The weeks that were 28th December and 3rd January

Afternoon All ,

So . Here we go …Week 1of 52 !

It was another very mixed bag of a week which included Blue Monday – officially the gloomiest day of the year ( and when the Gaffer and thousands others got divorced , post xmas , 22 years ago ! … ) - but it’s still a great song!!! There were also yet more revelations re parties as Boris, Kier and Co. were all now seemingly “ Living Le Vida Loca ” while the rest of us endured lockdown , and Novak Djokavic continued with the whole, in, out and shaking it all about (after testing positive) in the whole Aussie visa debacle! And don’t even mention the sad demise of midget gems !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But at least we had Bez wearing a melon helmet on the ice rink and Pat Cash dressed as Bagpipes to keep the nation in check with reality !!!!!! { Gaffer ; not the foggiest who these people are and what you are talking about Kerry ! }

You were also certainly keeping it more than real over on the Mortgage side of the business with a whopping figure for Week 1 ; the highest ever , with £31,281,928 of lending completed across 100 cases .

And if last week was anything to go by then 2022 could be B.A.U for our 2021 Top Two , as skating to the top of this week’s charts was Simon Holdsworth with £4,932,049 of lending across 6 cases, followed by Nick Harris with £3,427,929 across 5 cases ; class is permanent as they say ; and in third place was a man who is more than used to the ice , our downhill black slope King , Dominic Willett, who completed£2,165,781 of lending across 4 cases.

The “ Big Time Barry” Award this week went to Nick Harris for his £1,900,000 deal with L&G and then getting top judges’ scores for their outstanding performances this week in terms of case volumes and values were recent joinee , Ben Jeffries, Paul Varney, Rachel Vernile ( who had a great week all round – see below ! ) , Paul Oglesby ( 9 cases!!!!!) , Ben Hancox, Phil Lyle, Neil Gould, Heather Wall and Warren Middleton.

On the lender side you completed the greatest number of cases yet again with Santander, totalling 12 for £3,200,993 of lending.

Protection – Week 1

Just 8 cases were completed over on the Protection side of the business this week, achieved almost single handedly by one Mr Chris Taylor who secured 6 of these & who is clearly on a mission right now ! Not surprisingly he also secured the two highest policy amounts both for £525,999 with Zurich and LV Life.

On the provider side 3 cases each were completed with LV and Zurich this week.

Birthday’s and other Parish Notices

Many Happy Returns to Alan Mudd who is celebrating his Birthday today and to Steve Ashbrook for the 20th. This is Thursday when 2 poorly -sick teams in Arsenal and Livpull face off …. Doubtless we’ll see 2 strong starting xi’s Steve !

Management Notices from The Club

1. FIELD VISITS ( ! ) … Last week saw 8 of you come together amid near freezing temperatures for the annual MF New Year's Golf social .

Amid the frostbite and the fun , we learnt 3 key things ;

a) Despite her rampant nerves , golf debutante Rachel Vernile has a future in the game ! She was part of the winning team , & on debut ! She is surely now Berberry's No 2.

b) Her triumphant partners were the ever reliable Mark Nathan ( Berberry 's No3 ) & Paul Varney who amassed an incredible 37 points !

c) The Pesky Bleeders clearly get anxious and intimidated when they journey Saarf . Both let down their Boss Of Bosses , Big Bad Giovanni , who is seen below in conference with the Gaffer , discussing some waste management options.

2. London Broker Meetings ;

The first ones of 2022 take place on Thursday so do please be on time if you are attending .

3. Compliance Guidance ;

Chris will be sending you what is intended to be a very helpful " Do 's & Don'ts” crib sheet this week . With the annual Tests upon us soon , you could do worse than to commit this to memory ( hint hint !! ).

4. Emotional times at Craven Cottage at the weekend where Nick Harris’ son Ollie got asked for goalscoring advice by the Mighty Mitro ; the picture below clearly lends itself to a caption contest !

< mine being ; do you think your ‘ole man could get me 95% of £6million ? Needs to be in Serbian Dinars , with ability to convert to HMO for when my extended family visits when I’m back in the Premier League next year … > Nick also saw £30,000 complete last week so

Mark Nathan’s early season lead on Cash Received is already under threat , and a Spursy meltdown could occur by March ? Perhaps it started last week when Rachel out-drove mark ( evidence below ! ).

5. Please note that the Management Team … have their 6 monthly, 48 hours Away Day this week , so we may be less accessible than usual from Tuesday afternoon thru Thursday morning .

Have a good week all , and hopefully Blue Monday segways neatly in to Happy Friday ! Thursday should at least see some good cheer and bonhomie as rumour has it that 5 of our ladies are going to be painting London red !! hic .

The Management Team.