Week Ending: An unexpected knighthood; Sir Howard on booing Gary Neville; BetFred’s 123; & Shinnick’s shots

SPARE a thought for Manchester Airport’s press office who orchestrated a launch event for Saudi airline Flynas this week.

Keen to showcase Manchester they booked into Cloud 23 at the Hilton Hotel from where it’s usually possible to see across the city and beyond.

Except on Thursday morning when the city was smothered in thick fog which made it look like someone had painted the bar’s windows white. This was particularly unfortunate given the four-day run of spectacularly sunny weather which started on Sunday.

Manchester Airports Group’s chief operating Andrew Cowan told the audience: “Can I apologise for the weather. I think this venue was chosen for the views and unfortunately we haven’t got any. But hopefully by the time we finish we’ll be able to see out of the window.”

A few hours later, long after the event had finished, the fog lifted and the sunshine returned.

Still there was some consolation for Mr Cowan. The team from Flynas gave him an unofficial knighthood by referring to him as Sir Andrew throughout the press conference. The compere started the trend, which the other senior executives followed, maybe fearing some terrible breach of protocol if they failed to follow suit.

Arise Sir Andrew!

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Manchester City Council’s chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein welcomed Gary Neville to the Manchester stage at MIPIM with surprising honesty.

Sir Howard, a lifelong City fan, introduced the former United captain by saying: “Now I’d like to welcome somebody I spent a long time booing… but since then I’ve come to respect him.”

As laughter broke out in the room, Sir Howard back-pedalled and became effusive with praise.

“He’s an entertaining football analyst and a guy with a profound sense of place who understands property and will, I believe, become one of Manchester’s influential leaders.”

You heard it here first.

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Continuing a sporting theme, there’s an old saying that the bookmaker always wins, and it was proved accurate in spades last week.

At the Bobby Moore Fund Celebrity Sports Quiz teams from Warrington-based bookies BetFred came first, second AND third in the competition.

Sadly TheBusinessDesk.com team, Barry’s Balmy Army, could only muster a rather disappointing 22nd place. Having earlier looked set for a top 10 finish – the team was left sick as parrots after losing one member of the line up, who ‘retired hurt’ at 10pm having indulged a little too freely…

The evening, hosted by Mark Chapman and Sky Sports’ Clare Tomlinson, was a resounding success though and raised £135,526, for the bowel cancer charity.

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FORMER Grant Thornton partner John Shinnick is showcasing his photographic work at an exhibition at the John Rylands Library in Deansgate.

Bus Stop Stories documents the people using a city centre bus stop in Manchester. Shinnick, who now does consultancy and training work, says he was looking for some interesting portraits but found people would often open up and tell him their stories.

He says: “The exhibition is a connection between those people, their portraits and the words they spoke.”

Bus Stop Stories runs to June 23 and is free.