The Richard Spooner Column: PR man creates own splash�

Decidedly mixed fortunes for PR about town Adrian Kibbler at a splendid media open day at the Assay Office, Birmingham 's famous hallmarking operation based in the Jewellery Quarter.

The Assay Office, said to be the city 's second oldest company (after button and badge maker Firmin) and dating back to its foundation nearly 250 years ago in my halcyon days as the first Chamber President, laid on a sumptuous lunch washed down with glasses of Prosecco before treating the hacks present to a memorable tour of one of Birmingham 's longest established assets.

Hacks were able to marvel at diamonds worth tens of thousands of pounds and admire the technical expertise of highly-skilled hallmarking workers before being invited to hammer out their own hallmark in an unusual Assay Office contest.

The hacks ' winner proved to be Mr Kibbler, and the warm glow of triumph would have been welcome for the Birmingham PR man who had unfortunately turned up late for lunch after mistakenly calling in at the former Assay Office premises in Newhall Street, its home for 135 years.

His confusion was subsequently compounded by regrettably getting caught up in a veritable monsoon, leaving him looking as if he had fallen in the nearby canal. As journalistic colleague and fellow Press Club board member Fred Bromwich remarked: “Not only was he late but to make his day he got drenched in a monsoon. ”

Sadly, Mr K 's celebrations may have been dampened somewhat when at the end of the media open day the skies opened again above the Jewellery Quarter and he stepped out into another torrential downpour. It never rains but it pours, as they say��

JG