Yesterday was the first Saturday of Wimbledon, and as we had such a wonderful time last year, we decided to go again. We queued up at 7:45 for grounds admission tickets. Waiting in the Wimbledon queue is quite an experience. Some people camp out for up to two days to try for tickets to Centre Court and Court No.1 (grounds tickets don’t get you into those), and the rest of us show up and stand around for three hours hoping that we’ll make the cut.

The stewards, who tend to be little old men with matching outfits and hats, hand out queue cards with numbers on them, and a 7:45 arrival got us numbers 1877 and 1888, which is impressively high, considering that there are two queues. Compared to last year, though, it was a bit low, because last year was a beautiful, hot, sunny day, and this year was . . . well . . . not.

When I say that we waited in the queue for three hours, therefore, I mean that we waited in the queue IN THE RAIN for three hours. It didn’t rain the whole time or very hard - just off and on and usually lightly. It was an entertaining experience. We read a bit, had some snacks, listened and watched the hubbub of the folks selling newspapers with “FREE poncho, FREE raincoat, FREE tennis-ball-shaped binoculars.” Hmm . . . Perhaps most entertaining was the group of Australian (Kiwi perhaps?) revelers a few people behind us. There were about 12 of them, all loaded down with party kit, all inappropriately dressed for the occasion (they went a bit too summery and otherwise impractical), and all having a wonderful time. By the time we got to security, they had consumed 4 bottles of champagne (with the obligatory floating strawberries, of course), at least 3 of wine, and goodness knows what else, and they had befriended all of the stewards and vendors who came their way in the mean time. We’re not sure how long they could have lasted at that rate, but they sure had fun in the queue! Maybe they shouldn’t have bothered buying tickets - they could have just hung out nearby all day and had a grand old time!

Anyway, we did get grounds tickets, and we went straight to court 2, where Venus Williams was going to play the first match of the day. Court 2 has a standing room section for the peons like us to watch fairly big matches, and so we stood there - in the rain - until about 10:45, when the man from above announced that play would not start until at least noon.

So we stood there - in the rain - until 11:25, when the man from above announced that play would not start until at least 1230, but good news - looks like there’s a clear patch up ahead. The rain grew a bit more intermittent and we started to have hope. We stood there until about 1145, and then we decided that it was lunch time.

For lunch, we each had a slice of pizza and we shared a Cornish pasty. Then we went back up to court 2 standing room. At about 1:15, the grounds boy came out and started to deflate the court cover. People cheered! They deflated it until it lay flat on the court, when - after a few minutes - the rain picked up again. The grounds boy ran around and closed all the vents and filled that cover right back up. BOOOOooooo.

At about 2:00, with the rain stopped again, the grounds boy came out and started to deflate the cover. HOORAAAYYYY! (one guy near us kept cheering “YAY FOR US!” which we thought was funny) Then - miracle of miracles, they did the classic Wimbledon court reveal, which happens when the grounds boys and girls grab on to ropes and run across the court to role up the cover. AHA! The “yay for us” guy said, “I’ve FINALLY seen a tennis court at Wimbledon!”

One thing you don’t usually see when you’re watching Wimbledon on TV is that all of the covers on the grounds get unrolled at almost exactly the same time. It’s very impressive to look across the courts and see all of those people working so hard to maintain the courts and the Wimbledoniness of the event.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. After about 5 minutes of being uncovered, the straps went back out and the grounds boys and girls rolled that cover right back out. BOOOOOoooooo.

And there we stood. In the rain.

That’s when Andy and I realised that we had been standing in the rain since 7:45 that morning, and that really it was all we had done all day. It was actually pretty exhausting!

At 3:00, the cover got unrolled again. A lady came out to feel the grass (literally. she came out, felt the grass here, felt the grass there, and left), and the grounds boys and girls mopped up some rain with special tennis court maxi-pads (that’s what they looked like to us), and then the NET came out! WOOHOO!!! THEN we started to see ball boys and girls emerging from buildings below and heading off to other courts. Then OUR ball boys and girls came on the court, and they set up chairs and water fridges and such! Very exciting. Then the linespeople came out and all we were missing was the players.

We could see players walking out from between two of the buildings and toward their respective courts. A doubles team here, a singles player there, and so on, and then finally we saw Venus. We knew her by her legs. Holy MOLY that girl has legs. YAY FOR US indeed!

Venus and her opponent - a lady named Morigami from Japan, played some wonderful tennis. Venus won the first set 6-2 and was down 1-2 in the second set when it started to sprinkle. Then 1-3, still sprinkling. Then 1-4, and we see covers getting rolled out on other courts. Oh no. And the chair umpire called it. Watching those folks pack up the court was very impressive. The poor chair umpire got pushed off the court IN HIS CHAIR! HA! Venus had to hop over the cover as it rolled by her. GEESH! They almost unapologetically took out one of the World’s elite tennis players. WOW. Wimbledon=very important.

We decided that it was now officially strawberries & cream time. We were NOT the only ones to decide this, but with nowhere else to go, we waited in the queue. We each ordered TWO helpings and found our way to a bench (A SEAT at long last!) - in the rain - to eat them.

They were absolutely divine. Perhaps the best strawberries I have ever eaten. Even better than last year’s Wimbledon strawberries. It’s almost as if they shoot ‘em up with strawberry flavour.

We found a covered area and read for a while, and we decided that if it continued to rain until 6:00, we would call it a day. At 5:45, my bum hurt from sitting on the concrete wall, and we stopped in the shop before heading back to the tube - in the rain. We were happy to relax on the tube on the way back home, and when we got back, we went directly to the chippy. We walked back from the chippy - in the rain - and settled in for the night.

So at the end of the day, we still thought it was worth the price of admission and food for the experience, but we sure felt bad for the people who camped out the night before! As it turns out, they give refunds when there is less than an hour of play. We had 55 minutes, so looking back, we took the tube to Wimbledon for some pizza, a cornish pasty, some delicious strawberries and a nice long day standing in the rain.

They gave us some stickers . . .

And here are some pictures . . .