The Championships @ SW19

I had thought and had hoped that my first post would be an ice-breaker and the waters will flow straight after that...didn't happen so. Lots of thoughts came and went by but none of them hit the black and white typeface.

Here it is then - my second one on the experiences of the evening spent at the Wimbledon rekindling the hope that I would be able to churn out a few good ones...ooh..that is so modest of me....!

The famous 'SW19'

Wimbledon.....I am pretty sure even the non-tennis lovers would have heard of it. It is probably the grand-mother of all tennis championships and rightly so. I have been in London for probably 5 of the previous seasons but I had never been there and this was definitely one thing on my to-do list. It was this Thursday afternoon, Day 4 after the start that I scooted off early along with two very good friends of mine.

The 'Journey'

Surprisingly, even though there is a tube station named Wimbledon, the tennis courts are nearer to the Southfields station. This is however very well publicised. The walk to the area from the Station exit is pretty straight. Someone early on in the day had mentioned something on the bbc website about free give-aways like free water bottles and other munching stuff - but there were none in the evening...a bit of a let down as I was looking forward to it - anything free is welcome...:)

As we were walking along we saw a huge crowd gathered on the other side of the street which seemed like a gate for a park and which on nearer inspection looked like a temporary car park. My initial thought was there was something being doled out for free...(oh how much I love those free give-aways, perhaps I have got too much of a Brit mentality now - this however is a topic of another discussion - "the saga of give-aways and the guilt"). So then, eager to find out what the queue was for, we went towards a steward who said - "this is the queue for entering the grounds tonight". I have heard stories that people do camp over-night even for festival tickets & DVD releases so it was natural that Wimbledon was high on this kind of a list and I thought well, what about the evening today? Perhaps the old lady understood my expression, and was quick to clarify - "for the evening tonight". Having never been to Wimbledon before, we were not sure what to do. We were told that sometimes people coming out do resell their tickets and it is easier to get in that way but that was a bit 'iffy'. We decided to go with the flow and we were directed to reach the end of queue and then wait for Queue Cards.

The 'Queue'

Wow....the queue was probably more than a mile long - more than 1000 people and the time as 4:45 in the evening. June probably is the month of the longest day of the year in England but the hopes that we would be able to make it were setting down already. We were then handed out our queue cards with a unique number on each of them. A handy booklet explained everything about the process. Being curious, I asked one of the steward if we would be able to make it before the end of the day and the curt reply was "depends on your patience". Before our queue had even started moving we saw people coming in with their camping gears and then the reality dawned as to how much crazy people are. A group of people were just back from the games and were camping again for getting in the next day......such dedication...wonderful. We were at the end of one serpentine queue and before we could even realise, there was another queue being formed and I could very well see another 500 odd people and it looked like they were queuing for "tonight's tickets" as well. That gave us some hope. Slowly after 5, the queue started moving or should I say crawling. We were toying with the thoughts of what we would do if we were unable to get in that day.

The 'patience' game

The next hour and a half were really the test of one's patience. But the signs started appearing...400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards and the feeling was great. Then we could see the security hut and once the airport like scanning was over it was a dash to the ticket gates. Once the tickets were paid for we were IN. There was a sense of achievement coupled with the feelings of hurrying up - the desire to see every nook and corner. It was already 6:45pm and the weatherman had predicted some rain for the evening so we didn't want to be let down after spending so much time. Also there are so many courts so where do we go first was one of the key question. That question was made easier by having a look at the Scedule of Play boards - we saw that Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes had their doubles match in play (albeit with different partners). While walking towards the courts. we were swept away by the aura of the Centre Court and the big Rolex watches and then we saw the food court and we headed straight for the famous...

'Strawberries and Cream'

No mention of Wimbledon is complete without these natural delights. Its the Strawberry season here in the UK and what better way to start the first visit to the Wimbles than this. We went over to the counter and had those delicious bowls and God they were sweet.

The action

We then headed straight for Court 9 where Bhupathi was trying hard to stop the rout and was facing the last set of his 2008 championship. Although there were occasional brilliant sparks, it was not hard to see why they lost out in straight sets. After the end of the match, the feeling was not that good (that the team you support loses and that too in the fist match that you see 'live'). We then moved over to other courts trying to work our way through who was playing. Since it was just Day 4, and probably the first round of doubles, it was quite difficult to find any regular names. We then moved to Court 10 where Paes with his partner Dlouhy were treating their opponents with the same contempt that Bhupathi and his mate were on the receiving end for. I had heard that Paes is arrogant and we could see this first hand. Though I must say they were also playing quite good. They have 'now' reached the third round as I wrire this so I will be looking out for them to go further. While we were watching this match, a big crowd was gathering behind us in Court 11 and we could sense the reason. The match was a Ladies Doubles and the William sisters were in playing. No wonder then that there were queues to get into the seats although they were free for all.

The 'aura'

While watching the Paes' match one of the volunteers handed me a Debenture ticket for Court 1 - it was probably my lucky day. I dashed towards the Court leaving my freind behind. Although the match was nearing its end as the British hopeful Chris Eaton was being taken to task by the fiery Trusnov but the feeling of sitting in Court 1 was really great. Specially as it was almost unexpected. I saw the last set and really enjoyed every bit of it. I can very well understand the aura that surrounds the Centre Court. How I wish I had got the tickets for that...so it was not my luckiest day then...

The final few minutes

Once the match at Court 1 was over we re-grouped and then spent some minutes going around trying to read the player's names and racking our brains if we had ever heard them. We clicked a few photos for keepsake. We saw the media centre (albeit from outside) where they interview the players and also saw the press room from where the hacks keep informing their respective media companies. The weatherman's warning was starting to take shape and we could feel the first few drops. We want over to the Henman hill and saw the giant screen were the William sisters were making their opponents sweat. All this going around had definitely made us hungry and the body was craving for a recharge. Though we could have stayed on but in the interest of 'health', we decided to start back and headed straight for some food.

The sum-up

All in all I would say it was a good time spent. A tick in the box and a wonderful experience. If you plan it correctly, and have freidns and food, you can have a good picnic out there. Always plan for getting in early as you can see the big names on the practise courts. Not everybody is lucky (or rich) to have access to the ticketed seats but you can always give it a try as they run a ballot each year. As we walked down the towards the tube station, the words that I had read in one of the magazines came to the mind - Though the British might not be good at producing a winning player (I think 1977 was the last time a Brit won one), they are bloody well good at organising this 2 week extravaganza.