Ladies and gentleman, play is suspended

Ah, the joys of a Wimbledon rain delay. Satisfying most people's inner cynics, the spectacle of a rain-free first week of the tournament had been too good to be true, and so far the second half of the fortnight has seen a fairly average number of stoppages.

Thankfully, Sir Cliff Richard has only been seen just the once, and there has (as yet) been no cause for him to huff his ever-more emaciated frame out of his seat and serenade Centre Court during a particularly lengthy piss-down. With regards to the television coverage, as professional as the BBC consistently is and as regularly as these delays have occurred down the years, they always appear a little under-prepared. In this case, perhaps the gloriously sunny first week prompted an element of complacency, and the onset of showers caught them without their metaphorical brolly.

Today saw a classic example of some half-formed nattering accompanying some fairly one-dimensional footage. Clips of players having a knock-about on the training ground are not that uncommon, but once the player has been spotted and the viewing public have managed to work out who they're looking at (stripped of their Wimbledon whites, and now in an unfamiliar combo of more obviously sponsor-clad get-up) the interest is lost. But what's this? Can it be British wild-card, Chris Eaton, less than a week following his exit in the second round, having a knock-up with - cue deeply un-dramatic camera pan - dun dun duuunnh! Roger Federer! Back in the studio Sue Barker is all wry smiles. Perhaps, she offers, now they're best buds he'll offer to practise with him in the future. The sub-text was hard to miss: with this, perhaps the Fed Express' greatness will rub off and one day, like his new mentor, Eaton will dominate the All England's Club's courts for half a decade, once he's filled out a bit and set up a charitable foundation. Then, the pupil will have become the master. Well, really.

"You can learn so much from just being around great players, seeing how they behave and conduct themselves around the finals of a grand slam" one commentator said on a voice-over (!) of the training court footage. What, all that one-foot-in-front-of-another stuff, yeah? Good for Eaton, of course, and I'm sure he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but as a potential boost for his world ranking, I'd not get too excited.

Bring on the sunshine, thanks.