June 23, 2003

WELL, it's that time of the year again: rain, Pimm's, rain, strawberries,cream and rain. Yes, Wimbledon has rolled around once more, and soon the air around SW19 will resound to the sound of balls being hit, crowds going "oooooh" and people shouting: "HOW much for a can of Coke?"

Checking out the websites of some of the female stars, I was mildly surprised to discover that Venus Williams's official site is in French. Yep, French. The English-language version is being redone, and you've got 24 hours to do it, guys. Sister Serena doesn't appear to have an official site, but take a look at www.geocities.com/serena_will/ for info on her career, bio, pics, news and rankings. A skilfully-produced, superb example of a real fan's homepage.

Searching Google for Kim Clijster's official site brought Jelena Dokic's instead. While you might not expect a tennis star's official site to have the address http://www.jellyworld.freewebspace.com, this is the real thing. Interestingly, the front page has more about Dokic's views on the current political situation in Serbia than it does on tennis, but it also includes a detailed biography page, loads of pics, multimedia downloads and a news archive. The links page is also superb, giving access to sites for just about every tennis player, association, tournament and, um, even the official website of the Serbian Radical Party... weird.

GIVEN that the prospects of Welsh rugby sank without trace in Hamilton yesterday, maybe Steve Hansen should take a look at www.vesipedot.net/english/uw-rugby/history/index.shtml for the lowdown on underwater rugby. Maybe we could make a splash in that code (boom boom!).

TUG-OF-WAR is a SPORT?? According to tugofwar.co.uk/ it is. Never realised that when we used to use the skinny kid for the rope in school...

KEEPING with the Wimbledon theme, here's a gratuitous pic of Anna Kournikova. You can thank me later.