expecting to expand to 300. Mr Heseltine was accompanied by the Japanese ambassador to the UK, Mr Hiroaki Fujii.

It all smacks of a conciliation prize, however, when you consider that the Toyota plant if opened will employ around 3,000 people.

Still, we are in the run up to the general election. Now the race is off, "spoken communication specialist" Christina Stuart, managing director of SpeakEasy Training, has ranked politicians on their oratorical skills.

Ms Stuart puts Hezza himself in the category "The Clever Dick", along with Gordon Brown: "Gets so tied up in intricate detail and counter-argument that the message doesn't get across."

Then there is "The Joker": "Tries to come across as one of the lads, but the false jollity doesn't quite ring true (Kenneth Clarke, Tony Blair)."

Ms Stuart goes on to define "The Crosspatch": "Gets het up, interrupts frequently and has been known to storm out of the studio (Clare Short, Dennis Skinner)." Then there's "The Smoothie": "Has his speech off pat - but never quite looks the interviewer in the eye (John Redwood, Alan Clark)."

Last but not least is "The Passion Killer": "Totally lacking in charisma - appears not to feel particularly strongly about anything (John Major, Peter Lilley)."

It's been a tough week for the Scots. On Saturday they were given a drubbing in Paris courtesy of the French rugby team. Now it emerges that the holding company for The Scotsman, the flagship of the tartan press owned by the Barclay Brothers, is domiciled in England, horror of horrors. Celtic will be moving to Stamford Bridge next.