Sharewatch

Consultant group Atkins served an ace during the first week of Wimbledon when it announced that Keith Clarke, Skanska's senior vice-president, was to become its chief executive. The appointment made the firm more attractive to the market than Anna Kournikova/Mark Philippoussis (delete according to preference) smothered in strawberries and cream, and its share price rose 8.6% to 283.5p.

In contrast, retirement homes specialist McCarthy & Stone must fancy using the language of Greg Rusedski after last week's performance. The McCarthy family's attempt to take the company private was swatted with the disdain of Andre Agassi returning a short second serve, and the share price fell faster than a British wild card in the first round – that is, 1% to 501.5p.

(Overhitting the tennis analogies, you think? Tough: Sharewatch is going to persevere with the determination of a Lleyton Hewitt.)

One contractor that you'd expect to have the impact of a Venus Williams forehand is Galliford Try. In 2002 it signed a five-year framework agreement with the All-England club. Yet the unfolding story of the club's biggest tournament had the effect of a backspinning drop-shot on clay, dropping dead at 30.25p.