Column Eight: Sugar in defence at Spurs

HOSTILE Amstrad shareholders are not the only ones looking for explanations from Alan Sugar, chairman of Amstrad and Tottenham Hotspur, who this week hopes to win approval to take his company back into private ownership. Last Saturday fans on the terraces more used to reading 'Player Profile' in their match programme instead got a taste of the City pages.

'Please let me assure all fans and supporters that at this moment in time my shares in Tottenham Hotspur plc haven't been hocked and they will only be hocked if my plans to privatise Amstrad are successful. And, even if my plan to buy Amstrad is successful, my shares in Tottenham Hotspur will only be in hock until June 1993,' Mr Sugar wrote.

In case a few fans had, by then, fallen behind the pace he continued: 'To simplify matters, using shares as collateral is quite a normal thing.' Quite. And at least supporters may have been left with more to think about than their 2-1 defeat by deadly London rivals Chelsea.

AS IF THE humiliation of going into receivership wasn't enough for the directors of Rosehaugh. Last week, any hopes of getting-away- from-it-all quickly were dashed. Trundling wearily back to their company parking spaces in the Selfridge's car park they found the receivers had got there first. Each car had been meticulously identified - and clamped.

BRITISH Rail is acknowledged to have a pretty huge task ahead with its desire to bring rail freight back into profit - last year it lost pounds 50m.

A number of companies, Shell among them, have taken growing exception to BR's tactic of doubling the charges for carrying its products by rail on some lines. Shell was particularly angered recently when BR demanded pounds 50,000 to spend on maintaining sidings at Swindon, which it would otherwise shut.

Shell is said to have appealed to Sir Bob Reid, BR chairman and an Old Shellian. But the old boys' network proved little use when he sent them packing.

CYNNLUN Ecwiti Personol Dwyeithog Cyntaf. Yes, you've got it - Welsh Water has introduced the world's first bilingual PEP.

THE Women's Sports Foundation awards for 1992 at the Park Lane Hotel tomorrow are sponsored, in this Olympic year, by Tampax. If steroid abuse gets any worse will they also sponsor the men's awards in 1996?