of the Wimbledon Championships.

The Wimbledon lovers were echoing the words of John McEnroe, "You cannot be serious?'' when they found out highlights on cable TV had been blacked out.

And when the highlights finally appeared on ZFB viewers were in a spin when commentary and interviews were in Spanish.

Viewers complained the hour-long highlights programme on the Home Box Office (HBO) channel was replaced by a test card saying ZFB had the rights in Bermuda to the action from England.

To make matters worse, HBO, which also screens the championships live, is one of the channels that viewers must pay around $6 extra to get.

But television station general manager Mr. Malcolm Fletcher defended the right to black out the highlights in favour of the half-hour ZFB programme at midnight.

And he suggested if viewers continue to complain it may lead to a total black-out of the live broadcasts.

The Royal Gazette has received a number of phone calls and letters over the past few nights from tennis fans.

Ms Sally Godet of Paget said: "I settled down to watch the Wimbledon highlights on Cablevision, HBO Channel 17. Instead I get a sorry message telling me that due to the fact ZFB have the rights for Wimbledon, I, who have paid extra for HBO, am not allowed to watch what I have already paid for.

"Instead I am advised that Wimbledon highlights will be on ZFB Channel 7 at midnight. What do I then see? Speeded up action, shots of about eight different matches, no commentary, just loud crowd noise and then an interview with an unknown player in Spanish.

"Well ZFB I'm sorry I haven't recently taken a crash course in that language and I no hablo mucho Espanol. I'm confused, I pay for what I don't get and get what I cannot understand!'' One caller said that the last five minutes of one of the ZFB programmes showed bull-fighting.

Mr. Fletcher said: "We have had a number of calls. We tell them that HBO should not be showing Wimbledon because we have the Bermuda rights.

"I am trying to be considerate to tennis lovers by showing the highlights. I have stopped the coverage of highlights because we show them later in the evening. We get them late and that is why we show them at midnight.

"We are not providing coverage in the daytime so I have not stopped the live coverage. But if people carry on complaining I would have to consider that.'' Mr. Fletcher said that it was common to black out programmes in other countries where television stations had bought the rights to a sporting event.

He said that the programme was distributed internationally and to South America. He pointed out that only Spanish-speaking players were interviewed in Spanish. He said those who could not speak Spanish would speak English.

Mr. Fletcher added that ZFB will be showing the two finals live -- the women's final on Saturday July 3 and the men's final Sunday July 4.

A Cablevision spokesman could not be reached for comment.