Niknak's Mum
12-08-2012, 11:10
And now for the TENNIS ….
We had been lucky to obtain ground passes for the Wednesday at Wimbledon and I would particularly like to thank Sally and others who encouraged me when I was dithering on the re-sale site and said ‘go for it!’
As would be heading for unreserved seating I figured it would be a good idea to find a hotel for the previous night where we could leave the car and get to Wimbledon early on public transport. Luck would have it that I found a good deal at the Holiday Inn Chessington which included tickets for the theme park and that Chessington South happened to be the last stop on the line which was covered by our Olympic travel cards. So a day screaming on white-knuckle rides preceded more excitement at the tennis! I can’t resist including this picture of all of us on the ‘Dragon Falls’! …….
720
Despite meticulous planning we did not arrive at the All England Club quite as early as planned, but thankfully were quickly and smoothly through security and settled in good seats on Court 18 by 10:30 with play due to start an hour later. I had been torn between that and Court 2 which also had tempting matches, but was swayed by the prospect of seeing Kim Clijsters probably playing for the last time here and Giles, on his first ever trip to Wimbledon, was keen to see Tsonga (especially if he won and did his little victory dance!). Volunteers informed us that they were enforcing a very strict ‘bums on seats’ policy and that even if we went out to the loo our seats would become vacant and we would have to join the back of the queue outside. Whilst I could see that they wanted to counteract all the talk of empty seats at Olympic venues, I felt this was a little harsh especially for young children and on a hot day when people needed to refill water bottles. In the end we did manage to skip in and out a couple of times during rain breaks always taking a child with us for the sympathy vote or sending the two of them out together relying on them talking their way back in.
721
Clijsters and Ivanovic came out on to court at 11:30 as scheduled and warmed up for the allotted time and then the rain came and off they went. The covers went on and we waited, worrying at this stage how on earth we would last even one match without going out to the loo if the weather was going to keep doing this! Eventually they returned, after much stroking of the grass by various officials, Clijsters took the first set and then the rain came again! In the end Clijsters took the match 6-3, 6-4 after some inspiring tennis and I was glad to have seen her play live at least once.
Next up were Tsonga and Lopez accompanied by blue sky and sunshine. Again the tennis was great and a closer match than I thought we would see with a winning score for Tsonga of 7-6, 6-4 …. and the victory dance for Giles!!
By this stage we had been on Court 18 for a long time and we all needed to stretch our legs. We had heard the roar from Centre Court signifying that Andy had arrived and thought we would wander out to the Hill and see if we could park ourselves somewhere with a view of the big screen. We noticed a booth marked ‘ticket re-sale’ was open in the same spot as during The Championships and thought we would ask about the possibility of any tickets for Centre Court, not thinking for a minute that all four of us would get them. Within five minutes we were clutching four tickets for the grand total of £12 and heading swiftly towards Centre Court where we arrived in row D almost mid-way through the first set. I have never seen Giles quite so excited; here he was on his first trip to Wimbledon sitting right down the front on Centre Court and watching his tennis hero …. Andy Murray! Both Andy and Marcos were playing great tennis and very quickly the first set had gone the Greek’s way …. We all looked at each other momentarily as if to say ‘shall we all go out again?’, thinking we had jinxed Andy, knowing perfectly well that this was ridiculous and that he would come back fighting in the second set …. And he did 6 – 1. The third set was very exciting, the tennis was brilliant, the crowd were amazing, at times deafening and tough for Baghdatis. Andy came through 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The beaming smile from Andy at the end said it all!
722723724
I sat through the beginning of Wozniaki and Hantchukova match while Richard fetched celebratory Pimms ….. but by now we were all exhausted and hoarse from cheering and set off on the long journey home as the shadows lengthened about 8pm with Olympic memories to cherish.
We had been lucky to obtain ground passes for the Wednesday at Wimbledon and I would particularly like to thank Sally and others who encouraged me when I was dithering on the re-sale site and said ‘go for it!’
As would be heading for unreserved seating I figured it would be a good idea to find a hotel for the previous night where we could leave the car and get to Wimbledon early on public transport. Luck would have it that I found a good deal at the Holiday Inn Chessington which included tickets for the theme park and that Chessington South happened to be the last stop on the line which was covered by our Olympic travel cards. So a day screaming on white-knuckle rides preceded more excitement at the tennis! I can’t resist including this picture of all of us on the ‘Dragon Falls’! …….
720
Despite meticulous planning we did not arrive at the All England Club quite as early as planned, but thankfully were quickly and smoothly through security and settled in good seats on Court 18 by 10:30 with play due to start an hour later. I had been torn between that and Court 2 which also had tempting matches, but was swayed by the prospect of seeing Kim Clijsters probably playing for the last time here and Giles, on his first ever trip to Wimbledon, was keen to see Tsonga (especially if he won and did his little victory dance!). Volunteers informed us that they were enforcing a very strict ‘bums on seats’ policy and that even if we went out to the loo our seats would become vacant and we would have to join the back of the queue outside. Whilst I could see that they wanted to counteract all the talk of empty seats at Olympic venues, I felt this was a little harsh especially for young children and on a hot day when people needed to refill water bottles. In the end we did manage to skip in and out a couple of times during rain breaks always taking a child with us for the sympathy vote or sending the two of them out together relying on them talking their way back in.
721
Clijsters and Ivanovic came out on to court at 11:30 as scheduled and warmed up for the allotted time and then the rain came and off they went. The covers went on and we waited, worrying at this stage how on earth we would last even one match without going out to the loo if the weather was going to keep doing this! Eventually they returned, after much stroking of the grass by various officials, Clijsters took the first set and then the rain came again! In the end Clijsters took the match 6-3, 6-4 after some inspiring tennis and I was glad to have seen her play live at least once.
Next up were Tsonga and Lopez accompanied by blue sky and sunshine. Again the tennis was great and a closer match than I thought we would see with a winning score for Tsonga of 7-6, 6-4 …. and the victory dance for Giles!!
By this stage we had been on Court 18 for a long time and we all needed to stretch our legs. We had heard the roar from Centre Court signifying that Andy had arrived and thought we would wander out to the Hill and see if we could park ourselves somewhere with a view of the big screen. We noticed a booth marked ‘ticket re-sale’ was open in the same spot as during The Championships and thought we would ask about the possibility of any tickets for Centre Court, not thinking for a minute that all four of us would get them. Within five minutes we were clutching four tickets for the grand total of £12 and heading swiftly towards Centre Court where we arrived in row D almost mid-way through the first set. I have never seen Giles quite so excited; here he was on his first trip to Wimbledon sitting right down the front on Centre Court and watching his tennis hero …. Andy Murray! Both Andy and Marcos were playing great tennis and very quickly the first set had gone the Greek’s way …. We all looked at each other momentarily as if to say ‘shall we all go out again?’, thinking we had jinxed Andy, knowing perfectly well that this was ridiculous and that he would come back fighting in the second set …. And he did 6 – 1. The third set was very exciting, the tennis was brilliant, the crowd were amazing, at times deafening and tough for Baghdatis. Andy came through 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The beaming smile from Andy at the end said it all!
722723724
I sat through the beginning of Wozniaki and Hantchukova match while Richard fetched celebratory Pimms ….. but by now we were all exhausted and hoarse from cheering and set off on the long journey home as the shadows lengthened about 8pm with Olympic memories to cherish.