Business fives had its first Edinburgh event of 2019 where 18 companies tried to win their spot at the National Final.

Over £2,700 was raised for various charities by the players taking part in in advance of the event with the top fundraisers being the two teams from Aberdeen standard investments who combined to raise £960 for their charity partner Dementia UK.  Other notable contributions where from Wood Mackenzie who raised £420 for Chest Heart Stroke Scotland, Novotel who raised £270 for the Teapot Trust and the team from Lindsays raised £155 for SAMH.

The Business Fives Winter season has now raised over £10,000 thanks to the efforts of the Edinburgh teams taking it over the 5 figure mark for the fourth consecutive season running.

Ambassadors Yogi Hughes, Gary Locke and James Bee entertained the players after the tournament sharing stories from they’re playing and management careers in football.

On the pitch the action was played in good spirits and with 5 spaces at the National final up for grabs competition was high in one of the highest scoring events over the winter season so far with 214 goals scored in 50 games.

Wood MacKenzie recorded the highest victory with a 9 nil win.  From the opening stages there was 6 winners that went on to play in the Champions League group phase, they were Nairn’s Oatcakes, Edinburgh Airport, Bluebox Aviation, Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen standard Investments and Avison Young.  They were joined in the Champions League quarter-final stage by Addleshaw Goddard and BNY Mellon.

Reaching the semi-finals offered a route to the National final for four of the 5 qualifiers and they were contested between Nairn’s Oatcakes and Aberdeen Standard Investments with Bank of Scotland v Addleshaw Goddard in the adjacent semi-final and with qualification safe and secured bragging rights were up for grabs in Edinburgh.

Aberdeen Standard Investments overcame the team from Addleshaw Goddard in the final by 4 goals to 2 thanks to goals from tournament top goal scorer Joe Fox who hit the back of the net 15 times in 7 matches.  In the other individual award Donavan Hlabangana was named as the man of the match in the final by the on watching ambassadors in a Business Fives First as the man of the match came from the losing team.

In the Europa League section the quarter finals were played out between Farne Salmon & Trout, Cooper Software, Novotel, Wood Mackenzie, BlackRock, Lindsays, Apex Hotels and the Aberdeen Standard Investments Adventurers team.   They lead to encounters in the semi-finals between Lindsays and Farne Salmon and Trout with BlackRock taking on Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Aberdeen standard investments won courtesy of a penalty shootout after a nil nil draw with the BlackRock team.  That score line was replicated in the Europa League section final against Lindsays Solicitors with the Aberdeen standard Investments team yet again holding their nerves to win courtesy of a penalty shootout.  That made it a clean sweep for the firm picking up the titles of top fundraisers as well as Europa League and Champions League section winners.

The  events return to Glasgow on Friday the 8th of February before business Fives sets off south to the north east of England with 3 qualifiers which will take place in Sunderland, Newcastle and Tees Valley in the region ahead of the national final in Edinburgh 22^nd of March where teams will play park chance to win a slice of the business fives charity donation for their chosen charity causes.