As it’s Wimbledon fortnight and seeing as a few of our colleagues at Door2Tour have been lucky enough to see the tennis at the world famous Championships, we thought it might be helpful if we shared some of our top tips with you. Hopefully, these will help to make your day at SW19 an enjoyable experience and don’t forget, if you’ve been to Wimbledon too this year, share your thoughts and pictures with us as we’d love to hear from you…
• If travelling by train to Wimbledon, don’t pay out extra money for a cab to get to the Championships. The grounds are only a 10-15 minute walk away and if the weather is nice, it can be quite a nice stroll plus you get to eye up some of the gorgeous properties along the way and believe me there are many to admire!
• If you have tickets for any of the Show Courts, make sure that you arrive in plenty of time as matches tend to start more or less on the dot of the time scheduled. If you should arrive after the match has started, you will not be allowed into the Show Court until the players are on a break. Equally, when you wish to leave the Show Court, you cannot move until the players are on a break or when they swap ends.
• Seats for the outside courts are unreserved so again, if there is a match that you wish to see here, make sure you get there earlier enough to secure your place.
• Food in the Grounds can be a little on the pricey side so if you are looking to save a few pennies, why not pack a picnic? Just make sure that the bag you are carrying the picnic in, does not exceed the following dimensions 40cm x 30cm x 30cm otherwise it will be prohibited.
• The world-famous Wimbledon strawberries and cream this year cost £2.50 and to be honest you only get half a dozen with a blob of cream. Save your pennies and take your own!
• Add a special touch to your Wimbledon experience by taking a bottle of wine with you or perhaps having the traditional
Pimms & Lemonade? You are allowed to take in to the Grounds – 1x bottle of wine or 2x 500ml cans of beer. After you’ve taken a look at the price list, you might be glad that you took your own Pimms & Lemonade in a flask – for 2012, a large Pimms & Lemonade costs £7.30!
• If you’d rather stick to the soft stuff, take a bottle of water with you and you can refill this from many Drinking Water Points dotted around the Grounds.
• Make sure you have your camera at the ready as you won’t want to miss your favourite players in action. Just make sure you have the flash switched off otherwise you may feel the wrath of the Umpire and his Grounds Staff.
• Everyone has a mobile phone with them but there is nothing more annoying for spectators and the players themselves to have a phone ringing at a vital point in the Game. Make sure you either switch it off or select the silent mode so you do not disturb others!
• All of the matches take place outside, unless you’re one of the lucky ones to have Centre Court tickets where there is now a roof to protect you from the elements of the typical British weather. You may wish to take a jumper or small jacket to put over your shoulders plus these are useful if you choose to sit on “Henman Hill/Murray Mount” to prevent your clothes from becoming dirty.
• Knowing what our British Summer can be like, it would be advisable to pack a brolly, poncho and raincoat just in case the heavens decide to open whilst you’re at Wimbledon. On the other hand, should we have a scorcher of a Summer, a sunhat and sun lotion would be advisable. Either way, you’ll definitely need to be wearing comfy shoes as there can be a great deal of walking involved throughout your day here!
• If you’ve been unable to get tickets for the Finals Matches but you are at Wimbledon over the same weekend that these take place, never fear as you can always watch the action on Centre Court via the big screen that’s located directly opposite “Henman Hill/Murray Mount”. My word of advice is to get there early so you can grab a good spot!
• There are plenty of opportunities to meet the players and perhaps get your rather large tennis ball signed. When in the Grounds, head over to “Autograph Island” which is located by the Aorangi Pavilion where throughout the day, various players will appear to sign autographs for the fans.
• Want to know who’s playing when and where? There are 4 ways of finding out: (1) Check the newspapers either the night before or on the morning of your visit to Wimbledon (2) Go online to the AELTC website where the Order Of Play will be displayed (3) Purchase a programme where all the tennis action for that day will be available – it cost £8.00 this year (4) Check out the score board when you enter the Grounds and you’ll find out who is playing and where.
• Spectators are advised to: (1) Not make a noise during a rally (2) Not applaud a net cord or double fault and (3) Not smoke within the stands of any court or in any enclosed space.
• When your day has finished, the AELTC makes every effort to ensure that seat tickets which are no longer needed are made available for resale to people already within the Grounds. All you need to do is put your unwanted tickets in special red boxes for collection by the Honorary Stewards or if you wish to keep them as souvenirs, just have the barcodes scanned on leaving the Grounds and a new ticket can be generated. These are then sold for a nominal charge and all proceeds are donated to charity – quite a worthwhile thing to do if you have time before heading home!
• You can enter the Public Ballot for 2013 Championships by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: AELTC, PO Box 98, London SW19 5AE. Overseas applicants should enclose an International Reply Coupon where possible. Applications can be made from 01 August 2012 and the Ballot closes on 15 December 2012. Only one application per household permitted.
Have you been to Wimbledon and do you have any top tips that you would like to share with everyone? If so, get in touch and we’ll post them…