New Neighbours

Someone looks to have 'done a Grand Designs' on a spare bit of land on my usual 'emergency blip route'. Or at least where I go in the evening when I haven't got a picture for the day. Watched Andy Murray winning his semi-final at Wimbledon on TV. Strange to think that neither of my parents had been born the last time there was a British man in the Wimbledon singles final. Last woman finalist was in 1977 - maybe a good omen that Virginia Wade won in that silver jubilee year? Think Andy will need all the omens and good luck he can get against Federer if he's going to have any chance of winning on Sunday. I have only been to Wimbledon twice, days apart back in 1985 when I was a student in London. Think we were lucky with our experience as back then you could queue on the day for general admission ticket that gave you access to all the courts, even the show courts. You had to queue for standing room at the back of the grandstand overlooking (the old) Number One court and in the middle of the grandstands on Centre Court. Once you were there you could stay as long as you wanted but you couldn't sit down. Stewards were on hand to make sure you didn't break the rule and take a rest, but then that was how the system worked, ensuring a turnover of people as fatigue set in. And your ticket also gave you access to all the other courts, some of which had un-reserved seating in their grandstands. And in the days before Henman Hill and Murray Mound there was still a buzz around the place as people followed the scores on other courts on the many scoreboards dotted around the place. I think I'd gone along a little bit cynical that we wouldn't get to see much and enjoyed the first day so much that we went again a few days later. Having seen a young German player do so well on the Saturday evening we went straight to the outer court where he was playing to see him again. Boris Becker, for it was he, didn't disappoint an won in five sets against Tim Mayotte. One of the games we didn't see that day, but followed on the scoreboards with the rest of the crowds, was unseeded Frenchman Henri Leconte putting out the number two seed and Wimbledon under-achiever Ivan Lendl. Both were picked out by the cameras today. Obviously Lendl as Andy's coach and Henri in the crowd and presumably supporting compatriot Tsonga. I need to find the old pictures I took on those two visits to Wimbledon.