Skyline Drifter

I didn't really take anything much. I took a couple of filled rolls and a newspaper. Didn't need anything more. I was never in overnight and we live about a mile from the place so change of clothes etc was completely unnecessary.

They provided any amount of towels for us then. (For the benefit of GMan we're talking about bathroom towels here.)

Er, not all blokes, just the halfwits. I knew what you meant.

I don't think it would. It would only be a second time (not that that makes things ok!).

Del Potro takes the first set on a tie break despite having trailed 5-2 earlier in it.

Murray follows up his somewhat hard fought battling win over Bolelli with a more comfortable 7-5 6-1 win over Tommy Robredo. Decent win over a decent player in front of his home crowd. Now faces either Wawrinka or more likely Del Potro in the q-f's. Del Potro would be a real test on a surface the Argentine will much prefer to Murray. He'll do well to get beyond that tie.

There's more chance of Murray catching Federer imminently than Djokovic coming back at him. Murray is currently 1,180 behind Federer and 70 points ahead of Djokovic. At the end of this week Fed loses 700 pts for last year's Hamburg Masters. Murray loses 150 points and Djokovic loses 450 points for the same tourney. So before results this week in effect Federer will be 630 ahead of Murray who will himself then be 370 ahead of Djokovic. Then from Roland Garros Federer is defending 1,400 points, Murray 150 points and Djokovic 900 points. That means before the Madrid Masters and French Open points go on the effective actual totals are: Federer 8,070 Murray 8,690 Djokovic 7,570 Murray only needs to roughly match what they do over these two tourneys to move to No 2. ** Proviso - I haven't looked at the calendar of events to see if there's anything significant in between the two events this year that wasn't there last year.

As pollymac has pointed out, I'm out by 1,000 due to complete idiocy so ity's even more likely that Murray can close that gap right up and even pass Fed. If Murray can reach the last four at Roland Garros it would look almost certain and last eight would give him every chance. Federer has to outpoint Murray by 1,000 points or so between now and Wimbledon to remain in front going into it. He may well do so but it isn't a certainty. Much depends on which Murray on clay is the real one these days, the one who reached the semis in Monaco and even worried Nadal briefly, or the one who lost his first game in Rome despite being a set up.

Elementary arithmetic feck up by the poster who claims to be 'The Numbers man' Sorry!

I don't get the point of these delayed ranking drops. I know it's caused by the tournament calendar having moved slgihtly since they don't need to accommodate the Olympics and such like but I just don't see what's gained for anybody in the knowledge that last year's Rome Masters results will only come off next week and for a week the points from the same tournament in different years will both be included. It's madness. You have the ATP making a story out of the fact Murray will become No 3 next week when they drop off, why not just drop them off now? Anyway, looking at Reynard's point, Federer is 2,610 clear of Murray this morning. That gap will close by 180 points when the Rome Masters points come off for last year. So Federer will be 2,360 clear. Between now and Wimbledon Federer is defending 2,550 points. Murray is defending 300 points so in theory that gap is coming down to about 90 points prior to them playing tourneys between now and Wimbledon. If Murray can improve what he did in the interim he has a chance to keep Federer in touch into the hard court season. Roland Garros is particularly important obviously. Fed is defending 1,400 points as runner up last year whilst Murray went out in the last 32 to earn only 150 points. A lot of ground could be made up there. He needs to avoid clay court specialists early in draws on clay probably.

It's a free draw. He could be in either half regardless of his ranking. You obviously want to be in Federer's half at the moment though on grass I suspect he'd be too good for anyone other than Nadal anyway. It's relevant only as a measure as his progress and I think it would make him the highest ranked British male in the Open era. Henman and Rusedski both also made No 4 at points in their career but never higher. Although, as Stewarty has pointed out in the past, the points Murray has at the moment would have made him at least World No 2 a few years ago and World No 1 at the time Leyton Hewitt was there. He's a wee bit unlucky to be around at the same time as three such excellent opponents.

Just looking on the ATP site. I reckon Djokovic (9,520) will drop 1,450 points for Monte Carlo 08 and Rome 08 by 11th May but gain the points he won in Marseille in 09 into his 19 countable tourneys so that's just 90 points. Which puts him on 8,160 plus whatever he gets in this year's Rome Masters Murray (8,950) drops just 220 points for Monte Carlo 08 and Rome 08 and gains the 250 he won at Doha 09 back into his 19 tourneys which puts him on 8,980 before Rome. So Murray would have a 790 point lead before the pair of them count their results for Rome. The most Djokovic can get from the tourney is 1,000 points if he retains it so even if he does Murray would only need 220 points to surpass Djokovic. He'd need to make the semi final (360 points) to get that as the 180 for the quarters wouldn't do. If Djokovic loses the final then he's get 600 pts which simply isn't enough regardless of what Murray does so yes, I agree with you. If Djokovic doesn't WIN the Rome Masters Murray will take over as World No 3 on May 11th. If Djokovic DOES win it then Murray would still take over on that date if he reaches the semi final in Rome.

He may well do actually, the way Federer is collapsing. In fact both Djokovic and Murray may pass Federer before long. However, so much depends on the majors and I still think Federer will peak in the majors the same way he did in the last US Open. We shall see....................

Djokovic beat Wawrinka in three sets to make the final which confirms that the only way Murray can displace him at No 3 in the world after this tournament is to win it. On which subject Murray trails Nadal by 4-1 first set already. His only game did come from breaking the Spaniards serve though so all is not quite lost yet. Never the less he'll do well to hold Nadal for long on clay.

Last year's Australian Open is long gone from the rankings. Points from that were dropped over two months ago. He's three in the world completely nothing to do with last year's Aussie Open.

Yeah, seems to have stumbled through the match really, losing the opening five games yesterday and the opening three today. Did ok once he found his rythmn though. On both days Fognini only won one more game after his initial burst. Still, a win's a win and in Berdych and Cilic, Fognini had already knocked out two decent players. Either Nalbandian or Davydenko next, both of whom have very good records against Murray and both of whom have better clay court reputations. He'll do very well to get past whichever one of them he plays although the Russian is only just coming back from injury and the Argentinian has been in rotten form this season so far. Not so good news on the other side of the draw where Federer's surprise loss appears to open up the draw somewhat for Djokovic to make the final (though Verdasco is no mug). I'd be surprised if the Serb doesn't actually end up increasing his lead in the rankings after this tourney, either by making the final himself or Murray coming unstuck next round.

Murray doesn't actually have to "finish higher" (I presume you mean "get further") to overtake Djokovic. He trails him by 170 points at the moment with the Serb carrying 450 points from this tournament last year and Murray 150 points (though they don't actually come off until April 27th). Doing the same as Djokovic here will definitely move Murray ahead (in a fortnight). In fact, potentially he'd even go ahead doing a round less than Djokovic if he lost a last 16 match and Novak lost a Q-F.

Jesus you're tiresome. Can I take this opportunity to remind you of the IGNORE function. Go on, save us both the hassle.

Pedant alert. It's midnight BST. It's 11pm GMT but we're not on GMT since last weekend.

Like I said, I didn't follow what you were talking about. I never went to a GP surgery appointment. Wife went to those herself and may well have had a listen to heartbeats more than once. I went to the frequent scan and consultant appointments at the maternity ward and we only got it once there. And I didn't say "listen", I said "check". They appeared to be checking the heartbeat during the scan using pictures on a couple of occasions but that might just be me not understanding what they were doing.

Can they not be checked by the midwife / consultant without us actually hearing it on a speaker though? I can assure you in the whole pregnancy we got to hear the heartbeat once at any hospital appointment. I think possibly the wife got monitored with sound at the midwife surgery appointments in between but I didn't attend those.

We only heard the heartbeat (as opposed to seeing it on screen) once before we actually went in for the birth. There was one scan they put Maureen on a monitor with the straps and listened to it for about half an hour to check for anything irregular. It was well late on though. Might have been the 30 week scan or something like that?

Yes, I went to all of them although as they were at 7pm for us it wasn't a hardship time-wise and I didn't need time away from work (though I'd probably have gone even if I had). I thought they were a bit disappointing in many ways to be honest. I expected all this breathing and floor exercises nonsense that you see on telly but we got none of that. Just talked to and asked some questions. I did feel somewhat inadequate in that I seemed to have less idea than anyone else in the room about the answers to most of the questions. It's also the case that it's taken by a midwife who, not surprisingly is trained in midwifery, not teaching. They aren't natural teachers and it shows (or at least did with us). I don't think we got nearly as much out of it as I expected to do (and much of what we did get was blackmail about breastfeeding over bottle feeding) but I certainly wouldn't say it was a waste of time. I picked up bits and pieces I didn't know and the half hour we spent one week on first aid for babies and what to do if they stop breathing or start choking could be the best half hour I ever spend in my entire life if the worst happens. I wouldn't have had a clue before (I also turned out to be surprisingly good at it!). The tour of the facilities at the hospital was also very helpful for us as first time parents. Let us know what to expect.

Surefix base unit purchased and successfully installed in her car with a demo given to her on how to work it. Much easier to fit in now. Sorted until he's too big for the current seat at least! Hell knows what we do after that, I'll worry about it in a few months. As an added bonus it turns out I won the office bonus ball at the weekend, £90, which paid for it with some change for cakes for everyone here. All is well.

Yeah, I was looking for some confirmation that it did the job independently before ordering on the web but I've now managed to find a local shop who have it. And at £60 it's a tenner cheaper than it is online from M&P anyway! I'm going round to get it just shortly. Good to know it works though.