It is early evening, my favourite time of day at Wimbledon, and I am sitting so close to the action that I can see the angles of individual blades of grass and tap the service line judge on the shoulder.
In front of me on Court 14, two players I have never heard of are leathering the ball at each other in probing rallies and as the balls fizz by metres away, it feels so intimate as to be visceral. Back in 2001, I watched a similarly thrilling tussle on an outside court featuring a little-known Swiss playing his first Wimbledon, an up-and-comer called Roger Federer. Never again would I be so close to greatness.
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Later, when I decamp to Centre Court (without a centre court ticket) for a match that will run past 9.30pm, I reflect on two great misconceptions about Wimbledon that deter many from coming.
The first being that if you don’t have a ticket, you will have to queue for hours to get in. The second is that Wimbledon is an expensive day out, especially if you want to see action on the show courts. Neither need be true — but it helps to know a few tricks of the trade.
How to get in without queuing for hours
At 11am on Monday, Paul and Lora were cheerfully standing in the queue for a £27 grounds pass having arrived four hours earlier at 7am. “We reckon we have another hour before we get in,” Lora told me. Similarly, people arriving at midday faced long waits though, reassuringly, a steward told me: “It’s moving in a steady stream, probably three to four hours from the yellow flag at the back of the queue to the main gate, but I am confident everyone here will get in.”
Wimbledon has a capacity of 42,000 and thousands of grounds passes will be flogged here daily, although according to veterans, queues these days are “nothing” compared to years gone by. Rita Fitzgerald, 54, had pitched her tent to be fifth in the queue — the first 1,500 can buy tickets for Centre Court (£80), Court 1 (£70) or Court 2 (£55). Typically, she said, the queue snaked all the way from the K1 marker to K17 at the back of the field.
A five-hour wait in a field is not everyone’s cup of tea, so how can you avoid it without resorting to scalping a ticket off the internet for hundreds of pounds?
How to avoid the Wimbledon queues
It’s a little-known fact that if you head to Wimbledon for around 4pm, or jump on a quick Tube to Southfields after work, you will likely face a queue of less than an hour — and if you enter from 5pm, a reduced grounds pass price typically of about £20.
This works even if capacity has been reached earlier in the day because as spectators leave, they allow more in on a strictly one-out, one-in basis.
Many years I have journeyed to SW19 on the off-chance I might get in and I have never been disappointed. It is best done in the first week when there is still plenty of strong outside court action and where, if you are lucky, you might see the new next big thing. What lies ahead, then, is a feast of four hours of glorious tennis in the sublime early evening, sometimes more, with Centre Court and Court 1 often continuing under lights until late.
Of course, if you have a grounds pass, you can’t get in to Centre Court or Court 1. Or can you?
How to watch tennis on show courts without a ticket
A grounds pass officially gives you access to the 12 outside courts and to the unreserved seats on show courts 3, 12 and 18, but that need not be the limits of your ambition.
The official way to see the top seeds is, of course, to queue (again) at the ticket resale booth behind court 18 where you can pick up Centre Court ticket returns for £15 or Courts 1 or 2 for a tenner — but that can be a tedious wait.
Much more fun, and cheaper, is to stagger your evening. First, get up close and personal on the outer courts where the atmosphere at around 7.30pm tends to be a curious combination of chilled and raucous — with partisan members of the crowd vociferously cheering on their favourites with Pimm’s-fuelled abandon.
Then, as dusk settles, head towards Centre Court or Court 1 where at this hour, many stewards take a relaxed attitude towards allowing people in. As one Centre Court steward told me: “How do you get into Centre Court? All you have to do is ask! It’s totally discretionary but many punters will have gone home by this point and none of the stars want to play to a half empty arena. So if you ask, there’s a good chance we will let you in.” And if one steward turns you away, you can always try your luck a few gates down.
In previous years, I have watched some great contests late on Centre, seated cheekily near the Royal Box, having paid just £20 for the day — which only heightened the thrill.
And by the way, rain early in the afternoon is your friend because it backs up play and ensures a full schedule on the outside courts until last light. So, on Monday, you could have bought a cheap-as-chips grounds pass and enjoyed several hours on the outside courts followed by some Centre Court and Court 1 action, wolfed down with a £2.70 pot of strawberries and cream. Not a bad return.
If you do chance your arm, you will likely find me there, soaking in the last rays of sunshine and the special atmosphere of the outside courts, before relying on the kindness of strangers on Centre.
