Saturday, July 07, 2007

Wimbledon weather

Earlier in the year Mrs Tips (pictured), feeling a little fed up with the dull roofing jobs I kept giving her, expressed an interest in the champagne lifestyle of the professional tennis circuit. As an indulgence, last Thursday, we hit the All England Lawn Tennis Club Championships at Wimbledon, hopeful of a full day's play, strawberries and cream and glasses of bubbly sipped romantically together on a typically tranquil English summer afternoon.

In the event we were fortunate to see two ladies' quarter finals matches and roughly forty minutes of Roger Federer's match with Juan Carlos Ferrero before the rain came, big time. It wasn't big rain, you understand, but it was the sort of rain that stops tennis being played and it was accompanied at times by a gusting wind. Initially we were informed that the rain would pass through and play in the evening was a distinct possibility. Three hours later, at 7.10pm, The Man told us he'd been kidding us all along (because it was good for business) and there would be no more play at all.

When play gets stopped at Wimbledon, there's surprisingly little to do other than spend your hard earned on souvenirs in the Wimbledon Shop or overpriced drinks. I searched everywhere for a betting shop (see picture), but to no avail. Still, the action was to be savoured and we'll certainly be applying for tickets to next year's championships.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A tense but enthralling tennis final between Federer and Nadal. At one stage I thought Nadal was going to do it, but Roger pulled out the stops in the final set.Brilliant.Federer is really something else.

Very much enjoyed the Mixed Final too which saw Jamie Murray and Jelena Jankovic win impressively.

Can't wait until next year's Championships!

Mrs Tips

Anonymous said...

Caption.

After just 2 hours of being away from anything remotely connected to horse racing, the cold turkey finally sets in...

...then Graham suddenly spots a gentleman in row 14 reading a copy or the Racing Post...

...and with a little bit of focusing he manages to read the back pages!

Anonymous said...

John Smiths cup. Early fancies for this race this saurday?

John Smith's Cup


Shahid

GeeDee said...

Cards on the table, Shahid; I won't be getting involved in the John Smith's Cup this year unless I see a stand out proposition.
The main reason is that the distance of the race has been shortened from the mile two furlongs and eighty eight yards to, and I quote, 'one mile about one furlong'. This is on account of waterlogged areas on the York track. Horses that run over 12 furlongs often do well in the race but that's unlikely to apply this time around. I think the draw will be important, so I wouldn't bet before knowing the draw - looking at The Weekender, the winner has come from a single figure stall in eight of the last ten runnings. Stats point to the winning profile as a 3-5 year old horse (that will act on the likely soft ground)carrying around 8-12, with a handicap mark near the 98 mark.