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BBC at Wimbledon

I've been listening to the BBC internet broadcast of Wimbledon. Radio commentary of tennis can be much more exciting than it sounds. The British perspective is interesting as well. I've been somewhat frustrated by ESPN's coverage of tennis where non-American players hardly ever even make the highlight reel.

Plus, the BBC commentary is top-notch. The tennis experts, particularly Frew McMillan understand and can speak intellegently about all aspects of the game. The commentary in general is much more multi-dimensional than what you're likely to get from American coverage.

Among the things I've learned:

• Most public tennis courts in England must be rented by the hour. There was much discussion during one of the rain delays about the prospects of changing this and the American practice of free and open public tennis courts was held up as the model for the English Park Service.
  
  
• Those guys dressed up in rat-like costumes that you may have seen during ESPN highlights are paying tribute to the Wombles which was a series of children's books and a television series in England 20-some odd years ago.
  
  
• The term "grand slam" did not originate in baseball, but referred to the practice of taking all of the tricks in the card game bridge. The term was later applied to winning all the major tournaments in golf and tennis and hitting a bases-loaded home run in baseball.
  
  
• The Simpsons is big in England. During one of the early rounds, the commentators observed that one of the chair umpires sounded remarkably like Principal Skinner. Other observations included James Blake's resemblance to Sideshow Bob and Sven Goran Eriksson's resemblance to Mr. Burns. Ian Carter was referred to as "Smithers" by his fellow commentators for most of the rest of the afternoon.