Tennisbledon.

The sport of tennis has been thwacked into the middle of our eyes and ears from a 160mph racket shot.  Yes...it's Wimbletelly time again.  Now don't get me wrong, I love tennis – always have done hitting my first junior balls all those years ago.  We were quite luck where I grew up as we had local tennis courts which didn't cost an arm and a leg to play.  So I used to play a heck of a lot, getting to the stage where I had county coaching – my summer memories are part filled with running ragged around a tarmac tennis court till my little legs felt like rubber jam jars.  Not a bad way to spend the occasional bored evening in the week, much better than dog fighting or setting fire to buses whilst  clubbing the local police force with  umbrellas.  Just writing about it evokes such a strong feeling of time and setting I can feel the thudded twang of the tennis balls hitting my stringed sport instrument.

If I wasn't playing on courts with mates I'd be belting ten shades out of my outside wall at home, with a chalked line signifying the net.  My hero back then was firstly Bjorn Borg then later Ivan Lendl (a serene, robot like figure who it has to be noted never won Wimbledon).  I'm not sure why I took to Lendl – on the hard court he was virtually unstoppable but grass dominance ultimately eluded him.  He had the best adidas kits (I still own the headband – see pic) and an Eastern European austerity...perhaps I felt he was sad.  I think nowadays he plays golf but is pretty much out of the public eye (not so popular with the population it transpires).

A young Boris Becker came along, another who I greatly admired but by this stage I suspect I'd grown out of that adulation and worship you have for your heroes at a certain time of your life.

By the time Stephen Edberg quietly hit the scene, I'd all but given up enjoying tennis.  After nearly 8 years of playing I finally put the racket down around the same time I was leaving school.  I then left home for collage and didn't play again for about 10 years.  I gave it up again.  And then, late last year I dug up an old racket and found a friend in Manchester who enjoyed playing.  We found really good indoor courts (it was winter after all) at the National Tennis Centre at Sportscity (next to the City of Manchester stadium).  It's a wonderful way to keep fit and a really enjoyable game to play, requiring the usual skill, fitness and strategy like all great sports.

I'll get a game over the next week or so, although with the Tennis tournament playing out across our telly screen you can be sure of a few difficulties when attempting to book a court with an inspired nation rushing to attempt an Andy Roddick flash serve or a Venus Williams grunt shot.

My money's on Rafael Nadal this year (I feel he will just nudge out Federer)...a breath of fresh air in the game which has been sadly empty of characters for so long.