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For the past eight years, a first-round defeat for Alex Bogdanovic at Wimbledon has been as much a part of the summer season as Royal Ascot or Henley, yet when the All England Club announced their first batch of wild cards for this summers Championships, the highest ranked Briton after Andy Murray was not on the list. Bogdanovic, who is ranked 166 in the world, has had eight wild cards in the past, and every time he has been unable to make the second round. The only other man to have registered eight defeats from eight appearances at the grass-court slam is Patricio Cornejo, a Chilean who played in the 1960s and 1970s.Five of the eight wild cards for the main draw of the men´s tournament were announced on Monday. Jamie Baker, the British No 3, has been given one, as have Russians Teimuraz Gabashvili and Andrey Kuznetsov, Nicholas Kiefer, of Germany, and Japan´s Kei Nishikori. If Bogdanovic does not receive one of the remaining three, he will have to enter the qualifying competition if he is to make a ninth attempt at winning at Wimbledon. If Bogdanovic was also feeling a bit unloved at Queen´s, you could hardly blame him, as he did not receive a wild card into the pre-Wimbledon AEGON Championships.

To make the main draw, Bogdanovic had come through three rounds of the qualifying competition. His opponent, Grigor Dimitrov, meanwhile, was given a wild card. By taking the first set 6-4 against the Bulgarian teenager and a former junior Wimbledon champion, Bogdanovic had already performed better than the two British players who had been given a wild card at Queen´s, as Baker lost 6-1, 6-4 to Uzbekistan´s Denis Istomin and James Ward was beaten 6-3, 7-5 by Robby Ginepri, of the United States. Rain forced the suspension of play with the scores 6-4, 3-6 and with British No 2 Bogdanovic 2-1 ahead in the third set which had gone with service. If he loses that third set against Dimitrov, Murray will be the only British player left in the singles tournament.

Crystal Palace were granted a dramatic reprieve yesterday when an intense afternoon of negotiations ended with an agreement in principle for the sale of both the club and the Selhurst Park ground. Crystal Palace administrator Brendan Guilfoyle had set a deadline of 3pm on Tuesday for the resolution of the stand-off between CPFC 2010 – the prospective new owners – and Bank of Scotland, but was satisfied when both parties confirmed their agreement shortly after 4pm. Had there been no progress on Tuesday, the process of selling players and liquidating the club would have begun. As it is, CPFC 2010, who are fronted by local businessmen Steve Parish and Martin Long, were on Tuesday night finalising the detail of a deal with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who are the administrators for the stadium.

The main difficulty had surrounded the terms of a future sell-on clause for Selhurst Park with Bank of Scotland, who are the main creditors for the ground. CPFC 2010 have already reached agreement with the P&A Partnership – the club´s administrators – and must now hope that they can avoid administration through a Company Voluntary Arrangement. The takeover is dependent on concluding a deal both with the administrators for the club and the stadium. Throughout what has been a complex administration, we had remained hopeful that we could conclude a deal with a purchaser whose vision for the ground matched that of the community, the football club and its supporters, said Barry Gilbertson, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Earlier in the day, hundreds of fearful Palace fans had gathered outside the London headquarters of Lloyds Banking Group, the parent company for Bank of Scotland, and at Selhurst Park in protest at the apparent deadlock. Yet having warned on Monday that the club was facing the prospect of liquidation, CPFC 2010 emerged with optimism after Tuesday´s developments. While it is not 100 per cent done we are confident that all the main barriers have been removed," said a statement. Guilfoyle was forced to make 29 staff redundant on Friday and was unable to fund the monthly wage bill.

The river was not high, so there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.

The river was not high, so there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.

• The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
• the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
• "she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips. It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson Island
• beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he “looked his last” with a
• broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last
• too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the

current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two oclock in the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed their freight.

Presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl

The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her head right, and then lay on their oars.

The river was not high, so there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.

• The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
• the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
• "she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips. It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson Island
• beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he “looked his last” with a
• broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last
• too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the

current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two oclock in the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed their freight.

Part of the little raft belongings consisted of an old sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open air in good weather, as became outlaws.

1. They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
2. steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
3. bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn "pone"
4. stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
5. wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
6. island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
7. return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
8. its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
9. and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.

When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass, filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting camp-fire.

SATURDAY morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling, fighting, skylarking.

Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles. Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him than a man are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore them down and drove them out of his mind for the time

Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple Incs Worldwide Developers Conference to announce new features and products from the company.

The chief executive began by giving an update on the iPad. The tablet computing device sold 2 million units in the first two months since its debut and has 8,500 apps on Apples online store. So far, 35 million apps have been downloaded, he said, which breaks down to 17 apps per iPad.In an update on the iPads built-in book software, Jobs said the iBookstore platform had sold more than 5 million books in the first 65 days — or about 2.5 books per iPad.Further, Jobs said that for five of the six largest publishers, about 22% of e-book purchases are being sold through the iPads bookstore.In an addition to the iBook reading apps functionality, the app will allow users to do inline note-taking.Jobs also invited Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to the stage to announce a new, free Netflix application for the iPhone. Hastings said the Netflix app for iPad has been among the most popular apps in Apples App Store, and No. 1 in the entertainment category.

Its been a tremendous success for us, Hastings said. Its our fastest growing platform.The Netflix iPhone app will be available starting this summer. Marc Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, came to the stage to announce an iPad version of Farmville, which is played by 35 million people every day, largely on Facebook. Jobs said the company crossed 5 billion downloads. He followed that comment with what he called his favorite stat of the whole show, which is that Apple has paid out $1 billion to its app developers. We were thrilled about it, he said. Jobs announces the iPhone 4. Stop me if you have already seen this, he said, referring to the leak of the phone by Gizmodo. But believe me, you aint seen it. Its one of the most beautiful designs you have ever seen. Its beyond a doubt the most precise things and one of the most beautiful things we have ever made. Jobs shows photos of the phone, familiar from the leak. He calls it the thinnest smart phone on the planet, noting that the iPhone 4 is 24% thinner than its predecessor.

Journey, Young MC and Cyndi Lauper. The show grooves to the 80s while turning stereotypes on their head. Finally, the music of tail-end boomers is heard.
still till she asked who did the mischief; and then he would tell, and there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model catch it. Glees first season has included such musical blasts from the past as Aerosmiths Dream On, performed by series lead Matthew Morrison, left, and guest star Neil Patrick Harris. Glee allows this particular sliver of between-generations a nostalgia that is, for once, neither borrowed nor assigned.Foxs musical comedy hit Glee has revolutionized TV in many ways (including the fact that TV critics can now write the term musical comedy hit, and who thought that would ever happen?). But watching the recent Safety Dance episode, it all came together: Here is a show celebrating popular music and there isnt even a whiff of boomage.

Those of us who had the misfortune to be born in the first half of the 1960s are truly a lost generation. Not quite boomers, not quite Gen X, we came of age as the Carter White House succumbed to the Reagan years, when women rediscovered shoulder pads and men wore penny loafers with no socks, when everyone found the conceits of Bosom Buddies and Threes Company racy and hilarious. Our musical taste, as I remember it, was eclectic – yes, there was Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and Genesis, but there was also Duran Duran, the Go-Gos, Stray Cats, Wham and Men Without Hats.

The Lakers went away from their strength, 7-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, in the fourth quarter of Game 2 loss. They say they intend to go back to trying to exploit their size advantage in the low post Tuesday in Boston.
Reporting from Boston The Lakers were dominant down low, the Boston Celtics unable to stop Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, when good fortune smiled on the Celtics as a most unusual event took place, something called the start of the fourth quarter.

Gasol had one shot, Bynum had two over the final 12 minutes and the Celtics evened up the NBA Finals with a 103-94 victory in Game 2 on Sunday.

Gasol had 25 points in the game, only one in the fourth quarter, and Bynum had 21 in the game, four in the fourth quarter, part of the reason the Lakers headed to Boston in a deadlocked series that resumes Tuesday with Game 3 at certain-to-be-raucous TD Garden.Neither Garnett (six points) nor Paul Pierce (10 points) were problems for the Lakers in Game 2, though Pierce could be heard proclaiming, “Aint coming back to L.A.,” after helping up Kendrick Perkins near the baseline on a play late in the game.

The Lakers issues, more specifically, were Ray Allen hitting from the outside, which is never a shocker, and Rajon Rondo also shooting well from the perimeter, somewhat surprising for the 24-year-old who drives and rebounds as well as any guard in the league but isnt known for his steady shotThe Lakers are looking internally, however, at getting more touches for their big men.

Gasol made seven of 10 shots and Bynum made six of 10, but should Ron Artest really have taken 10 shots, especially since he made only one?

Our big guys played great, Bynum and Paul Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. We didnt get the ball often enough to them.

Both post players took the diplomatic approach, presumably because the series is so young.

Obviously, we can get more touches Bynum said. But thats still not going to help us beat this team because you cant beat them one on one.

Gasol, to his credit, said the work he and Bynum did down low was not wasted.

I think our effort was a positive thing, Gasol said. And its going to have to be even better, greater in Boston, because its going to be tougher to play there.

The Lakers were also dominant defensively in the paint.