Anyone for tennis?

Tuesday July 28


The last stop on my UK tour was to Wimbledon and the home of the most famous tennis tournament in the world, or as the locals call it, “the Championship”.


I got quite a buzz walking into the place which, despite the event concluding three weeks ago, was still humming with people.

After a minor miscommunication and transfer of a few meetings, I first took the stadium tour, which was really interesting.

There are four tours a day, leaving on the hour from 11.00am until 2.00pm, each going for 90 minutes. There were 47 people on our tour, which I think was slightly too many.

The tour guides used at Wimbledon are professionals as part of the Visit Britain program. They don’t wear a uniform, just a pin identifying them as a pro, but she gave a very polished performance. There was also a security guard along for the tour as well, just to stop us running amok, no doubt.

It was interesting being at a venue that had more than half a million people in it three weeks ago from all over the world, but now goes quiet until the big event rolls around next year. So much effort for just two weeks.

The tour went to all the places it should have, including Show Court 1, Henman Hill, outside courts, media facilities (huge), players’ restaurant and, finally, Centre Court and its new roof.

Unfortunately, due to the time of year, a lot of the courts were being dug up for refurbishing, so there was a lot more brown than green!

Afterwards, I visited the Wimbledon Museum and then met for an hour with the website manager and media officer, which was quite productive.

The museum is fantastic – possibly the best I’ve seen that focuses on one sport.

The audio tour was very helpful. Great attention to detail throughout the museum – I didn’t know tennis was originally called Sphairistike! There was the cup first presented at Wimbledon in 1877, right through to what they play for today – plenty of video interviews and match highlights – I had to relive Pat Cash’s 1987 triumph just for old time’s sake!

There was also the earliest footage of tennis, the old gentlemen’s changeroom – I also learnt that Wimbledon was bombed 16 times during World War II.

There is some great footage of Rod Laver playing in the 1960s – a good reflexes interactive, a great outline of the evolution of playing attire and then the McEnroe Pepper’s Ghost to finish it off.

All in all, a really enjoyable afternoon at the hallowed home of tennis.

Next stop – Germany!