The Sustain awards – the first handouts from the £40m pot the Arts Council set up in June as a hedge against the effects of recession for RFOs - were pretty good news for the ten who got some cash out of it this week, but ACE were rather selective in the way they put the story out. The press release actually announced five of them, mostly comfy regional organisations – Ikon in and the dance Consortium in Birmingham, Nottingham Playhouse, South Hill Park in Bracknell, and together they didn’t get as much as th e fifth on the list, ENO. What isn’t in the press release, and you have to persevere through links and references to find them, is that other five are nearly all are very big fish: the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, plus British Youth Opera and the Derby-based Sinfonia Viva. And of the £4m dished out, more than £3m has gone to ENO, the ROH, WNO (which also got £300,00 from the Welsh Arts Council) and the RPO which will not be lost on those who watch ACE’s alleged preoccupation with its big favourites first out with the begging bowl, and the Great Wen. There were 87 applications, and more grants are coming this month and next, but two have actually been turned down: New Writing North in Newcastle and the Everyman in Cheltenham, we’re not told why or how much the wanted.