The Queue

My little sister Rachel loves tennis. I have to thank her for convincing me to camp all day and overnight in the Queue at Wimbledon for tickets to Men's quarterfinal day. I love tennis too but not enough to sit for a day and a night for it. (I can't think of many things I would camp out for actually - I don't particularly like camping). But it turned out to be a whole lot of fun and great experience.

Basic Guide to the Queue:

1. You can only pre-purchase Wimbledon tickets through the public ballot (ie. it is random - we had entered and missed out)
2. The other alternative is to join the Queue. Wimbledon allocates a certain amount of tickets for Centre Court, No 1 Court, No 2 Court and General Admission to the Queue.
3. These tickets cannot be pre-purchased and to get one of these tickets, you must join the Queue
4. There are about 500 tickets for Centre Court sold to people in the Queue. 
5. We began queueing at about 10.15am the day before and we were number 510 and 511 in the Queue. We suspect that some people began queueing the day before the day before!
6. We pitched a tent in the Queue, and we made friends with a lovely South African couple and three British traffic controllers who were numbers 505-509. 
7. You don't get notified if you are eligible for Centre Court tickets until the next morning, so we all spent the night fretting about whether we would get the tickets and convincing ourselves that if we didn't, tickets to the No 1 Court would still be good (after all, Novak Djokovic is our favourite player). Of course, if you are in the first 500 people in the Queue, you can choose which court you wish to buy tickets for. (The lady who got ticket number 500 was jumping and screaming when she received her ticket - her reaction was akin to Charlie's when he wins the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A bit much)
8. You can leave the camping ground for lunch or dinner (or for a run at Wimbledon Common like I did), as long as you are present when the Stewards give out the Queue Cards which confirms your place and number in the Queue. We got ours around 4pm and the Stewards advised that they would be coming around 3-5pm. If you're not in your tent at this time, you are basically kicked out of the Queue and there is no way to get back in. One year, one of our friends' wives was in the toilet and the Stewards gave him a really hard time about giving an extra Queue card to him. I think they had to wait for her to get back from the bathroom!
9. Wimbledon Village is about a 25 minute walk up the hill and has cafes and stores.There is a Sainsburys grocery store just a 5 minute walk from the camping ground down Revelstoke Rd and on the right.
10. Guard your Queue card with your life. Someone from our Queue lost theirs - I don't want to know what happened to him.

Luckily, we were one of the last few to be allocated Centre Court tickets on the day. We got a pink wristband confirming that we had been allocated a Centre Court ticket. Pumped!

But I suggest that if you want to guarantee Centre Court tickets in the final week, you join the Queue in the early in the morning on the day before the day you wish to go to Wimbledon. People seem to be getting there earlier and earlier every year.

I had the worst sleep in the world as I had a paper thin sleeping bag from K-mart and a cheap tent that we bought for $10 on Ebay. If I had the day over, I would probably invest in some better sleeping gear. It had been a warm sunny day but I was shivering all night and it was a long and painful night. Luckily, everyone was getting up at about 4.30am because the sun rises really early in the Summer but it was possibly the longest 6.5 hours of my life.

I did not sleep... but it didn't sound like a lot of people did. I thought I was going to fall asleep in the match. Bring earplugs! There will be some heavy snorers and sleep-talkers around you. Early in the morning, we were asked to pack down our tents and stand in the Queue. There is a lot of standing and waiting.

Rachel was self-conscious about coming out of the tent in her pyjamas.

Anyway, we had a great day with a great view of Centre Court. We watched Andy Murray play, supported by a full-house British crowd. Everyone with a ticket was in there to watch the local hero and Wimbledon defending champion - and we even shared the Court with royalty. Prince William and Princess Catherine were sitting in the Royal Box cheering Murray on.

We also got to see one of the best tennis players in history, Roger Federer. I enjoyed my day and my strawberries and cream, and I even got a little sunburnt. How ironic that in the tent, I spent the night wishing it was hot and the day, absolutely burning in the sun. Love tennis, love London.