These days they stock everyone who is anyone: Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Miu Miu, Dries van Noten, Moschino, Ghost and Gucci, as well as newer names like Saltwater and Asta Barrington. Wimbledon doesn't seem the most likely place to shop for next season's clothes. But Tom and Ruth Chapman have turned a little designer shop on the High Street into a serious business venture - with the emphasis, of course, on service THERE IS a certain aggravating temptation that businesses in Wimbledon find hard to resist: that of giving themselves a name that reflects the proud sporting heritage of London SW19. Hence Centre Court, Volleys, Racquets and the like. But despite appearances, Matches, run by Tom and Ruth Chapman, is different.

The name has nothing to do with games, sets and matches; nor indeed with co-ordinating 18 identical shades of beige. A month ago, in a review of Cruise and Lakesiders, I joked that there would soon be a docusoap about people who watch docusoaps, entitled Bored Viewers I repeat, this was intended as a joke. But, sadly, I had forgotten just how influential a journalist I am, and the following item appeared on the Noticeboard page of last week's Radio Times: "Are you a keen TV watcher? Do you think docusoaps are boring or the best things to hit our screens? ... If you have strong views about BBC programmes and would like to take part in a TV discussion, call Kelly ..." OK, it's not a docusoap about docusoap viewers, exactly, but it's certainly close enough to make you wonder what they'll come up with next. A documentary about a Sunday newspaper critic who wins the Lottery, or something .... While it may not be plain to see which album will win the prize, it is clear which albums won't. The obvious choices to take the trophy are Pulp, Massive Attack, Cornershop and - the bookies' faves - The Verve, but the obvious choices don't always win.

Last year, Radiohead's OK Computer had the least flaws, but the judges felt that drum and bass was due some recognition, and they chose Roni Size. A couple of years before that, Blur's Parklife was in the midst of changing the course of British music, but because the previous two Mercury Prizes had gone to white boys with guitars, the judges plumped for M People. With these thoughts in mind, I'd put my money on Eliza Carthy, the dance- folk 16-1 outsider, or John Surman, whose album is "a jazz musician's choral suite", according to the Mercury spokesman. Every year there are a couple of token albums on the shortlist that aren't rock or pop - a bit of jazz or classical or folk, by Courtney Pine or John Tavener or Eliza Carthy's mum, Norma Waterson - and every year they fail to win. It's got to the stage where you just assume they don't have a chance.