Nottingham Trent University's 'Bau Construction' has slipped out of the top six, so their trip to the Hong Kong Final is less secure. Oxford Brookes' 'OBU Construction' has risen two places to replace NTU at sixth place. GCU's 'McRanked' continue to hold top spot but by only 5 points from the new number 2 HKU's 'Quad' rising from 3rd place. RMIT's 'CM Team 2' are up one to third University of Greenwich's '3CL Construction' down two to 4th. Loughborough University's 'Corinth' clings onto 5th place.

Outside the top six HKU's 'SQUARE' are in 7th and only 7 points behind the sixth place. The gap to sixth place for NTU's 'Bau construction' is 53, GCU's 'Stratton Oakmont Construction Ltd' 102, University of the West of England, 154, RMIT's 'CM Team 1', 157, LU's 'Quality Build', 182 and Deakin's 'Deakin Dragons', 272. Deakin would require only a relative gain of only 14% points to make sixth place, a bridgeable gap in one round and certainly in the two remaining rounds. The largest improvement in round 8 was 21% and five teams recorded improvements of more than 15%. Conclusion the top six places are not all secured yet and there is still everything to play form. The lower teams will be examining their strategies and looking for the imaginative breakthrough that will propel them upwards. Watch your costs, make sure you've got the best project managers, ensure that your forward turnover is profitable, manage your capital and reward your shareholders.

The decisions now are all serious ones, a bad decision could cost your place, a well thought through set of decisions could well be winners. It's no time to be conservative and cautious it's time for courage. Good luck.