The Sport Thread

How wonderfully surreal - as well as being a great match, its turned in to a bit of a 'special occasion' tonight with the lighting and the rest of Wimbledon in darkness. I fully agree with the decision to stay on BBC One. After all, they've delayed the news umpteen times for football, so why not for tennis?

But I'm sure I read somewhere that there was an agreement between the All England Club and the local council that play would not continue beyond 10pm, roof or not. Obviously there's a loophole.

I presume now they'll just scrap Today at Wimbledon and run a filler in the repeat slot tomorrow morning on BBC Two.

I don't have a problem with the news or almost any other programme being delayed because of another one over running. My problem is with the terrible way it has been handled. Why did it take them until 21:14 to decide that the news couldn't start at 21:15? The news is now listed at 22:30. If the time gets to 22:25 and the tennis is still running, push the news back some more don't wait until 22:29. How difficult can it be?

How long does it take them to publish the change through to all the systems, internally, online, Sky, Virgin, Freeview and anyone else that needs to know? It may well take more than 5 minutes.

On the other hand, they could change the EPG to 2245, then Murray could suddenly race through a few games, match point, wham, bam, thank you mam, and the news starts at 2240.

It's a live sporting event, and the same thing happens with every other live sporting event. 'Subsequent programmes may run late'. I think most people watching will realise that the news will follow the tennis, and will not take the time shown on the EPG as gospel.

According to the banner at the bottom of the screen, the BBC News follows this programme. That may be true on BBC One, but surely BBC HD viewers don't have to see that?!

As an aside, Wimbledon, London and even that fleeting shot of the Moon all look stunning in high definition.

Some people may well be out. Who would care if the epg says 22:45 but the news starts at 22:40? It probably wouldn't happen anyway, I'm sure Sue Barker can fill for five minutes. By changing the EPG at the last minute they are messing up recordings and not using the EPG in the way it was designed. That's where the problem is, not with people watching live.

"Huw Edwards is waiting next to me like a coiled spring".

They're not the BBC's feeds, they're the EBU's.

(The BBC's feeds from SW19 aren't getting back to W12 by satellite, either)

Well, the news is back to 2245 now anyway

And personally, I don't care . . . because this is great stuff!

I was expecting them to at least show Huw at that point.

'Tonight at Ten'??

Think that's the first time - bar finals and Agassi's last match - that a post-match interview has been conducted on court. Nice touch.

And finally, we get the 10 o'clock news, at 22:44:30.