Wimbledon Sports & Outdoors

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The giant screen at Wimbledon is well known to all those who have watched the tennis on the BBC. It is situated at the foot of Aorangi Terrace (otherwise known as Henman Hill) which is to the North East of No 1 Court. It shows coverage from the BBC, and is a popular spot for those with ground tickets to sit on the grass and watch the play on the show-courts.

If you haven't bought a programme for the day, you can catch up on the results so far, and see the full draws on the scoreboard, which is updated (by hand, one man, a ladder and some printed labels !) throughout the day. The board shown in the picture was on the north side of Centre Court up to 2005 when this picture was taken. We didn't walk past it this year, but there are new boards just inside the main entrance gate (Gate No 3) which are very similar.

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Remember that you might be sitting in the sun for several hours, so take a hat to save your head from getting fried. People wear all sorts of hats, from floppy little sunhats, sun-visors, up to straw hats and panamas. Don't wear too big a hat that though, you'll upset the people sitting behind you, and don't wear a silly hat unless you WANT to be picked out by the television cameras for the world to see !

Unless you are guests of someone who can get you into one of the "private" areas, such as the Press Bar, Stewards Bar or Debentures Lounge where you'll need to be a bit smarter, you can wear pretty well what you like to watch the tennis (within reason of course - streakers ARE ejected from the courts !).

DO remember that you'll probably be sitting in the sun for most of the day, so unless you've already got a healthy tan you need to be able to cover up to avoid getting burnt. Also, remember to check the weather forcast before you go - it nearly always rains on at least one day during the tournament.

You MUST buy a programme if you go to Wimbledon.

You could manage without a programme - after all the draws, results and order of play are all on display - but there is so much additional information in the programme that you'd be missing out big-time. This year (2006) it contains 124 pages, of which the middle 16 (and the cover) is printed specially every day. All the draws are updated daily, the order of play (i.e. who is playing where and when !) is set out in detail, and there are articles and features on all the top players and various aspects of the game.

Excellent value at £ 6.50 from stands inside the ground, or the Wimbledon Shop.

The best one to get for a souvenir though is the special edition published after the tournament ends with ALL the results printed in it. (Can also be purchased from the Wimbledon website for £ 8.00) And even better is the special edition presented to the Honorary Stewards with their names on the cover (I presume they still do that - I know they used to !)

There are plenty of toilets around Wimbledon, but the best ones are to be found under the (relatively) new Number 1 Court. The ones we've used are to be found under the stairs each side of the south-west entrance, but they can be also be found on the other three sides of No 1 Court. They are all kept spotlessly clean throughout the day (I haven't caught them out yet !). If you enlarge the photo you can just see the signs over the entrance to the disabled toilets.

There are other toilets all round the grounds, including the four corners of Centre Court. But No 1 is the best !

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Remember that tennis matches go on for a long time. Mens tennis at Wimbledon is the best of five sets, and matches can easily last three hours or more. The tennis usually starts at 12 noon, and play can continue on into the evening, maybe until after 8 at night if it is not to dark. You could be sitting for easily 6 hours or more. So give some consideration to your backside. The seats at Wimbledon used to be very hard wooden seats, and after an hour or more started to become uncomfortable. The seats are much better now, (hard plastic ones !)and you don't get anything like as sore as you used to.

Equipment: If you've got a suitable cushion, consider taking it. Otherwise you can hire cushions at a price of two pounds per day from kiosks within the ground. Or you could buy one from the Wimbledon Shop - at six pounds, or fifteen pounds for a luxury souvenir cushion (it better be special at that price !).

Ticket Prices for 2006

Ticket prices for Centre Court range from £ 34 for the first two days up to £ 83 for the men’s final. No 1 court is slightly cheaper, ranging from £ 32 at the start of the tournament up to £ 62 in the middle of the second week, before dropping to £ 23 at the end of the tournament, when the semi-finals and finals are held on Centre Court, unless the inevitable happens and the English weather intervenes to delay the matches. In this case No 1 court may still host top matches for those lucky enough to have tickets. Tickets are also available for No 2 Court (from £ 25 to £38). No 2 Court has some very good matches, particularly in the first week, and has been the scene of numerous upsets over the years. Around 500 tickets for each of these courts are also available on the day at the turnstiles for those prepared to queue, and around 6,000 ground tickets are available each day at prices up to £ 16. There are long queues for tickets every day, with many people queuing overnight for the chance to see the top matches.