Business Diary: July 6

THE City's top financial journalists and their counterparts from the world of PR met on Sunday for the annual Hacks vs Flaks cricket and rounders match at Burton's Court cricket ground in Chelsea.

In a reversal of last year's fortunes, the Flaks won both the cricket and rounders matches.

Some 15,000 was raised for St Christopher's Hospice and Laureus, which promotes the use of sport as a tool for social change. The former England captain Michael Vaughan was on hand to hand out the prizes.

In the cricket, the Flaks (188-3) thrashed the Hacks (184 AO) by seven wickets. After the first 10 overs, the Hacks were struggling on 22 for 5, but then the spectators were treated to one of the greatest comebacks in Hacks/Flaks history as Joe Brock of Thomson Reuters (53) and Gorkana's Stephen Marshall (74) put on a hundred partnership.

The Flaks reply started strongly. A quickfire 50 from Hudson Sandler's Charlie Jack – his first four deliveries each disappearing to the boundary – was followed by a mighty six through the first floor window of a nearby house. The residents weren't impressed and refused to return the ball.

In the rounders, the Flaks won the Charles Stanley trophy, winning 16 rounders to 12.5. It was an even contest with some rapid pitching from the Independent's James Moore – and not the kind PRs are used to. Kate Walsh, of the Sunday Times, caught out many an unsuspecting Flak on first base but then was cruelly punished by Kreab Gavin Anderson's Natalie Biasin who took her out with a sliding tackle.

The Flaks star was Theo Kjellberg, Kreab Gavin Anderson, who was by far the highest scorer.

After a lot of sledging from the hacks captain Ros Snowdon, City Editor of the Yorkshire Post, and a little bit of cheating (not dissimilar from the Uruguay handball but slightly less sportingly significant) from rival skipper, PwC's Anna White, the Flaks emerged victorious.

Many thanks to this year's sponsors: Vodafone, Pearson, Oakley Capital, Gorkana, PwC, FD, Visual media, Pelham Bell Pottinger, IHG, Mission, KX Gym, Tom Aikens, Emperor Design, House of Fraser, Charles Stanley, Heineken, Diageo and Unilever.

In the dark...

AS the UK's largest coal-fired power station, Drax is all about keeping the lights on. The 4,000 megawatt Selby plant supplies about seven per cent of the UK's electricity.

But at its biomass launch in London, the lights went out as Drax's management were about to unveil plans to fire more biomass.

A power cut at Drax's new City office meant the meeting of journalists and management was held in semi darkness. Diary wonders if it was part of the power station's plan to cut its carbon footprint.

Revenge in miniature

ENGLAND and France won't remember the World Cup with any affection, but a competition organised by Yorkshire's corporate community showed that table football can favour the giant killers.

France triumphed in the tournament at the Queens Hotel in Leeds to coincide with Jane Tomlinson's Leeds 10K. With each team representing a country from this year's World Cup, the assorted business leaders battled it out through nail-biting group phases.

Leeds 10K organisers Run For All stepped in at the last minute to represent France. The team competed in a tense final against sports marketing agency Banana Kick, the Netherlands, winning 7-6.

The England team did a little better than their full-size counterparts. The team, "managed" by Leeds-based law firm Clarion, the sponsors of the corporate challenge, were beaten 10-7 in the quarter finals by Grant Thornton's Australia.