AS THE uncompromising tough guy boss on TV’s The Apprentice, Lord Sugar is used to dishing it out.

The founder of electronics giant Amstrad is clearly brave too.

The East End boy-made-good pitched up recently in the North West as a guest of Business Link Northwest to address 250 entrepreneurs from across the region. He was given a warm reception, we hear.

This is a surprise given some of his recent comments in relation to the difficulties some small firms are facing getting access to bank finance.

Last year, Lord Sugar, below, hit the headlines after labelling struggling businesses “moaners” who lived in “Disney World”

And last month he followed this up by praising banks for adopting a “thorough and professional approach”.

He added: “The disappointment expressed by some people who have been turned down by banks should, in many cases, be translated as an excuse for their own failings and inadequacy.”

AND staying with beardy entrepreneurs for the moment, Sir Richard Branson made headlines in this neck of the woods last week when his Virgin empire swooped to buy 75.1% holding in the medical division of Daresbury’s Assura Group.

The deal means Virgin will be running GP surgeries for the first time.

Could we also see a chain of branded family planning clinics opening up as well?

WE AT Trading Gossip like nothing better than the smack of leather on willow.

So we’re right behind Tony Evans, boss of seeus2save.com, who is backing a campaign to save the 150-year-old Huyton Cricket Club from closure. Mr Evans has already put some of his own cash into the fighting fund.