Wimbledon Repeat

Yesterday we headed to Wimbledon, as we typically do because we are spoiled and live very close to one of the most iconic events in the annual sporting calendar. Myself, Chrissi and former colleagues Matt and Myles met at around 9ish (after much incompetence on my part at taking the correct exit from the A3 which delayed us by about 15 minutes), and headed to the grounds.

It was busy, as you'd expect. It's always busy. Nothing that we were surprised by - but despite arriving at a similar time to last year we were told on reaching the gates it may be 3pm before we were let in. We joined the queue and waited, and as the rows in front of us were marched towards the gates it looked promising. We had a relaxed time, playing cards, chatting and otherwise passing the time by complaining about the queue. When we got moving, however, we then got stopped by about 1:30pm when it became clear that they were letting no more people in, the grounds were at capacity. We were left with a dilemma - abandon the already four-hour long queueing epic, or keep waiting.

We kept waiting. Had we wanted to change our mind, the time to do it would've been in the morning when we arrived. After we sat down and started to queue, it made no sense to leave. Throughout the afternoon we slowly crawled forward - it was a one out, one in policy so only as people left the grounds were others allowed to enter. A sudden surge got us within sights of the bag check area - the real finish line - by about 4:30, when we then were halted until just after 5pm when the crowd was unleashed. We got into the grounds not long after.

After around 8 hours of queueing, we wouldn't have been surprised if fate had conspired against us by then bringing down rain. It didn't. We had around four hours of tennis that we could watch, and it was worth it. Even if it didn't feel like it throughout the long afternoon!

Next year we will have to go earlier, although I'm wary of an arms race where everyone arrives earlier each year just to maintain their spot in the queue ahead of others who also arrive earlier because they were too late last year, and so the pattern repeats itself!