SO FAR, SO GOOD..

So far I have managed to avoid the wall-to-wall coverage of Wimbledon.   Three days in and I haven`t watched any of it on television or listened on the radio, but there have been one or two close shaves which I have managed to avoid by judicious channel switching as soon as it comes on.

There are just so many things wrong with the annual rituals of SW 19, not least the fact that tennis is a daft game anyway.   I fail to see the attraction of any game where you hit the ball as hard as you can only for it to keep coming back to you.   That aside, it`s all the stuff that surrounds Wimbledon that grates.   The general atmosphere of privilege, the strawberries and cream, the BBC`s insistence on bussing in plane loads of usually American has-beens to swell the already burgeoning ranks of `commentators and analysts.`   Then there is the hopeless cause of British tennis with the possible exception of annoyingly grumpy Scot Andy Murray, for despite the £millions invested by the Lawn Tennis Association the best we can do is to develop a bunch of losers.  ("Show me a good loser and I`ll show you a loser.")  

It`s all in stark contrast to the magic, the wonder and the relevance of last weekend`s US Open Golf, where balls were hit with enormous power, guile and accuracy.   And not one of them came back.  And not a grunt to be heard in anger.   We`re all different, of course and we all have our individual tastes, but I wonder why it is that I can stay up until 1.00am transfixed by the US Open but can`t turn Wimbledon off quick enough.   Maybe it`s just me?