5. Tomorrow the American John Isner and Nicolas Mahut of France meet in the first round of the tournament after having met last summer in what turned out to be Wimbledon’s longest ever match. It lasted 11 hours and five minutes, with a fifth set that finished 70-68 to Isner. Really, what are the odds of their being drawn against each other again?

6. It turns out that the odds of this happening are about the same as those of Nancy ‘I am the kindest person I know’ Dell’Olio winning a “Most Self-Effacing Personality of the Year” competition.

7. We have extra time to watch the tennis all day because it’s bound to rain (it’s Wimbledon!) sparing us the need to spend hours watering the garden.

8. No, wait! If it’s raining there won’t be much tennis to watch (Vijay Amitraj said: “I love Wimbledon. But why don’t they stage it in the summer?”).

9. At some point in the tournament Andy Murray might play an entire tennis match while giving the impression that he is actually enjoying his chosen career, rather than playing like someone who is resentfully serving out a novel community sentence.

10. Eight British players are in the first round of Wimbledon. One may prove to be a surprise trophy winner. So everyone keep your fingers crossed. But maybe hold off on buying them silver polish just yet

PS. We often add tit-bits of in formation about special days or weeks. Did you know that June hosts the International Insect Week? You can find it on http://nationalinsectweek.co.uk/ and yes, without stretching the brain too much it’s all about raising the profile of insects!!!!

Historical Note added in 2012

That Times Leader was typical of the feelings many of us had. By August, the BBC had the headline: “Andy Murray wins men's singles Olympics tennis gold”  Could we believe it?  Of course we could; we always said he could, didn’t we!

It was a bit like the feelings many of us had about the up and coming Olympics - waste of money, problems with security, why are we doing it?????  Two months later we couldn’t believe our eyes: it was good, no more than that, it was brilliant!

But back in June that’s not how it was. It was the start of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations but we weren’t sure about that either.  How time changes things!  It was all yet to come!