Breakfast time at the All England Club |
Wimbledon + 5 and 6
Wednesday was Sock Monkey’s day off. Unfortunately Sock Monkey’s jacket is
no longer attached to Sock Monkey’s bag.
Sock Monkey’s jacket is somewhere between Clapham Junction and Gipsy
Hill. Or, more likely, eBay.
So I had to schlep over to Canning Town, to the big
warehouse where they keep all the uniforms to collect another one. I thought it would be deserted and
although it was nowhere near as busy as the last time I had been there to be
kitted out, they were now giving out the uniforms for those working at the
Paralympics and also ‘dignitaries’ (I think this was competitors).
Ol' Rubber Nose |
I had to fill out a form explaining how I lost my jacket and
what I did to find it. “The jacket
became detached from my bag”. “I contacted Southern Trains lost property who
did not have it”. In actual fact, I
asked a station assistant at Clapham Junction the day after I became
jacket-less if they had a lost property department. She said no, I would have
to go to Waterloo. I thought
“Bugger that” and told her I’d rather go to Canning Town for a new one.
There was another volunteer there whose bag had lost its
clip and a girl whose spare trousers not only were the wrong size but they had
a hole in them too.
Then I went home and did I clean the bathroom as I
intended? No. I sat on the sofa
and watched sport for the rest of the day.
Now then.
Wimbledon +6. One of the. Best.
Days. EVER.
Gate 1 for a change.
It is bigger than our usual Gate 10. Sock Monkey’s job was to stand in
the middle of the tent, after the spectators had gone through the metal
detector and collected their stuff and make sure they didn’t hang around
causing a bottleneck.
I loved doing this!
I got to speak to thousands of people. I had Americans high fiving me, I had 11 Belgians crowding
around me (they were actually a bit intimidating) demanding to know how they
could get Centre Court tickets (to see Kim Clijsters).
Them: “Will people swap?”
Sock Monkey: “I have had lots of people disappointed that
they are on Centre instead of Court 1 (Andy Murray was on Court number 1. Twice
– singles and mixed doubles). I’m
sure people will swap.
Djokovic |
Them: “But here are 11 of us!!”
Sock Monkey (now wanting to get rid of them asap: “Well if
you’d just like to go through the exit I’m sure you will be able to find 11
people who will swap.”
Tsonga |
When I asked people which court they were on I could not
believe how many of them said, ruefully “Centre Court. We wanted Court number
1.” The order of play on Centre
Court was absolutely stonking! Federer, Tsonga, Djokovic, Sharapova,
Clijsters. That is like someone
asked, “Who would you like tosee today?” then obliged. Everyone wanted to see Andy though.
I wish I had worn my pedometer because I must have walked
about 5 miles.
After another sumptuous lunch (think prison-meets-school
lunch) about 7 of us decided to try to get into Centre Court. Tim & Lynn are very good at
blagging and after trying several gangways we found a sympathetic Games Maker
who said, “Take your accreditations off, take your watches off we had uniform
watches), hid your bags under your seats and if anyone comes and you’re sitting
in their seat – move.” Apparently
they way to get in is to say, “Look at all of those empty seats.” So Tim, Lynn, Angela and I got in and
plonked our behinds down for some Gourmet tennis.
The first match had just finished and the next one was
Tsonga v Djokovic. Then people
arrived whose seats had our backsides on so we had to move. I overheard one of the ladies say, “They
are sitting in other people’s seats now!” but then I think she realised that we
were Games Makers and didn’t seem to mind at all after that. In fact, when I started to worry that I
was going to get really sunburned and after asking my three companions if they
had any sunblock she ver kindly let me use her factor 50. If I had had to have left court I wouldn’t have got back in. After this was
Federer v Isner. Sock Monkey does
not like Federer at all but had never seen ol’ rubber nose before and so this
match completed my set of seeing everyone else.
Maria Sharapova |
Kim Clijsters |
The final match was Kim Clijsters v Maria Sharapova. I had never seen Kim either and was
really pleased to get into the court as she is retiring after the Olympics (or
the US Open – one or the other).
Lynn and Angela left before the start of this match so Tim and I watched
the first set then went to sit on The Hill with a pint and watch some more
tennis action on the big screen.
Sock Monkey had never been in Centre Court before so today
was splendid thank-you-very-much.