That was the week that was 16th November

Sooo.. in a week when the somewhat UNlike a Virgin Madonna, once again bared nearly all in her latest desperate bid to gain Insta likes , (either that or she was auditioning for the latest SAGA holidays campaign!) this weekend saw the three wise men ( hmmm !!!!??) announce the birth of the latest new variant! Bearing gifts of PCR tests for travellers, the reintroduction of mandatory face masking and 10 day isolations! Merry Christmas Everyone!! Apart from the Gaffer who is pretty frustrated that it has kyboshed his pending trip to see our 4 brokers in Switzerland and France.

Meanwhile up here in Derby (the home of “Florence Nightingale”,) we remain proud of our very high vax take up in the fight against this latest variant whilst anti - vax protesters torch up Holland & Austria where politicians are now finally admitting that their post-brexit moodiness and summer refusal to adopt our Oxford jab has cost lives & jobs.

And as the country saw the first proper snowfall in months, those freezing cold “I’m a Celebs” were all evacuated from that Welsh castle as the set all but collapsed with the weekend’s storms!

Moving across to the mortgage side of the business and as most of you were away in considerably warmer climes during Week 47, figures were lower than usual but you still managed to complete £20,657,63 of lending across 63 cases.

And our data suggests that several of these cases must have been keyed at an airport or better still in a Marbella hotel room which speaks volumes for both the state of the market feel (see below re: Mortgage Force East Anglia) and your own individual levels of professionalism and motivation.

On top of the charts was Simon Holdsworth who completed £3,105,999 of lending across 2 cases, followed by Ron Walton with £2,018,546 across 7 cases and Martin Whitehouse was in third place with his £1,801,495case with Foundation Home Loans also earning him this week’s “Big Time Barry” Award. For those of you that didn’t meet Martin in Marbella you will hopefully get the chance to do so in January/February and he is a very welcome addition to both our mainframe and ex -pat ranks.

Then cosying up as this week’s high achievers in terms of case volume and value are – Sarah Norman, Raff Federico, Mike Atkinson, Sandy Mcilvenna, Zak Abdul Karim, Adriana Rocha and Paul Varney(who had the benefit of the Gaffers first year end One to One field trip yesterday – which actually took place in a large field populated with yellow flags and white stakes amid temperatures of three degree centigrade!

On the lender side you completed the greatest number of deals this week jointly with two very polarised lenders, Santander and Foundation Home Loan’s, totalling 7 deals each for £1,767,395 and £2,931,021 of lending respectively.

Protection – Week 47

In spite of many of you being away you still managed to put in a sterling effort over on the protection side of the business in Week 47 with 26 deals completed this week, of which Nick Price contributed 13 deals and Sophie Evans, 5.

Jo Zeff secured the highest policy amount of £1,000,000 with Zurich Assurance and on the provider side you completed the greatest number of deals with AIG totalling 7.

Birthday’s and other Parish Notices

Many Happy Returns to Graham Frooms who will be celebrating his birthday on the 3rd December.

Also congratulations to “Grandad” Alan Mudd, on the arrival of Baby Jack last week!

Management Notices

Not much this week as there are the final regional broker meetings taking place over the next two weeks.

Duff spent lunchtime today with the outstanding team at Mortgage Force East Anglia where they presently have so much business on their desk , Christmas lunch was restricted to just 90 minutes of scampi, chilli chips and bangers !

This really is an outstanding part of the overall MF family and is a business which has grown by approximately 21 percent this year and which regularly places between 70 and 100 cases a month.

Below are a couple of prize photo’s with suitably relevant captions,

Roger Jones and The Gaffer recreate the Queen Vic at Xmas as Phil & Grant Mitchell (Zak clowns as Rick-ay in the background!)

The M Force East Anglia posse at the Rose and Crown in March. Shortly after Elaine cleaned up again in the daily Ken Bruce quiz!