Wimbledon 2009

Looking at the index I see that I raised a blog last year about Wimbledon 2008 so it is only right that I do the same for 2009. We were fortunate to get tickets in the LTA (non players) ballot for the first week (could hardly be the second week could it as that hasn't happened yet) so Mrs Claus and I set off for SW1. Our usual trip, across the bridge and down the A20 to Croydon and then a tram all the way to Wimbledon Station. Mrs Claus does not do "underground" in any shape or form so we have to make this rather circuitous journey each year to gain our fix of tennis. Upminster to Wimbledon looks straightforward on the District Line map, one end to the other (a bit like our old journeys from Cockfosters to Heathrow) but would be a nightmare of a journey, particularly on a baking hot day. For those of you who are already lost, this is the difference between the squiggly green line and the blue one on the map. There was an enormous queue on the Bridge so we made he best of it and enjoyed the clear views of the Thames Estuary from Shellhaven and Tilbury docks right up to Canary Wharf and beyond. Worth £1.50 of anybody's money
Talking of money it is just as well this is not a subscription blog as I see it is almost exactly a month since I was last in contact with you dear reader. I would have liked to put "readers" but then I don't want to flatter myself
Anyway back to Wimbledon, or at least the journey. We stopped for coffee and caramel slice in St George's Arcade, not that I expect you to necessarily know where that is - but the cafe seems to be the only shop still open and then down to have our annual battle with the ticket machine at the tram stop. It is carefully placed so that the sun shines full on the screen and you can't read any of the instructions but pushing a haphazard range of buttons seemed to produce two tickets and the inspector we met later on seemed the think they were the right ones. It is easy to get to Wimbledon, you just get on the red tram, except that now they are all green and white just to confuse me.
The walk from the station to the tennis courts is the next stage of the journey followed by the inevitable queue even though you already have designated tickets but this year they opend a gate just as we arrived and give or take the security check we were straight through. So then to find the new Number 2 court which is not where the old Number 2 court used to be but in a wholly new place and the old Number 2 court is now the new Number 3 court just to make life interesting. There is a variety of things you can do at Wimbledon - queue for the toilets, queue for food, queue to get into the museum, queue to buy a souvenir, queue to get back onto court when you have "just popped out" for a moment. The last is the most frustrating because all the most exciting things always happen when you are at the bottom of the staircase and can't see anything, just listen to the shouts of those who stayed on court. BUT new Number 2 court is great. It just happened to be right beside the gate we came in at, has its own toilets and two food outlets and a souvenir shop all built into the outside wall, and inside big video screens, hawkeye AND padded seats! What more could you want? Well actually you could want Mrs Claus not doing her best to restart the 100 years war with our gallic cousins. People who watched the match on television asked "what was the delay when he was serving at match point, what was all the fuss about?" Well the fuss was about Mrs Claus dropping her water bottle down the steps and trying to retrieve it and coming eyeball to eyeball with a rather cross Frenchman wanting to know when she was going to be quiet. Mrs Claus decided to retrieve her bottle later, the Frenchman served at match point and duly consigned yet another English player to the locker room
We did see some really good matches and I just know you are going to ask who we saw so.......

Do you really want to know?


Are you really sure - they weren't the famous ones you know?

Well if you insist it was ................

I think Mrs Claus must have the details at work