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Your support makes all the difference.Wimbledon fortnight, as if you didn't know, is when London hosts one of the tennis world's most prestigious events as if it were a summer garden party: strawberries and cream, neatly pressed whites, bows and curtsies to Des Lynam. The game, a beastly, sweaty to-and-fro, hardly seems the point and in its own way, the championships' website attempts to redress this.
The site itself is as elegant as an SW17 flowerbed. It revels in the history of the tournament but also features a courtside camera, real-time scoring and access to live radio coverage. So much for the game's hallowed portals - what about the obsessive underground sites, celebrating tennis fans' devotion to their favourite sport?
Compared with football, tennis has roughly 10% of the dedicated sites. However, without the social or geographical spread of the beautiful game's supporters, its Net presence tends to be earnest at best. Absolute Authority on Tennis (www.absolute-authority. com/tennis) is typical. If you can stand its relentlessly upbeat message, there are dozens of useful links to official and informal tennis organisations. The quirkiest link I found was Alt.Tennis, "dedicated to those of us who enjoy hitting MegaMoon Mishits and Groin Pull Dropshots." It's a one-man affair and a brave, if not wholly successful, attempt to suggest a vibrant grass-roots tennis culture. On the whole though, I'd stick to Des.
Movie magic
uk.imdb.com
Some Net-heads have no class, particularly when it comes to film quotes. If it's a Ferris Bueller bon mot you're after, fine. If it's a Billy Wilder wise-crack, on the other hand, or a quip from a British film for that matter, it's often a different story.
Mother of all Quotes, at www.pacificnet.net/noname/quotes.html, is a well organised, bright site, offering plenty of the former, as does www.geocities.com/Hollywood/3754/quotes, which also lets you contribute quotes you've picked up. But by far the most comprehensive quote service belongs to the Internet Movie Database, uk.imdb.com (above), the only problem being you'll need at least a keyword to search by. The IMBD site also has a host of other services including current movie news and reviews, along with cast and production listings.
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