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Andy Murray made a great show of pointing to his bicep after his 5-sets win over Richard Gasquet but when it comes to muscles, his next opponent, Rafael Nadal wins hands down.

Widely regarded as the fittest and strongest man on the professional circuit, Nadal has been in powerful form on grass over the past month and is a formidable barrier in the way of Murray’s ambition to become the first British men’s singles winner since 1936.

Murray is aware of the task ahead but says he has had chances against Nadal before on fast surfaces. All is not lost.

Do you think the stronger, fitter and apparently more focused Murray can beat Nadal this time?

This week marks the first anniversary of England’s ban on smoking in indoor public places. Hardly a puff has been blown in the nation’s pubs and restaurants since July 1 2007.

The health benefits seem clear –  a study by Cancer Research UK suggests the ban has contributed to a 5.5 percent fall in smoking rates in the first nine months after the law changed. That’s about 400,000 people.

Non smokers have had the pubs to themselves as the die-hards crush up in windswept, fag-strewn areas outside, savouring the superiority of the forsaken. They may be making all sorts of new friends in the long Summer evenings but Winter is on the way…

Publicans have seen their takings drop in general but many are fighting back by beefing up their food offerings as more and more people are tempted back into licensed premises to eat now the fug has gone.

What’s your take on the smoking ban one year on? 

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Thank heavens colour television was up and running in Britain when we had our last Wimbledon singles winner.

Virginia Wade it was, 41 years ago to be precise (and if memory serves she was wearing a cardigan at the time. Plus ca change.)

British tennis doesn’t have to suffer the indignity heaped upon fans who have to watch black and white TV clips to relive the last time we won anything big in soccer — the 1966 World Cup.

The flickering images accompanying Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous “they think it’s all over,” line look like something from an early moon lander nowadays and just ram home the fact that it was all so long ago. Viewers of the 1977 women’s final, complete with Dan Maskell’s rapturous “Oh, I say, Virginias,”  could at least see that Wade’s cardigan was pink.

But even so, our losing streak at the All England Lawn Tennis Club must have broken all kinds of laws of averages. Surely a nation of so many millions should statistically have thrown up another men’s champion by now instead of us having to look back to Fred Perry in 1936.

Its dismal failure to do so, despite some worthy efforts in the 1960s, perhaps in part explains why the cheery Wimbledon crowds and their determination to get behind the British players come in for so much sneering. With their “Henmania” and now, apparently, their “Andymonium,” they represent the triumph of hope over experience and, as such, an easy target — like flat-Earth believers. 

They should not take the stick lying down. They should point out that even if we can’t win it, the world still regards Wimbledon as the greatest tennis tournament and one that, for all its inbuilt snobbery, still lets people in without pre-booked tickets at reasonable turnstile prices and refuses to sell out to advertisers by splattering the court surrounds with hoardings and logos.

They should remind the knockers too that the world’s best players want to take part so much that they leave behind their fancy coloured gear and grudgingly conform to the tournament’s “predominantly white” clothes rule, even at the risk of making some of them look like ordinary public court hackers.

There are reasons to be cheerful, the tennis pendulum will swing back our way from eastern Europe one day – and before global warming has turned the lawns of SW19 into dust, there will be another British champion.

You read it here first   

By common consent, Gordon Brown’s first year is ending up as a shocker for Labour.

It may have started well last June with assured handling of a bomb threat and a swift response to the foot and mouth outbreak last August. Pledges to cut back on two largely unpopular measures: Tony Blair’s plans to open “super casinos “and the extension of drinking hours, also struck a chord with voters.

But since the infamous “bottled election” last Autumn, nothing seems to have gone right for the man who waited so long for the top job. The opinion polls are full of doom and Westminster insiders say talk of finding a successor before the expected 2010 election is rife.

Brown’s supporters say it is unfair to blame him for world trends outside his control — it was the credit crunch that began in the U.S. that caused the Northern Rock collapse and what is the British prime minister supposed to do about sky-high world crude prices that are driving up inflation?

What is your verdict on Brown’s first year?

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At few other world sporting events do so many queue for so long.

Wimbledon , by dint of its allowing fans to just turn up on the day without booking, has always attracted vast numbers of the ticketless, either casual, after-work visitors or the more diehard types who come armed with tent and supplies to see the likes of Roger Federer, Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova compete.

Draped with plastic sheets against the rain, bedded down on the hard pavement, those in for the long haul often insisted to interviewers — rather unconvincingly — that the wait was part of the fun.

Now, however, the queue has indeed become more civilised with the opening up of the nearby Wimbledon Park to tennis campers. The wide open spaces of this Capability Brown-designed gem, just a stone’s throw from the All England club, are a world away from the cramped pavements of Church Road. There are lockers to store tents and sleeping bags and plenty of space for all. Plenty of public tennis courts too. The only drawback is the strict 6 a.m. wake-up call.

The queue itself, however, remains a daunting beast, snaking around the park and the adjacent golf course, seemingly for miles. The All England club has even issued a Guide to Queuing handbook to lay down the ground rules. For queue information click here

Waiting patiently in line is of course a British speciality and some of the regulars do genuinely seem to enjoy the atmosphere — but for less patient souls, here’s all you need to know to enter the ballot next year and walk straight in.

The VisitBritain tourism organisation is about to launch a campaign aimed at luring visitors to areas involved in the country’s rich comic history.

Torquay, for example, setting for the legendary Fawlty Towers guest house.

Another is Turville in Buckinghamshire where “The Vicar of Dibley” was filmed.

What places would you include in an itinerary of Britain’s comic heritage?

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Immaculate as the lawns of the All England club may be, their continuing use as a surface for playing tennis is a matter of growing debate.

Clay court players have always hated the way the ball comes off grass so fast and low, and while ordinary mortals can get over a bad bounce and go on to lead normal lives, you sometimes wonder about the pro players.

They used to say about the great Argentine Guillermo Vilas that he played on grass like he’d been smoking it — and a whole host of of clay and all-weather court specialists have had real problems with the annual switch in the last week of June to the Wimbledon lawns.

Is it time for Wimbledon to stop holding out as the only Grand Slam event left on grass? Or is there room for a variety of surfaces in tennis?

Leader writers applauded the shock value of David Davis’ resignation but were divided over his motives and predicted the potentially shambolic by-election to come would damage the Conservative party.

With the LibDems already having said they will not field a candidate on July 10 and Labour still mulling the options, the papers raised the spectre of Davis campaigning alone against fringe parties like the Monster Raving Loonies and a motley crew of publicity-seekers.

“Yesterday he slashed his own party’s jugular instead of Gordon Brown,” said the Sun. “He will win praise from many voters glad to see a politician standing on a point of principle but in truth his vanity has led to an act of incredible selfishness.”

The Daily Mail also praised his principles but questioned his judgement. “At the very least it deprives the Conservatives of a recognised big hitter ..,” it said. “More worryingly Mr Davis leaves his party leader … exposed to accusations of internal division.”

Right on cue, the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror twisted the knife. Under the headline “Cracks in Cam’s Lot,” it praised Davis for his stand, but said he had thrown the spotlight on party leader David Cameron.

“His failure to show true leadership has left him with a thorn in his side that threatens to divide the Tories,” it crowed. “If Cameron can’t keep a grip on his party in opposition, how would he cope with the pressure of running the country.”

The Independent said Davis’ move “cannot be interpreted as anything other than an act of reckless egotism” which had indeed exposed divisions on the Conservative front bench about 42 days pre-charge detention. Like several other papers, it wondered whether Davis still harboured a grudge against Cameron for having beaten him in the party’s 2005 leadership election.

“The resignation is the first bit of luck Gordon Brown has had in many months,” it concludes.

The Financial Times said the forthcoming by-election “is more likely to be a damp squib than a national rallying point,” and added: “The Tories need fewer gimmicks and more gravitas.”

The Guardian said the Tories are “aghast” at Davis’ stand and echoed many papers’ suspicions that he had been carried away by the emotion of the moment after Wednesday night’s Commons vote in favour of 42 days.

“Everyone at Westminster yesterday thought his decision mad,” it added. “Mr Davis’ job now is to prove all of them wrong.”

The pro-Tory Daily Telegraph said the shock should act as a wake-up call to the Conservatives. “It is no secret at Westminster that the top of the party is run by a small clique of which Mr Davis was not a part,” it says, calling such cabalism unworthy of a government in waiting.

But for the Times, Davis has made a big mistake. Under the headline “From bruiser to Loser”, it said: “David Davis may hold sincere convictions but he has put them and his party at risk for the sake of a disastrous ego trip.”

Max Mosley has avoided getting the sack as head of motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, by what many observers thought was a wider than expected margin — 103 votes to 55.

But such is the level of unease amongst some nations about the lurid sex revelations involving him that talk of a split or a breakaway body is growing by the day.

His supporters say he has done much for Formula One in the 17 years he has been head of the FIA and that the News of the World, which carried the expose, was out to get him. His opponents believe the damage is too deep and that he should go for the sake of the sport.

What do you think?

Mayor Boris Johnson’s ban on drinking alcohol on the London underground starts on Sunday.The news hasn’t gone down well in some quarters and plenty of groups on Facebook have said they will be holding protest wakes.

Others believe the ban will have little effect on threatening behaviour on the tube anyway — most people who cause problems are drunk anyway and only a few are actually carrying cans with them, they say.

Do you believe the ban will make much difference?