Wimbledon Tennis

Last week I toured Wimbledon,

home to the oldest tennis championship in the world

Opening day is in a few weeks

- June 20th -

While I love playing tennis,

professional sports don't interest me

So I'll keep this brief and focus on interesting trivia :)

A side court for early matches & warm up practice
Media boxes behind windows

I realized early on that
there is no 'T' in the word WimbleDon

Wimbledon is the name of a lovely suburb right outside of London

-close enough to be reached by The Tube-

London skyline from Wimbledon

Wimbledon tennis traditions include a strict white dress code for competitors

and strawberries & cream for hungry spectators

(the cream is watery and thin, not whipped)

I tried some so I could report back - don't I just give & give?

Yum

{Imagine a photo of it here.

I ate it too fast to photograph}

Tennis had been an indoor sport

when Major Walter Clopton Wingfield had the idea 

to play on the grassy fields of a croquet club in 1875

That croquet club adopted lawn tennis in 1877

Famous Centre Court with its retractable roof
Although big, it still felt cozy

The Wimbledon Championships is still hosted by

'The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club' today,

a private club comprised of invited members only

(croquet is still played but in a different location)

The first tennis competition started as a clever way

to raise money for a new lawn roller to smooth the courts

The lawn roller that started it all

To keep the private club feel, you will notice no big advertising signage

I like that :)

The grass courts are completely torn up to dirt after the championship

and reseeded for the following year

Although missing Courts No. 3 & 4 will be posted by opening day,
there is no Court 13

Jumping on this 11/2 hour guided tour was quite easy with a week's notice

Just dreamy for the tennis enthusiast ;)

-details here-

- all photos by me -

Read 'The Wimbledon Queue' post here

Content from tour, Wimbledon & Wikipedia