Business Diary: December 14

Few can match the exploits of NatWest business manager Dave Sedgwick who walked for five miles through the snow to ensure one of his customers could meet a deadline to buy vital equipment.

Mr Sedgwick braved the worst of the weather to help Master Graphic Machinery UK. As part of an agreement with a supplier, the company faced a 1,000 penalty if payment wasn't made on the specified date.

When the payment was due, the heavy snow meant the bank manager couldn't get his car off the drive to make it to work, so he walked to his nearest branch in Doncaster, hoping it would be open. Once there, the bank manager contacted the seller to assure them the funds would be paid and processed the payment immediately.

Mr Sedgwick, who is business banking manager for NatWest in Mexborough, told Diary: "I know many of the local entrepreneurs I support are working hard to overcome snow to maintain 'business as usual' for their customers – it's only right I do the same."

AS the festive season nears, you might be intrigued to hear that your choice of Christmas cracker gives clues about your personality.

You really don't have to take Diary's word for it. It turns out that British cracker company Robin Reed, has brought in psychologist Mary Woods to help them create crackers that appeal to different target audiences.

Ms Woods has identified distinct groups, including the Jokers, who love giving out silly presents, and Past Timers, who it seems, love an old-fashioned Christmas dominated by the Queen's Speech.

The company says its strangest request for crackers came from Yorkshire. The crackers were ordered for the funeral of a man who loved Christmas. Each of the crackers contained a miniature bottle of whisky which was used to toast the departed. The company has also revealed the joke that was voted the funniest for a cracker in 2010: What type of pants do clouds wear? Thunderwear.

SIR Sherard Cowper-Coles had a glittering career in the Foreign Office, rising to become Britain's Ambassador in Afghanistan, one of the most important diplomatic posts in the world. But his life could have turned out very differently for our man in the corridors of power.

Sir Sherard revealed to Diary last week that he was offered a graduate training position at the Yorkshire Post in 1977 and the ambitious young Oxford University graduate and Cherwell hack was set to take it when the FCO swept in and signed him up instead. In a speech to the Variety Club Yorkshire Business Awards,

Sir Sherard described the YP as the "world's greatest newspaper". With his globetrotting experience at posts in Cairo, Washington, Israel and Paris, he should know.

SIR Sherard was joined on the speakers' podium by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff, who, Diary discovered, really knows how to multi-task.

Speaking after the dinner, Sir Richard told Diary: "I'm constable of the Tower of London so I'm keeping a very firm eye on the Crown jewels, I've been invited to go to the House of Lords next month, and I do a number of things in the public and charitable sector – and I run the family farm in Norfolk." During his speech to the awards, which attracted an audience of 400 people to the Queens Hotel in Leeds, he recalled his Yorkshire connections.

He said: "I've been a Green Howard for 40 years, I know Yorkshire soldiers and Yorkshire people extremely well. My first company sergeant major was a diehard Leeds United football club supporter in the Don Revie glory days of Leeds. I live in Norfolk and I'm very glad that Norwich and Leeds were both promoted last season."

IT'S not all fun and frolics in the world of international law.

While the rest of us enjoyed a warm(ish) weekend defrosting after last week's snow, Pinsent Mason's head of corporate Martin Shaw was holed up in London trying to thrash out Yule Catto's 376m bid for German company PoymerLatex.

A very tired Mr Shaw managed to call Diary on his way back to Leeds yesterday, following only one hour's sleep. "We signed off the deal at 4am this morning," he told Diary.

Still, hopefully the fees from the deal might make up for the lack of sleep.