In the Wimbledon press centre on Thursday evening, about half an hour after Henman's latest exit from Wimbledon, the message over the PA system that the British number two had entered the interview room led to an unbelievable stampede from the hacks present.

Two days previous, when Henman was talking about his win over Carlos Moya, there wasn't half as much interest in his words. Talk about running to dance on someone's grave. But the British press is not all poor Tim has to put up with. Anyone who's watched his matches during the week cannot help being annoyed by those on centre court who feel that shouting variations of his name during breaks in play is utterly hilarious. "C'mon Timothy." "C'mon Timbo." "C'mon Tiger." Really folks, it's not funny and it's not clever. And we're sure it doesn't help Tim's concentration one bit.

I SPY WITH MY GREAT BIG ALL-SEEING HAWKEYE. . .

We've been mightily impressed by Hawkeye at Wimbledon this week so much so that we're wondering why if it can be adapted for use by other sports?

Soccer, for one, would benefit greatly from the use of the Wimbledon technology, particularly for goal line incidents. Rugby, Gaelic football and hurling would also find Hawkeye useful to judge whether the ball, of whatever shape, actually went through the posts or wide of them.

The age old argument from all codes, particularly football, that television technology would take the flow out of the game, doesn't apply to Hawkeye. This week we've seen that the technology takes about ten seconds from the moment a decision is queried to showing it on the big screen.

What's also impressive, unlike, say, the television replays allowed to adjudicate on tries in rugby, is that Hawkeye actually gives a decision, rather than just showing the incident again. In the mega-bucks world of the Premiership, surely it can't be too long before it's adapted, and adopted.

GOOD GRASS ON THE LAWNS AT WIMBLEDON On the subject of Hawkeye, one of its operators took his eyes off the ball, so to speak, during the week by leaving a small bag of cannabis in the pocket of the bag he brought with him into Wimbledon. The person in question, a 24-year-old male, probably thought the security search at the All England Tennis Club would be of the half-arsed variety that most sporting events in Britain and Ireland seem to favour, but we can con"rm that the Wimbledon bag search is the most comprehensive in the business. For the record, the Hawkeye operator in question was given a warning by police and his stash was con"scated. We're not sure if he got to start his day's work.

VIPs AND LIPs (LESS IMPORTANT PERSONS) Nobody remembers the losers in Wimbledon's first week and it would appear that the security system at SW19 doesn't exactly have that much regard for players knocked out on the outside courts. On Wednesday, we watched on as Martina Hingis was ushered from Court 13 to the locker rooms with the help of seven security guards. About 20 seconds further back, the player she had just beaten, Aiko Nakamura of Japan, had to walk through the throngs with the help of just the one guard for company and protection. So forget the seeding system, wait to see how many security guards you have to walk you back for your shower and you're truly know how highly you're regarded.

MOUTHING OFF Most parents who have money don't mind their kids going to a tennis club to practise, but why would they want them to play on the tour? Marissa Irvin, she was a girl from one of the richest families in California and she stopped playing because it made no point. She had a damn swimming pool in her back garden. These people from the Third World don't have no swimming pools Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, espouses the theory that if you have a swimming pool in your garden growing-up, you haven't a hope in hell of making it as a pro tennis player. Quite A plate of spaghetti costs �12.50.

Where else do you see such outrageous prices?

Marat Safin complains about the price of food at the Championships. The Russian has already earned �27,050 this week for reaching the third round

WIMBLEDON BY NUMBERS

87 The cost in pounds sterling of a ticket for the men's singles final 1977 The year that ball girls were first used at SW19
2,549,370 The amount in pound sterling that Roger Federer (right) has earned in his career to date from Wimbledon