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The Hurlingham seniors tennis tournament, which opens today will feature stars of the world circuit and past champions of Wimbledon, including Paul McNamee, Tim Mayotte and Peter Fleming. The professionals will line up to play with UK amateurs in two pro-am morning sessions later this week. Nick Moss, finance director for Bisto Food is one of the aspiring amateurs who will be taking part.

Moss says he has been practising hard, but is not sure if he will win. "It depends who my partner is," he said.

Moss has his hopes pinned to either Ilie Nastase or Peter McNamara. Those who doubt his determination or dedication should note that he gave up a ticket to the final of the Rugby World cup to take part.

Teesside has been at the heart of the UK's steel production for the last 100 years. British Steel is still the region's biggest employer and unsurprisingly one of Middlesborough Football Club's biggest sponsors at its old ground Ayresome Park. But no more.

British Steel withdrew sponsorship after the contractors for the new ground changed their subcontractors. Instead of 6,000 tonnes of British Steel being used in the new stadium's construction, the Irish contractors decided to place the order with an Irish subcontractor, who is using German steel.

British Steel is opposing a pounds 50m subsidy for Irish Steel, based in Cork, on grounds that it is illegal under EU law. But that is hardly the point. The new ground is, after all, only six miles from the company's Teesside plant.

As British Steel chairman Brian Moffatt, explained: "The club is in a steel town and largely dependent on steelworkers supporting its existence."

It seems that the club will be the losers all round in this fiasco. The new stadium will not be ready for the start of the new season - in the Premier Division - and the Club could well be homeless: its application to return to Ayresome Park has been turned down.

While property investors and bankers are confident about the state of the London property market, they are not so enamoured of politicians or journalists, according to a survey carried out by an international property consultant, Richard Ellis.

Investors and bankers were asked to rate the professionalism of those who work in the world of property compared with bankers, brokers, lawyers, accountants, teachers, doctors, politicians and journalists. Only doctors were considered more highly professional than property consultants.

Journalists and politicians were at the bottom of the heap. The good news though is that the journalists rated above the politicians.

Asked to comment on the results, Ian Ellis, a partner who heads up the investment management arm said they reflected: "...either an increase in pessimism or a decrease in optimism." Sounds like a politician to me.

It was bound to happen. But for Robin Field, chief executive of the bounce- back Filofax group, it was not exactly an organised move.

As the group announced a 55 per cent increase in operating profit, Field found himself peppered with questions from the press. At one point in the proceedings Field responded to one questioner by whipping an electronic gadget out of his top pocket, in order "to check a few facts" he said.

Word is that said gadget looked suspiciously like an electronic organiser, although Filofax have assured us that it was in fact a calculator. "I'm not nearly clever enough to operate a electronic organiser," said Field.