24 Hours @ Wimbledon 2009: The Queuing Experience

By c-line Last edited 176 months ago
24 Hours @ Wimbledon 2009: The Queuing Experience

On Sunday night we decided to put all queuing tips to the test and headed to Wimbledon to camp for tickets. Despite arriving by 8 PM, our hopes of reaching Centre Court were sadly dashed as soon as the honourary staff members handed us our queue cards: there were 1,704 people ahead of us. Not willing to give up and go home, we set up our tent and settled in for a relatively pleasant evening (well, pleasant enough for being in a field surrounded by drunken teenagers). Grown ups and little kids alike tossed frisbees and hit volleyballs until well after the sun went down. Clean (ish) toilets, a burger stand, and an ice cream vendor made the adventure seem almost too easy, although we won't complain-that ice cream was awesome.

At about 5 AM people started to wake up and pack away their tents (except for the daring few who only brought blankets). We rubbed the sleep out of our eyes and were astounded to see how long the line had become in a matter of hours. By six o'clock the entire field was filled with avid Murray fans decked out in full Union Jack apparel as well as a mixture of the freshly showered and the disgustingly frazzled. We managed to drop off our tent and sleeping bags at the Left Luggage area for £1 an item and then moved slowly towards the actual Wimbledon grounds.

Luckily for us, we managed to grab wrist bands for Court 2 around nine o'clock, which meant that we got to see a few greats such as Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva. By 10:30 we had made it through security, the 'sterile zone', and finally inside. We stuck around until 7:30 after having watched a very exciting match between Lleyton Hewitt and Radek Stepanek. We picked up our things from the Left Luggage area, which was surprisingly well-organised, and got on the train back home. Although we felt absolutely filthy after a full twenty four hours spent in the heat on very little sleep, we definitely plan to go back next year and arrive earlier. Those Centre Court tickets will be ours.

Last Updated 03 July 2009