TABLE TALK

lODDLY, for a town that has built a reputation on bawdiness, Blackpool appears to have been struck by uncharacteristic prudishness. When Cynthia Payne, Streatham's popularised madame, announced that she wanted to open a restaurant in the town, she met with a gust of chilly air.

Undaunted, Ms Payne is now said to be looking to take her personal services to the God-fearing Lancashire cotton-mill town of Accrington where it seems the idea has received a warmer welcome.

lThat paragon of training standards, the Headland Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, is decidedly unimpressed with the body of potential new recruits to the industry. A recent visit by a group of sixth-formers studying travel and tourism left hotel director Carolyn Armstrong flabbergasted. Not only did the students lack even the most basic requirement to work in the industry - the ability to smile and say good morning - but worse, they pushed the goodwill of their hosts to the limit. One boy was caught stealing cigars from the bar and, later in the afternoon, beer and wine were found hidden in another room ready for the getaway.

lTHE AGMs of hotel companies can be turbulent affairs these days, so they tend to be held at unsociable hours and in a manner that discourages too many difficult questions from the floor. So how remarkable that at the annual meeting of Stakis, held at a very sociable hour, none of the shareholders asked a single question about the accounts or the executive reports.

Fully prepared to repel hecklers, chairman Sir Lewis Robertson seemed taken aback, almost disappointed, to be deprived of a joust. He railed at the audience: "I hope we shall not get into the habit of silence at question time, for we should welcome a dialogue between shareholders and the directors."

Table Talk can bring to mind at least two troubled hotel companies that would have been grateful for the Trappist tendencies of the Stakis shareholders at theirown AGMs.

lTable Talk nominates Knights Hotel, Leicester, for insertion in Egon Ronay's Just A Bite restaurant guide, in recognition of the way manageress Carol Fletcher saw off an assailant.

A man came into the hotel reception and demanded a room following a domestic row. When he was refused he drew a knife and attacked Ms Fletcher. She ended the drama abruptly by sinking her teeth into the attacker's groin - a tip she had picked up from Whoopi Goldberg in the movie Jumping Jack Flash.

lOverwater Hotel in the Lake District has given a new dimension to the term "repeat business". The hotel is about to welcome a Merseyside couple for their 100th stay at the hotel.

lCongratulations to John and Carol Moreton who run the catering at the Dockyard Museum in Plymouth. They have just served their one millionth customer.

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