The diary has noted before the lack of footballers at the Championships but Joey Barton came to the rescue yesterday by turning up on Centre Court – Barton's doing the English summer circuit, having been at Glastonbury last weekend.

The mooted match of the day, or rather the Mac of the day (ahem), does not look like taking place after all. Rory McIlroy, the hottest young sportsman in the world and a huge tennis fan (he has a court in his back garden), is due at Wimbledon today and there has been fevered speculation that he would have a knock-up with John McEnroe in a battle of Big Mac v Wee Mac, as the golfer is known. But as of last night the duo was not scheduled to clash, with representatives of the parties involved pouring cold water on the idea. It's not easy to get a court in SW19 in the last week of June.

Andy Roddick has become something of a Wimbledon fixture over the last decade and fans know exactly what they are going to get when they pay to watch the American No 8 seed.

Thirty years after his infamous outburst, the American tells Paul Newman that he knows why the British No 1 is letting off steam but that he's hurting himself by wasting priceless energy

There are still surprisingly many professional wordsmiths – journalists, novelists, playwrights, screenwriters – who do not know an Apple Mac from a whisky mac or a Pacamac. Some of them are friends of mine, bashing away on their faithful old Olivetti typewriters, or even operating with pens and paper, and frankly I don't know how they do it, but then I am no less of a technophobe when it comes to the Global Positioning System.

It's ironic that Super League should have adopted all its razzmatazz, with fireworks and booming pop songs and dancing girls, 20 years after 11,000 rugby league fans petitioned the BBC to remove Eddie Waring from the commentary box because they thought his showmanship denigrated the gritty northern game.

Scotland 9 Australia 8

Adebayor's apology was lost when he said, "I don't know what I've done to be banned"

With the Blur reunion up and running to rapturous acclaim, it would be perhaps appropriate if their US counterparts Pavement (left) – often cited as a major influence on Blur's post-Britpop reinvention – were to make a comeback too. The band split after their 1999 album, 'Terror Twilight', which was good but showed signs they were running out of steam. Since then, there have been rumours that they might reform – most recently, the band's guitarist Scott Kannberg sent out some smoke signals in January. But don't hold your breath; frontman Stephen Malkmus has struck out on his own, while bassist Mark Ibold has hooked up with Sonic Youth. Prior to that, Kannberg had his own band, Preston School of Industry, but now, at least, he's become somewhat nostalgic by reverting to his Pavement-era stage name, Spiral Stairs. Under the moniker, he will release a new album, 'The Real Feel', in October. The first taste of it is "Maltese Terrier", a jangly, jaunty slab of guitar alt-rock, complete with Sixties harmonies, banjo plucking and tinkling piano lines. Listen to it at tinyurl.com/lnjq2r.

Looking back, I'm pretty sure that John McEnroe wasn't entirely comfortable with my conversation. I'd always wanted to meet him – he's one of my childhood heroes. He was the anti-establishment, left-handed, tennis genius that I couldn't take my eyes off whenever he played. My dad would huff and puff about this fiery New Yorker's bad behaviour, but I couldn't get enough of it. Whenever I've been asked that hackneyed old question, "Name your dream guests at a dinner party", McEnroe has always been on my list. He's a man who says what he thinks and always appears to have a great sense of humour. So, here I was, in the opulent surroundings of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel, sitting chatting to him.

Tatum O'Neal, the Oscar-winning former child actress who wrote a best-selling memoir of her struggles with drink and drug addiction, has been arrested on suspicion of buying crack cocaine.

Oscar-winning actress Tatum O'Neal has been arrested after buying crack cocaine near her home in Manhattan, police said today.

It ranks as one of the most memorable – and imitated – moments in sporting history. Back in 1981, a young John McEnroe, sporting a headband and frizzy hair, was so furious at the Wimbledon umpire Edward James's refusal to rule his serve in that he uttered the immortal line "you cannot be serious" before subjecting, or perhaps treating, the centre court crowd to a tirade of ill-tempered invective.

Russell Brand On The Road BBC4; The End Of The World Cult, Channel 4