DID YOU KNOW…
* Wimbledon was the first sporting event to be shown on colour TV
* When colour was coming to TV they wanted to see what colour would show up best with a tennis ball, the two colours chosen were pink and yellow and it was felt yellow had the better clarity
* The present site of the All England Lawn Tennis Club is its second. It is now positioned on Church Road, Wimbledon. The original site was Worple Road, Wimbledon which is in the Wimbledon Town Centre and is now more residential
* The postcode for the suburb of Wimbledon is SW19 but the specific postcode for the All England Lawn Tennis Club is SW19 5AE.
* If you take the Tube to The Championship, the nearest station is Southfields. Wimbledon station is at the end of the line and two stops after Southfields on the District Line
* The Wimbledon Championships is the largest single annual sport catering operation carried out in Europe. Here’s a breakdown of consumption of some of the food and drink: 16,000 portions of fish and chips, 30,000 stone baked pizzas 76,000 sandwiches and baguettes, 86,000 portions of ice cream, 140,000 portions of Kentish strawberries which are 25-40mm wide, 10,000 litre of dairy cream, 25,000 scones, 29,000 bottles of champagne, 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s, 110,000 pints of draught beer, 330,000 cups of tea and coffee, 230,000 bottles of water and 44000 litres of milk.
* Strawberries and cream for Wimbledon has changed little over the years, Strawberries are picked at 4am on the day of serving and delivered to the Club by 11am
* Since 1963 Wimbledon entry conditions stipulated that competitors must be dress predominantly in white throughout. In 1995 that was clarified to mean “almost entirely white”. If not dressed suitably by the committee a player is liable to be defaulted.
* The trophies in singles are the Challenge Cup for the men and the Venus Rosewater Dish for women. The most won by William Renshaw and Roger Federer in the men’s, seven each, and Martina Navratilova in the women’s, nine
* HM The Queen was Patron of the Club till 2016. In 2017, Catherine, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge took over as Patron.
* HM The Queen attended The Championships four times, 1957, 1962, 1977 and 2010. The last time she met several past and present players on the Player Lawn. Roger Federer sat at her table at lunch and Andy Murray met her after his match that day.
* If invited to the Royal Box men are expected to wear lounge suit/jacket and tie and ladies are asked not to wear hats as they “tend to obscure those seated behind them”. Only if the President of the Club HRH The Duke of Kent removes his jacket are the other men in the Royal Box allowed to remove their jackets.
* An average of 53,000 tennis balls are used during The Championships. Slazenger has been the Wimbledon ball since 1902. Yellow balls were used for the first time in 1986.
* The roof over Centre Court is held up by ten trusses, 16 metres above the court surface, takes ten minutes to close and can be opened or closed during wind speeds of 43 miles and hour
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* The only other events besides the actual tournament held at The Club since moving to Church Road were: 17 ties in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, 22 of the now defunct Wightman Cup, two Olympic Games and one event called the Wimbledon World Professional Championships in 1967 with Rod Laver defeating Ken Rosewall in singles
