Pembroke: A fiver at the end of the tunnel?

WORD reaches me of a friendly bet between Sir Alastair Morton, the abrasive chairman of accident- prone Eurotunnel and the affable John Collier, chairman of Nuclear Electric. Mr Collier bet his Eurotunnel counterpart that he would generate electricity at Sizewell C before Mr Morton could send a fee-paying passenger through his troubled tunnel.

The wager - a low budget affair from two such well-remunerated individuals - is a framed pounds 50 note (some say it's a measly fiver), a magnum of champagne and a donation to charity. The nuclear man is now feeling rather pessimistic about his chances, though given Eurotunnel's record on postponements, Mr Collier needn't get his wallet out yet.

BILL McLellan, the bouncy Australian director of the Central Statistical Office, is taking his abacus back Down Under. Mr McLellan, who has been head numbers man at the CSO since 1992, is departing next April to take up the job as head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The lure of the Canberra sunshine proved too much. 'Oh yeah,' he says in Aussie twang. 'I've enjoyed it in England, but I still have a house in Canberra and my children are at university in Australia. The job is too good an opportunity to miss.'

Mr McLellan is looking forward to spending more time on the golf course and re-acquainting himself with his rather splendid beach house.

CHRIS Golden, Nomura's head of fixed income research, was back at his desk yesterday morning after witnessing the accident at the Pink Floyd concert the previous evening. Mr Golden, whose musical tastes range from opera to Deep Purple, was at the Earls Court concert with his daughter. 'I was in the stand next to the one that collapsed and initially it wasn't at all clear what was happening. When the stand began to move I thought it might be part of the special effects. Then I realised it wasn't'

WHAT to do when your client's coal bid has just got the thumbs down from the Government? Christopher Stainforth, Malcolm Edwards's adviser at Guinness Mahon, decided a slice of Hollywood escapism was the best remedy. 'I decided a bit of Arnie was a good idea so went to see Schwarzenegger in True Lies,' he says. 'Malcolm just went out to dinner.'

SALOMON Brothers has created a new post for David Cockburn, who joins as director of investment banking with responsibility for energy. Mr Cockburn, who was previously at Lehman Brothers, has not wasted any time stacking up the Air Miles. Yesterday he was on his way to New York.