Lifting the FA Cup capped a hectic round of bar and hotel hopping

AFTER a quiet couple of weeks I have been mad busy — Blackburn and Manchester being ports of call for your correspondent these past few days.

By far the most interesting was Manchester, in Bar 38 — renamed Virgin Media Centre for the duration of the Labour Party annual conference in the neighbouring Manchester Central Convention Centre.

This isn’t to denigrate the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel and Spa in Clayton-le-Moors, to where I was invited by the good folks down at BAE Systems in Chadderton. It was hosting its annual Chairman’s Bronze Awards and once again I was astonished at the levels of complexity not only of the tasks these men and women undertake on a daily, routine basis, but also of the sheer ingenuity they bring to their daily workloads.

For four nights there were tales of imagination and mental and physical dexterity as scores of people were rewarded for efforts improving the well-being of this institutional British business.

It was a privilege to be in the same company.

Thursday in the BBC Club in Manchester was an altogether different experience. I was invited by Greater Manchester Chamber to join a panel of media types tasked with answering a myriad of questions from members — and it proved an enlightening evening.

Because of our situation, in the Beeb’s Oxford Road studios, we were joined by two programme producers — these are the people who decide the content of what will be broadcast by the presenters, who don’t seem to have that much input at all, from what I could discern.

And so it was that I found myself in Manchester again, this time at Bar 38 — sorry, the Virgin Media Centre — for an evening hosted by no less an organisation than the Football Association.

Lord Triesman himself was there, the newly-elected independent chairman of this age-old rock of the soccer establishment whose new broom approach has already swept away chief executive Brian Barwick. So, too, was Alex Horne, the FA’s new chief operating officer, and he was quiz master for a competition between the Press and the MPs.

Andy Burnham, from the Cabinet, led the MPs’ team supported by sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe and a guy whose is chairman of the all-party football committee in the Commons.

Rob Lowe, the Press Association’s football writer, led the opposition supported by two guys from the regional press, Leeds and Bristol.

I am pleased to report that we won, we being the press of course, although it was a close-run thing.

The winners were handed the FA Cup — only for a few seconds of course — as publicity stunt which certainly worked in terms of profile. Many of the great and good were at the party, past and present Cabinet members, MPs and all wanted their photograph taken with the FA Cup.

I did too . . . as a supporter of Stalybridge Celtic, it’s the closest I will ever get to this iconic trophy.