The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 18

18 Sport THE OBSERVER. 23 JUNE Who will win the Tour this year? Have the British team a chance? Will drugs be an important factor? THIS WEEK the French will have the chance to find out whether everything really stops for the Tour, even civil disturbances. At dusk on Thursday evening, the spa town of Vittel to the 60uth-east of Paris, 120-130 professional cyclists will take part in a four-mile lime trial. And the man who tears fastest along the dotted line of camping lanterns that illuminates the course will wear the first yellow jersey of the fitty-fifth Tour dc France when it, sets out for Luxemburg next morning. RpUBA'IX 1 IX' A FOREST fTJSy GERMANY FULL STAGE HALF STAGE REST DAY START OF NEXT STAGE 6 TIME TRIALS jMffl JULY 2T PARIS VVfJUI-Y 3 lii JULY 4.iiO SjULY21 T.

BAGNOLES HTTSfcS-JUkjS. JULY 5 DE L'ORNE HIJjJFO- SaSflC Ut LWNE AIIVFPPtfLY 20 VI aT .1 -W a ROWING No battle; royal between eights by DONALD LEGGET THERE ARE as many as 21 universities competing in the first British Universities Rowing Charrrj pionships on the Pangbourne stretch next Wednesday. But there will not be, as hoped originally1, battle royal between Oxford, Cambridge and London in the championship eights, since both BlufS boats have preferred to split down into smaller boats. The size of the entry is most encouraging, even if the overall standard is not excepuonal. The 1969 Boat Race may be far away yet in Lime but not in preparation.

Peter Saltmarsh, the Oxford president-elect, has secured the services of Derek Drury to coach the Oxford squad in conjunction with this year's coaches Ranny Howard and Jumbo Edwards. The switch It is possible that Drury will coach both the beginning and final stages of training since his commitments as a housemaster at Shiplake College prevent him from coaching full time during the term. To Cambridge supporters this may come as a tremendous shock. Drury, who coached Cambridge and planned their schedule this year was to a largi degree responsible for their ultimate victory. They should not.

however, forget that he is an Oxford graduate, and reached the distinction of rowing in the New College second eight. The switch to coaching Oxford ha no taint of disagreement or argument with Cambridge rather the reverse, as Drury has been asked by the Cambridge president for advice on the Cambridge schedule for 1969. No doubt he will give this readily. The old-fashioned barrier which used to exist, and still even sometimes con tinues to exist, between Oxford and Cambridge Blues means nothing to him. KSaROYAN ST ETIENNE Zml Vr 7 AURILLACyrSfl BORDEAUX JT GRENOBLE JULY 16 tlWAWlULt BAYONNES SPAIN SEP rrom there the race will enter Belgium, then begin us three weeks' encirclement of France before finishing in Paris on 21 July.

It will be interesting to see whether it does more to bring people together in 1 a common interest or irritate them as a noisy, irrelevant carnival. Geoffrey Nicholson, who will be reporting the Tour, looks back on the 1967 Tour and ahead to some of this year's expected features Last year's Tour was the first I had seen from start to finish It had its longueurs, admittedly. Flat, interminable stages when no one made an aggressive move, and you rolled along in the press car. numbed by the daa-de-da-dc-da of the call sign which was all that came over Radio Tour. The frustration of telephoning London from the Pyrenees, where the reception was of such primitive quality that you expected to hear Alexander Graham Bell say 'Watson, come here, I want at the other end.

Carrying your case of dirty laundry to a new hotel each day, like a tramp refusing to be parted from his carrier bag of old newspapers. But there were enough enlivening moments to justify even the hyperbole that the French journalists use to describe the Tour. One was crossing the 8.400-f( Alpine pass of the Gabbier. It had been reopened to traffic after the winter seize-up only a fortnight before. Yet now there were tens of thousands of people lining the zig-zag route, like colonies of seabirds on a cliff.

This, more than the 150 million television audience, was the measure of European loyalty to the race. The spectators had passed the waiting time by writing the names of their heroes in the snow, using stones and flowers to spell out the letters. Cour- DURATION Twenty-four days, but no racing on the second and third Saturdays. DISTANCE 2,885 miles, split up into 22 daily stages averaging 131 miles. Greatest distance covered in a day is 195 miles from Rouen to Dinard on stage 5 but this is divided into two half-stages with a lunch break at Bagnoles de POrnc.

Stage 20, Sallanches-Besancon, is the longest unbroken ride 151 miles. Shortest is stage 3, Forest-Roubaix, 69 miles. may give them the confidence to try for other prizes. The rest are an unknown quality at this distance, with Porter in the best position to surprise us. In Amsterdam last autumn, he won a silver medal in the world professional pursuit And the 6.590-km time trial at Vittel next Thursday is only a little outside the pursuit distance of 5 km.

If Porter could win that, he would become the second Englishman to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour. Bob Addv (Hoidsworih). John Clarcy (Clive Stuart Oth Derek Green (Mackeson). Derek Harrison (Fnmatic-dc Gribaldj), Byry Hoban (Mcrcxr-BP). Colin tewu (Mackewn).

Arthur Metcalfe (Carlton-BMB) Hush Porter (Mackcson). Michael Wnzhl (BIO. Peter Hill 'Bob Jackson Odes). Vtn Denson (Kelvinator. Italy) DRUGS The Tour has promised daily drug tests on the first three riders to complete the stage, and on three others to be drawn by lot.

Yet though the Tour's position is now quite clear (and about time too), the riders' attitude is still ambiguous. The same system applied in the Giro d'ltaha; and Gimondi insisted that the Tour de France adopt it before he would consider entering the race. The Tour agreed, and most riders declared their support. But last weekend, the Giro tardily announced the results of its tests. And among the riders whose analyses proved positive was, of all people, Gimondi himself.

Others included Motta and Balmamion, the next most important Italian riders; Delisle, chosen for the France team; and a leading Spaniard, Diaz. What makes the whole thing even more curious is that Gimondi is alleged to have taken the amphetamine on the final stage of the Giro, when he had no need at all to make a special effort. To make dope control work, the chemists must not only detect stimulants in the urine sample, but identify them. Otherwise the rider can take legal action for wrongful suspension from the race. There are already rumours of drugs that defy analysis.

The control staff must also be sure it is the rider's sample that they are analysing. Anquetil tells of a report which ran The analysis was negative, but we must warn you that you are A clean race would still almost certainly put the same men in the lead it's calculated that only a 5 per cent advantage is gained from stimulants. But at least it would put the great majority of riders on something like equal terms. WULVjrA ajraSfi) JULY 15 the race to win it. Four of them Wright, Hoban, Denson and Harrison will be there because they earn their living in Continental cycling.

The Tour is a professional trade and any success they earn in it provides a bargaining point for their agents. The other six part-time professionals who compete weekends in England will be at Vittel for a variety of reasons. Mainly because they feel they owe it to the other four, who need to be part of a national team before they can enter. In a few cases because they have their own ambitions to set up on the Continent. Otherwise, for the honour and the experience, though hardly for the money.

Winnings are shared out with an extra cut for those who do the winning. And on last year's figures, a month's earnings for a supporting rider who finishes the Tour would be not much more than 120. Then, of course, they were ridins to help Tom Simpson. This time they won't have a leader with a position to support and as freebooters they GAUDENS JULY 10 JULY VlJ DE URGEL two British-based riders, Arthur Metcalfe and Colin Lewis, who had never expected to reach the finish at the Pare de5 Princes; the industry of journalists who regularly filled a page this size W'ith the account of a single day's racing. But the most persistent memory is of Tom Simpson's death on Mont Ventoux.

We heard of his collapse at the finish at Carpcntras. But the final news came only in the press room which, with a disagreeable aptness, happened to be in a school chapel after a lengthy formal announcement which kept the essential fact to last. There wasn't much comfort to be drawn from any of the surrounding circumstances except the reaction of the other riders next day when they spontaneously neutralised the race so that an Englishman, Barry Hoban, could ride ahead and take the stage. However gaudy and commercialised the race may be, it always keeps some genuine dignity intact. FAVOURITES This at last should be Raymond Poulidor's year, but then, people have been saying that for so long.

Twice ninner-up, twice third in the Tour, he lost his opportunity last year with a disastrous ride on the Ballon d'Alsace, and after that rode wholeheartedly in support of his team-mate, Roger Pingeon, the eventual winner. The roadside posters celebrated Pou-Pou, the faithful colleague. Poulidor is 32, and this may be his last chance a year of grace between the retirement of Jacques Anquetil and the Tour debut of the Belgian prodigy, Eddy Merckx. The French love Poulidor as they rather grudgingly admired Anquetil; his devotion to his wife and family, his simple (in TEAMS Twelve or thirteen national teams, each of 10 men France (3 teams), Belgium (2), Spain (2). Italy 1 or 2), Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Switzerland-Luxembourg.

PRIZES (approximate value) Overall winner, the maillot jaune, 2,000. Points winner, the maillot vert, for consistently high stage places regardless of time, 1,000. Grand Prix de la Montagne, for the best climber, 500, plus awards for each mountain prime. Team competition, 2.000. Daily stage, spot prime, consolation and novelty prizes.

profit will be financed by the Levy Board so that they can continde. If the turnover goes up, the profitability goes up, and up goes the levy. The future of British racing is brighter than it has been for a long time. It cannot and will not be held back by a small number of bookmakers, who may consider themselves leaders in name but who do not really represent the main body of their profession. It is natural that these gentlemen should protest at anything Lord Wigg is doing which may cost them money.

But what Lord Wigg is doing for them, and to them, is perfectly fair and guarantees them staying in business. How they are regarded in future, and how long they will last, will depend almost entirely on the way they handle the 1969 levy. For this is the turning point in British racing. Everything which has happened since the Derby has redounded to the credit of Sir Ivor. Perhaps the two most significant results were the easy Ascot victories of Connaught and Petingo, both of whom were slammed by him.

Connaught's victory in the King Edward VII Stakes was most spectacular, and unless one had seem it happen on Derby day, one would have doubted the ability of any three-year-old to beat Connaught, let alone fall of a The first open Wimbledon This is the turning-point in British racing age Pou-Pou. Allez Pingcon. Forza Gimondi. But instead of Poulidor, Pingeon or Gimondi, it was the little Spaniard, Julio Jimenez balding, rather wizened, not at all a healthy sight who came up towards the summit first, pressing lightly on the pedals, using them like steps. The descent on the other side had its own stark quality, too, as we swung down the hairpins, trying to keep ahead of Jimenez and his pursuers who left the mountain at 70 miles an hour.

We were nearly at the finish in Briancon before the palms of my hands were dry enough to hold a pen and make some notes. Then there was the Amiens-Rou-baix stage through the brutal scenery of north-east France, its war cemeteries, market gardens and endlessly marching pylons. And in particular one stretch of uneven, rutted pave known, after one of the French classic races, as the Hell of the North. Forks were broken, tyres punctured and riders competed with the service cars for possession of the road. Here a special kind of lowland fortitude was needed.

Other impressions: the airless oven temperatures of Provence, an area the Tour will give a miss to this year the perpetual accordion music of the publicity caravan the daily growing self-assurance of the Facts and Figures FRONTIERS CROSSED Luxembourg, Belgium, Andorra, Spain. MOUNTAINS CLIMBED No Ventoux, Puy de Dome or Galibier this year, but still some stiff climbing in the Pyrenees and Massif Central. TIME TRIALS There are three. Individual time trial, just over 4 miles, on eve of departure from Vittel. Team time trial, 91 miles, at Forest before short stage 3.

To complete Tour, 33-mile individual time trial from Melun to Paris. you appoint men to do a job, and treat them as responsible persons, they must carry out their job according to the book. Section 28, paragraph 2, of the Act says that if a bookmaker fails to make a declaration, the Levy Board will send his case to the bookmakers" committee. This committee had the power to put him in a lower category when the levy was applied to profits. It was a convenient get out.

Under a turnover levy, the escape clause does not help. Perhaps this is as well, for although the bookmakers can appeal against the amount of levy they pay, the levy cannot appeal to anyone. The bookmakers have not publicised the efforts of Lord Wigg and his board to promote their business and increase their turnover. The eighth levy was devised before the imposition of the 5 per cent betting tax. which is expected to reduce turnover by 15 per cent.

So the first 15 per cent of increased business will bring them back only to pre-Budget days. Lord Wigg naturally will now do everything in his power to bring extra business to the bookmakers. In 1969, for instance, there will be two meetings every day. These meetings wHl start at different times so that the races will be staggered. Meetings which cannot be run at a Rise and THE RESULTS at Royal Ascot often have the arbitrary, fictitious quality of those snatches of news bulletin incorporated in some plays and films to indicate authenticity.

Even people who have viewed the reality of pulverised favourites in horrifying close-up on the course sometimes have difficulty in believing the names that appear next morning in the lists of winners, with outrageous mathematical symbols (28-1, 100-6) attached to them. The meeting attracts many of the best horses in Europe but occasionally it seems that certain animals exist only in order to cause sickening shocks at Ascot. They intrude fleet-ingly on the collective consciousness of the betting public, like obscene insults shouted from a passing train, then recede instantly into dignified obscurity. F6r people who like to see pretty women in expensive clothes or magnificent racehorses in a verdant setting, Royal Ascot is one of the great meetings of the world. But for those whose first concern is the pursuit of winners, it is like playing Russian Roulette with one chamber empty.

Normally I consider myself to be in the first category (an observer of the aesthetics) but now and then the long subdued mania reasserts itself and Gaylord Mcllvanney takes over (' The deed o' mah plantation against yuh daughter's hand'). More specifically, I develop an irresistible conviction that I can hasten a Tote monopoly by putting Mr William Hill and a few of his fellows out of the game. This week I decided that the trick was to make a coldly professional start, to stay away from the dazzling BESAN.CONi fjSWITZEfllAND JUL. I 13 til ITALY may be able to pull in more prizes. Wright looks like being the highest earner.

Brought up in Belgium, he has developed a phenomenal sprint in the crowdec finishes of Low Country racing. He won a Tour stage in 1965, and another last year. This season he seems stronger than ever. He briefly wore the yellow jersey in the Tour of Spain after winning the second and fourth stages, and last week finished sixth in the Tour of Luxembourg. Hoban, too, has the power to stay with a decisive break if he also has the luck to spot it, though perhaps not the sprint to finish first.

And Denson is a conceivable stage winner. He has two things working in his favour. One is his general amiability he is liked by the other riders. The second is that he is not afraid to break alone. If he got away on a stage where nothing much was in the balance, the leaders might not exert themselves too much to catch him.

Of the others in the team, Metcalfe anc Lewis now know that they are capable of finishincr the Tour, which Yorkshire's Roger fessionals in his group can now reproduce the right frame of mind for best-of-fiye-sets singles on Wimbledon's fast' grass courts is an intriguing thought'. In draw order the 16 official favourites with their seeded positions (and their most likely opponents in the first three rounds) are: (I) Laver: Gene Scott (US), Stan Smith (US), Marty Reissen (US). (16) Pilic: Herb Fitzgibbon (US), Mark Cox (GB), Alan Fox (US). (8) Pancho Gonzales Ram Krish-nan (India), Robert Maud (South Africa), Alex Metreveli (USSR). (9) Dennis Ralston lohn Brown (Australia), Cliff Richey (US), Jan Lcscliley (Denmark).

(4) Newcombe Owen Davidson (Australia), Frew McMillan (South Africa), Keith Wooldridge (GB). (13) Ashe Eduardo Zuleta (Ecuador), Prenjit Lall (India), Warren Jacques (Australia). (5) Emerson Roy Holmberg (US1, Richard Russell (Jamaica), Ken Fletcher (Australia). (12) Okker: Peter Curtis (GB), Mike Sangster (GB), Pierre Barthes (France). (II) Fred Stolle Australia) Jean Barclay (France), Gerald Battrick (GB).

(6j Santana Harald P'otz (Germany), Serge Likhchev (USSR), Clark Graebner (US). (14) Drysdale Bobby Wilson (GB), Nicola Pictrangeli (Italy), Ion Nastase (Romania). (3) Andres GImeno (Spain) Istvan Gulyas (Hungary), Bill Bowrey (Australia), Ray Moore (South Africa). (10) Earl Buchholz (US): Alan Stone (Australia), Bob Carmichael (Australia), Tomas Lejus (USSR). (7) Hoad Jailip Mukerjee (India), fact downright boring) tastes, his hard, peasant upbringing and his generous riding have all endeared him to the public.

If Poulidor showed any likelihood of winning, Pingeon would probably repay his debt by working for him; they have, as another French rider put it, serious But if Poulidor faltered, Pingeon would no doubt try to repeat last year's win. With Felice Gimondi, 1965 winner, a doubtful starter, the other rider on the short list of favourites is Jan Janssen, a 28-year-old Dutchman who has won the points competition, the maillot vert, three times in the Tour. He is a highly intelligent rider from his appearance you might take him for a successful young publisher and this year's rather less-mountainous course may suit him. It will certainly not improve the prospects of the Spaniard, Jimenez, who was second overall last year. THE BRITISH TEAM The Great Britain riders don't deceive themselves that they are in mil beat him like an express train.

Sir Ivor returns to action at the Curragh on Saturday, when the Irish Sweeps Derby is a mere formality for him. Ribero is second favourite in the betting and Connaught beat him by 12 lengths last week. Ribero obviously will improve on this performance, for it was his first race after a setback. The race will not be quite such a formality for Liam Ward, Vincent O'Brien's stable jockey, who will be riding Sir Ivor, whose last four races have been out of Ireland and with Lester Piggott in the saddle. In Ireland, Ward holds the stable retainer, and for once Xester Piggott will be watching from the rear as Sir Ivor strolls past the winning post.

Gaylord enough to provide a bookmaker on the 1.5S from Waterloo, thus enabling me to bet Paddy Prender-gast's World Cup which was winning at about the time we were passing through Staines. As it happened, the only people on the train who were interested in gambling wanted to play cards and they bore a disconcerting resemblance to W. C. Fields. The news in the Press stand was that Prendergast's competitor in the second race, Grizel, was a flyer but had been coughing.

She did rather well for an invalid but I had listened loo closely to the diagnosis and my own condition was rapidly becoming critical. My spirits were raised on the way back to London by the company of an elderly cockney who produced a pork chop from his jacket pocket and, with the help of a penknife, made a hearty meal of it. He was obviously a man of resource and it was a pity he was not around next day to help us to absorb the shock of seeing the greatest of all jockeys exhibit a stunning eccentricity in the Gold Cup. For most of the race Piggott had Samos III so far behind the leaders that he might have been waiting for a cab. Samos III finished a confident second, as did Burelar and So Blessed, who represented the last despairing nope or recovery on the Friday.

As slaughters go, it was a collector's item. Soccer draws bigger crowds Football league attendances for the 1967-68 season topped 30 million: Total attendance was 30,10738 compared with 28,902,596 in the previous season, an increase of 1,204,702. Attendance at Football League Cup matches was nearly 300,000 up on the previous vear at 1 ,671 ,326 for 110 matches against 1,394,553 for 118 games. LACEY eyebrows raised. Court, the former Margaret Smith of Australia, is seeded second to meet Mrs King in the final, and she too has a testing first match against Mrs du Plooy better known as South Africa's Annette Van Zyl.

Good draw Virginia Wade has a well graded draw that should allow her to reach peak form for the second week. Patti Hogan of America, Australia's Kerry Melville and Francoise Durr of France are all worthy opponents who will have to be beaten in her section of the draw. They are within Miss Wade's capacity but close enough to her to sharpen her game and tighten her control. The seeding has led to a prospective clash between Mrs Jones and Miss Wade in the last eight With both players at peak form it is unfortunate that only one will survive should they both reach the quarter-finals. Yet in this case Britain would be certain of a place in the senii-hnul.

Mrs King is in the same side of the draw. But before the semi-final, the title-holder would first have to play through the fourth round where her most likely opponent is Christine Janes. Nancy Richey of America, the holder of the French title, Brazil's queenly Maria Bueno, and Judy Tegart and Mrs Lesley Turner Bowrey of Australia are also seeded. I have left the prospects of Mrs Court until last. The former Margaret Smith won the singles in 1963 and 1965 and has returned to Wimbledon with her husband following a year's rest from the game.

Once again full of zest, the athletic Mrs Court appears to me to have the power, determination and settled state of mind that can go a long way to make her comeback successful. by TONY MOTTRAM THE strongest array of players ever to enter a tennis tournament has assembled for the eighty-second Wimbledon championships which open at the All England club tomorrow. With the notable exceptions of Sweden's Jan Erik Lundquist and Wilhelm Bungert of Germany, who was the runner-up to lohn Newcombe in last year's singles final, the world's leading players have been attracted by the glamour, excitement and prestige that surrounds this first open Wimbledon. There is, I suspect, profound relief in this country that the LTA's rebellion against the International Lawn Tennis Federation should have achieved the spectacular climax that is about to burst into being. The risks that attended the daring move are melting away.

Nothing will do more to dispel any criticism that remains than the success of the world's leading tennis championship. Only once previously, in 1950 before the top echelon began to peel off into professional play have 16 players been seeded in the men's singles draw of 128. The strength of the professional injection is clearly shown by their selection to fill all but three of these seeding positions. Manuel Santana of Spain at No. 6, Holland's Tom Okker at 12, and the coloured American Arthur Ashe at 13 are the only amateurs- Six Wimbledon singles champions are competing, Santana (1966), America's Alex Olmedo (1959) and the Australians Lew Hoad (195657), Rod Laver (196162), Roy Emerson (196465) and Newcombe.

But although the professionals seem likely to dominate the final stages, the overall standard of the entry has never been higher and not all the professionals have been seeded. No surprise Frank Sedgman, who should have been oompejing in Stofle's section, has had to withdraw because of his arm trouble. He would have made the total seven former champions. Roger Taylor's omission from the seedings raised a few eyebrows but even though the Yorkshire left-hander was a singles semi-finalist last year he has done little since- then. The claims for the 16th place of Yugoslavia's Nikki Piljc who was also a semi-finalist were clearly superior.

Taylor and Pilic, along with Newcombe and South Africa's Cliff Drys-dale, are four of the handsome eight professionals who will be watched with interest. Most of their tennis since last Wimbledon has been played under a contrived scoring system, somewhat along table tennis lines in which money was won or lost with each point played. This must inevitably lead to inhibited play and I hope we never see it at Wimbledon. Orthodox scoring with its recurring crises and demands for an astute assessment of the relative value of points is the essence of the game's attraction for most people and certainly the acid test of temperament and flair. Whether Taylor and the fellow pro- SO BOOKMAKERS have had their worst Ascot for 40 years.

Not a tear will be shed on their behalf. Their old public image of Honest Joe is fast changing to an image of cunning Joe, grasping How has this come about Nothing has done the profession more harm, or lowered it in public esteem, than the attitude of the bookmakers' leaders to the proposed eighth levy, which starts next April. Lord Wigg's aim is to put British racing on its feet, once and for all, with a revoluUonary increase in prize money. That is what the eighth levy wiJl do, and do in 1969. No long term promises.

So the many complaints about the low prize-money at Ascot last week will disappear. Those complaints were completely justified if the meeting is to maintain its importance. Because Lord Wigg has harnessed the levy to turnover, which is inescapable, instead of profits, which re problematical, the bookmakers are in opposition. Yet they offered the turnover scheme themselves in the first place. The bookmakers were treated as responsible people and three of them were asked to serve on the Levy Board.

Yet as soon as these men heard the eighth levy scheme, they took counsel's opinion and said that, under the Act, Lord Wigg was acting illegally and could not enforce the levy. They tried to make a nonsense of the law, and told their members not to fill in the levy forms-when they arrived. They used the smokescreen of illegality to make their case. It is like a magistrate's court saying they do not believe in the 70 m.p.h. speed limit, imposed by the Government, and will not convict anyone who is caught exceeding it.

Once the levy is based on turnover, it is no longer a matter of opinion. The Levy Board must carry out the instruction. Loophole In saying that Lord Wigg's action Is ultra vires, the bookmakers are begging the question. If, through hasty preparation or an oversight in drawing it up, the bookmakers can find a way around the law, then the Home Secretary wrll have the law altered so that it is enforceable as intended. Lord Wigg and his advisers are confident that no court can declare his action ultra vires.

Not that it makes any difference, one way or the other, because Lord Wigg will win in the end. He has right on his side. Bookmakers are being petty, and they know it. To tell members not to fill in levy forms is irresponsible. If BEST GUESSES NEWBURY Thursday 3.0 Philoctetes NEWCASTLE Thursday 4.0 Silver Guinea KEMPTON Friday 8.0 Privy Seal NEWCASTLE Saturday 3.40 Boismoss HUGH MclLVANNEY finds Royal Ascot is not for the egotistical punter.

Taylor not in the seedings, Bob Lutz (US), Bob Hewitt (South Africa). (15) Tony Roche (Australia) Ray Keldie (Australia), Mike Davies (GB), Ray Ruffels (Australia). (2) Ken Rosewall (Australia) Abe Segal (South Africa), Charlie Pasarell (US), Taylor (GB). It will be seen that Laver and Rose-wall, who are seeded to reach the final, both have testing opponents early on. Laver's liking for the speed of grass and the class of his serve-and-volley game make him a clear favourite to win the title.

Rosewall, who lacks service power but has a superb return of the service, has twice defeated Laver on hard courts this year in open championship finals at Bournemouth and in Paris. On such a fast surface as Wimbledon, however, he may be much harder pressed to r'each the final than Laver. Key factor In such strong company, fitness to survive the mauling five set matches is likely to be a key factor. The 40-year-old Gonzales looks vulnerable on this count. Hoad has been in retirement for three years after a troublesome back complaint, and Pilic, Ralston, Newcombe, Drysdale, Buchholz, Roche and Taylor are all short of the five-set-match preparation that is considered so necessary for success at Wimbledon.

Britain has a better chance of winning the title in the women's singles in which Ann Jones and Virginia Wade have both been seeded. Last year Mrs Jones reached the final where the leading American Billie Jean King defeated her to win the title for the second year running. Ann Jones meets last year's semi-finalist Kathy Harter and Mrs King, who has yet to find her best form this year, plavs the US Wightman Cup player Peaches Bartkowicz. Mr distractions of the course on the first day, get down to some hard analysis and let Peter O'Sullevan, Clive Graham and the BBC camera crew inform me of the damage I had done to the bookmakers. So I settled in an armchair at the Wig and Pen Club, six feet in front of the television set and hard by one of those mysterious tape machines that spew out details of betting as well as the results.

As the disastrous tidings accumulated in serpentine coils on the carpet I began to feel like a Wall Street broker in 1929. Fortunately the windows were not high enough to be a serious temptation. Typical of the disturbing images on the screen was the sight of Hurry Hurry coming round that last right-hand bend in the Queen's Vase with his head twisted sideways as if he were searching for a friend in the crowd. He must have had precious few when the race was over. My expert friends at the front reported subsequently that Hurry Hurry was too big and strong for young Sandy Barclay.

1 He needed a more mature jockey, a Piggott or a I was told. From where I was sitting it appeared that it would have taken a tow-rope and a mechanical winch to combat such reluctance. At any rate, Petingo proved more co-operative in the last and enough was salvaged from the wreck to permit a visit to Ascot on Wednesday. It might have been a successful one had British Rail been considerate.