There’s no doubting the top Tory ticket this weekend; an invite to Chequers and a chance to have your fingerprints on whatever flavour of disaster Brexit finally turns out to be. For those who missed out, however, there was Wimbledon. The MPs Stephen Hammond and Justine Greening, both of a Remain tendency, were guests in the Royal Box on Friday, as were Lords Coe and Hague. There was one other guy. Ruddy-cheeked and boasting porcine features, this gentleman was in wraparound sunglasses and looking like he owned the place. David Cameron was his name and goodness knows how he got an invite.
There’s a game on y’know
Project “Don’t Mention the World Cup” update. It is the sporting event everyone in SW19 is pretending is not happening and as of Friday evening the line remained steadfast: not a single screen on the Wimbledon grounds will be showing England v Sweden on Saturday. That includes those in the members’ areas. Rather magnanimously, punters will still be allowed to stream the game on their own phones should they wish and that right might even extend to Centre Court, as long as the umpire does not deem them a disruption.
Tiebreaks on the rise
Data journalism alert: Alexander Zverev (German, not Russian) overcame a stiff test against Taylor Fritz (American, not German) as he bounced back from an overnight deficit of two sets to one in the final second‑round match of the men’s championship. One of those sets went to a tiebreak, the 80th of the men’s draw. If that seems like a lot, you would not be wrong. Last year, there were 87 tiebreaks in the entire tournament with similar totals in 2016 and 2015 (86 and 88 respectively). At this rate this year’s total will break a century by the time the men’s final comes around. Another product of the big serve era?
