Wimbledon
 

We will be in Cambridge and London during Wimbledon. Does anyone have advice on how to get tickets for a day?

I'd start here:

www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html

Thanks. I was familiar with this web site. It looks like tickets need to be purchased as part of a package--which ends up costing several thousand dollars. Or the option is to line up hours in advance for same-day tickets. I was just wondering if there were any other options.

Yes thats about right. The queuing can be sort of fun but you will end up with a non show court. This isn't a problem in the first week when some terrific players and matches are available even outside centre, 1 or 2 court. Just being in the grounds is reward enough, the atmosphere is incredible and then there is the tennis. f you are not a major tennis fan, another option is to arrive about 4.30pm during the first week - you will probably get in straight away and see some great matches all the way up to about 8.30 and beyond. You can also queue up for Centre and Number 1 court on admission (at that time) but expect a wait of a couple of hours (maybe less) but the reward is two hours or more showcourt tennis at a knock down price.
Good luck
Steve

Good old fodors! I hope you get seats near center court.

Well, if we try to queue, are there hotels relatively close to Wimbledon that would be good to stay at?

There aren't any hotels in Southfields (which is where "wimbledon" is). There are two crappy pubs and a cake shop though.

There are a couple in Wimbledon itself but I really wouldn't bother.

Southfields is on the District line and only about 15-20 minutes from Earls court and central London.

CW - ex Southfields resident who really really HATED the tennis fortnight.

We always stay in an eccentric B&B in Wimbledon, we got this on th back of a tip from Fodors. Two hotels in Wimbledon are the Trochee and the Worcester; I cant vouch for either. Wimbledon is very accessible from Earls Court or South Kensington so you could broaden your search to cover these. One we fancy staying at is the Mayflower hotel, Earls Court - it was featured some time back in the Independant (UK newspaper). I have contact details for these if you so wish. Good luck.

Yes, would be interested in the hotel suggestions. We're still trying to decide if it's worth the effort to try to go to Wimbledon. We would be there the first week, so it sounds like our options might be ok. We have stayed in South Kensington before--can't recall the name of the place since it was many years ago. It might have been on Sumner Place, but not one of the fancy places.

The B&B I mentioned is as follows:
Compton Guest House
65 Compton Road, LONDON, Greater London, SW19 7QA
Tel: 020 89474488

Be warned its nothing fancy, not ensuite merely functional but the Landlord is a delightful character.

The hotels discussed:

www.mayflowerhotel.co.uk

http://www.worcesterhousehotel.co.uk/

http://www.londononline.co.uk/profiles/170053/

Good luck

The upmarket hotel in Wimbledon is Cannizaro House:

http://www.cannizarohouse.com/

But why on earth woud you want to stay in Wimbledon? It's a typical suburban town. There is the village which is lovely but gets very very busy in the summer.

And as I said the tennis isn't in Wimbledon it's in Southfields.

Of course you might get to see a real live womble (but they are very secretive and rarely seen).

OK. We are staying in South Kensington. We will be in London the nights of June 26, 27, and 28--so that's still around the first week of Wimbledon.

If we decide to go at about 4:30, will it be any more difficult to get in on a Saturday than a Friday? Friends have invited us to dinner on Friday, which was originally the day I was thinking of trying to get to Wimbledon.

<<< will it be any more difficult to get in on a Saturday than a Friday? >>>

You'll be fighting it out with "locals" and people on weekend trips

Everyone has forgotten to mention that, when you finally get inside, it will start to rain and play will stop.

And if you're really unlucky, Cliff Richard will sing at you.

OK, so if it isn't raining, and we decide to get in line in the morning, how many hours would you imagine we would have to wait before we get into the grounds?

Stevelyon...What is the aspect of queing that is "sort of fun"?

Did the Wombles ever make it across the pond?

As i said, i used to live next to the courts (never went - i don't like tennis) and I saw how it worked.

A prime time to turn up seemed to be about 2pm. There were a lot of people who had corporate passes coming out after their lunch and they would often hand these over to people queuing outside.

There were always plenty of touts as we call scalpers - i have no idea what they charge - but I can't imagine it's cheap (and there are some quite tough restictions on the tickets - others may be able to tell you more)

With regard to queuing, the fun thing is the sheer anxiety of not knowing whether you will get a showcourt (Centre, Number 1 or 2) or mere outside courts (which are good enough). There is a sort of camaraderie in the queue (comrades in adversity - Dunkirk and all that)- there is lots of people watching and folk coming round with freebies just to keep your spirits up. But just to rub it in, I have drawn Number 1 court tickets in the second week - so I can just breeze past the queue with a big smirk on my face.

I won't recommend this but share my very lucky story...

I had arrived in London on Saturday of Ladies' final. I wanted to go out to get merchandise for a few tennis friends, so I took the tube out and thought I'd buy a grounds pass... for the atmosphere. While walking along the route from the tube to the stadium, I was offered a single ticket. For 100 pounds.

Wow. That's a lot, and it could be counterfeit. I decided that if I passed it up, I would always kick myself and if I got kicked out, it was lesson learned.

sidenote:
btw, I believe in the scalping gods. We have bought tickets for US Open, Masters by scalping. And paying face value. By nice people who had extras. So when we have extra tickets, we ignore the 'professional scalpers', find a dad and son or someone who looks like they might use them, and sell them our extra tickets.
end sidenote.

So I walked in... expecting to be escorted to the door... and my ticket was in the 3rd row on the service line! WOW!!! I was next to a German photographer (serious equipment). It was a Steffi Graf win that went 3 sets vs. Sanchez-Vicario.

I kept waiting for the tap on my shoulder. I sat there, barely able to contain myself about how much fun I was having and how cool it was.

Was I lucky?
yes.
Would I take the risk again ?
probably.
Was it worth it ?
ABSOLUTELY!

so... go and have fun...

Having just come back from Wimbledon, I must say that Nadal looked in awesome form and I suspect he may get the title this year - especially since he is up against an exhausted (pensioner) opponent in his semi final. This would mean him being much fresher than Federer who I suspect will have a tough fight against Safin. Although I very much admire Nadal it would be a shame to see Federer's star eclipsed!

I'm watching Nadal's semi final match now. After an easy first set he's had to work a bit harder in the second and third.

But they interviewed Bjorn Borg a little earlier and, like you, he picked Nadal to win the tournament.

Oh, would I love to see Nadal and Federer at Wimbledon.

Let's have a few more years of splitting French and Wimbledon between them, though, please.

I loved Federer's response during an interview after the Safin match---"don't write me off just yet"

I'm looking forward to watching the final.

My worry (even more than usual) is the weather for the mens final - its going to be windy and possibly interrupted and doesn't make for the best conditions. On paper, it should be a brilliant match -lets hope so because Wimbledon hasn't ignited me this year; the semi finals were very disappointing.

Never mind all that. The really hot news is this item in my paper:

<i>Firemen were called on to Centre Court yesterday when one ageing tennis fan attempted to light the candles on his birthday-cake hat.</i>

Perhaps it made the news because you would have needed a flamethrower in the windy conditions

Our family thinks (and hopes) this is Nadal's year to win at Wimbledon. But we can understand those who are rooting for Federer to make history. Well, at leastI can understand it; our 17 year old son just told me that was &quot;stupid.&quot;
Either way it should be a great match

Rain delay.
What a couple of amazing athletes. I'm so used to rooting for Nadal that it's hard to switch over for Federer this time.

It's a rain delay--when are they going to have that retractable roof put on???

GO RAFA!!!

The roof is supposed to be ready next year according to NBC.

Nadal is two sets up and thankfully rain has interrupted play; can Federer still do it?

Rain delay #2 in the fifth set. What an incredible match.

I can't watch! It's making me nuts. So we are taping.

Hope you have plenty of tape!

We just ran out! Dang it.

All I can say is they must have better light in Wimbledon than we have here in NL!

I don't follow tennis, don't like it all. I'm just waiting for George Lightly which was due on over an hour ago.
Why do the Beeb insist on putting on new programmes when Wimbledon is on? Was the same last week with a series which was on every night, but the first episode started so late (remember we are an hour later here) that I couldn't watch -so I missed the whole series as I just didn't understand it any more.
Still it seems to me the crowd are getting their money's worth out of this final :)

&lt;&lt;&lt; Was the same last week with a series which was on every night, but the first episode started so late (remember we are an hour later here) that I couldn't watch -so I missed the whole series &gt;&gt;&gt;

Shown in UK between 9:00pm &amp; 10:00pm - so that's 10:00pm to 11:00pm in NL.

The show BTW is Criminal Justice - seems to be a new trend of the BBC to show the whole of a new series in one week. They did one last year &amp; apparently S3 of Torchwood is going to be shown the same way.

As for seeing Criminal Justice, there are ways and means if you have some computer literate friends and folk in the UK can use the wonderful iPlayer to download it

And congratulations to...

One hell of a match

amen. I wanted them both to win.