Gadfly - 21.05.09

21 May 2009 | By Gadfly

It was a glittering evening at London’s Café De Paris. Paul Gascoigne was there lending his experience and insight to the judging panel, and he wasn’t the only footballer present. Teddy Sheringham and Jermain Defoe were among a crowd of celebrities that included Vanessa Feltz, pneumatic Tory Lucy Pinder and Rex Newmark from Big Brother. The audience was serenaded by Austin Drage from The X Factor, but sadly Gadders’ favourite Miss Manchester had already pulled out just days before the finale. Despite a narrowed field, Miss Flirtomatic herself, Rebecca Geldard, narrowly failed to be shortlisted for the final five, but congratulations to Miss Newcastle for scooping the tiara of destiny. As one Flirtomatic staffer can testify, Miss Leeds is quite a mover (above right).

Talking of cultural highlights, last Thursday night Gadfly headed to the Hellenic Centre near Baker Street for the first Perform Media Darts event, hosted by Perform joint-CEO Ollie ‘Hercules’ Slipper. Why the Hellenic Centre? Had the erudite Slipper — who’s also a keen cricketer, if LinkedIn is to be believed — been inspired by Greek myth with its famous references to arrows? After all, wasn’t Achilles felled by a wellaimed dart from Troy’s ‘Jocky’ Paris?

The evening was nothing but a professional affair, with Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley, John McDonald and Sky’s Rod Harringtonoverseeing the fierce competition between such agencies as Diffiniti, Starcom and MediaCom. So congratulations to champion Rob Moore (left), group trading director of digital at Starcom, whose final was played with the crowd at almost deafening volume. Perhaps the only disappointment was the prize of a trophy - those hoping for a speedboat were sadly disappointed. Super, smashing, lovely, as they say.

Finally, as the whole sorry saga of MPs’ expenses grinds on, Gadfly tips his hat to those busy people at Blue Barracuda. They’ve put together youclaim.org.uk where you can submit your own claim, for anything from a Wii to a loo-roll holder, to your MP. Gadders likes the link to the DWP’s benefit fraud service. Cheeky.

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