Xenon's wimbly blog

[xenon21]

Initially, I was all for going to queue up for ground tickets and trying to get resale tickets from 3 (or even earlier). However, we were told from a very reliable source that you would not be likely to get tickets till very late! So, there needed to be some last minute changes in plans. At 8:30 on Sunday night, I was sat in front of the computer, trying to get Centre court tickets, with kels attempting to do the same at the other end. I somehow got them and she didn’t :( even though we tried at the same time! So, plans were for me and my brother to go with the centre court tickets, meeting Kels there. Meant I could have a lie in BUT the tickets were nosebleed seats and from what Steven said, were the ones right at the back. Row ZF. Another problem I had was that I knew that I would have to leave at around 8 as my brother had school the next day. Turned out to be ok as it meant that I could hand over a ticket to Kels for her to watch Andy play live for the first time after I had left!
So, that evening it was hard to get to sleep what with the excitement and stuff. Was nice to be able to relax and stuff after my exams! I had loads of stuff to think about and stuff which I had to pack to try and give to Andy and Jamie

Hitting Back book to maybe get signed
The Murray Madness book to try and give to Andy
Had a Wimbly DVD to give to Andy too
Give Kels her copy of Hitting Back
Jamie’s good luck card from everyone on am.com and jm.org

[xenon21]

All were taken in my big rucksack and I was able to have a lie in! (Barely possible last year when I went). After getting a bit of food, me and my brother set off to Southfields and I went to grab my brother a Wimbledon cap (which he eventually forgot on the bus whoops!) Me and him met Kels at Wimbly where I was able to give her her copy of hitting back (which she got signed on the 2nd day) and showed her the Murray Madness book. Our first stop was to see if we could find out when Andy and Jamie were practising. No such luck! After a bit of hanging around court and finding noone, we had a bit of a walkaround to see what was going on and stuff. We watched Hewitt practice for a bit before deciding to split for a bit. Kels went to hunt some matches while me and my brother went to Centre Court to watch Federer play. 1st set was tighter than I thought it would be but it was obvious that Fed-ex was just that much better and was great to watch Fed-ex glide around the court! The view was actually very good from the back of the stands. You can see the court and the ball without obstructions and being at the back, you could standup eithout bugging anyone. :wink:

After that, I left my brother for a tiny bit and decided to see if Andy was practising! Success! Andy had come out and was then signing autographs. I got him to sign my book Hitting Back (lol, his autograph can become less and less legible as time goes along) and although Andy was in a hurry, I was able to call Andy back to take his copy of Murray Madness and the Wimbly DVD. Hope he enjoys them! Also, obviously wished him luck from all of us! (was wearing team murray at that time) I then went back to grab my brother to see if he wanted to stay (and watch last few games) or come to watch Jamie play. He wanted to watch Jamie play so off we went.

We met up with Kels and queued up to watch Jamie play. It was quite a queue but eventually we got in. Good thing we did come out a bit earlier as later, we might have missed Jamie. It was a very tough match against the 2nd seeds and unfortunately, Jax weren’t doing as good as we had hoped for. From the court, we were able to see the centre court scoreboard and the ladies match was in the 3rd set. Our priority was Andy’s match and really I didn’t want to miss it so we thought we should go a bit earlier, in case! Bad mistake! The ladies match went on for a bit longer and we missed watching Jax’s match finish and missed being able to give Jamie his card! Darn! We sat on our seats wishing the ladies would just hurry up so we could watch Andy! The ladies went on forever! I'm not too much into ladies tennis and I was eager for Andy's match. I do admit that the match was good though. Beofre we could get back into the stands, there was a mega long game which just went on and on and on... Is really frustrating when that happens! The ladies finally finished and it was time for Andy!

I have watched Andy play live before but I have never watched him play at Wimbledon so this was something I was excited about. Armed with ice creams (the special strawberries and cream ice cream which is a must when you go to Wimbly), we sat in our seats up in the gods to watch the match. Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Was a very tough match to watch. I felt that it was pretty evens stevens for most of the first set but then it went pretty downhill. Talk about a murraycoaster. This was more like a murray pit. Was difficult to watch and we were all really really nervous. I know that I did think that it was the end of Andy during the 3rd set. I had no idea how Andy would come back as his 1st serve percentage was very low and he could play so much better!

But then came the amazing comeback and the atmosphere hit the roof! From the moment Andy broke back in the 3rd, he had the crowd on the feet. His fist pumps and “Come ons” coincided with our increased volume and Andy managed to get the crowd all pumped up! The tie breaker was crucial! I knew unfortunately that after the tie break I would have to go home as my brother had school the next day. The tie breaker was immense! The shots Andy pulled off belied his performance to that point and then THE POINT! To watch the point where Andy managed to get that unbelievable shot in was crazy! And boy did the crowd go wild! Was a good time to leave.

I handed kels over the ticket so she could watch Andy play live for the 1st time. She got the amazing 2 sets but no regrets for me as I had to go. Wish I could have got the last 2 sets but I did get the start of the comeback! C’est la vie. On the way back, I met someone from school who I had not seen for years and managed to give my other ticket away. The way home was hell as it seemed impossible to find out the Andy score. A few others on the train were curious too. However, not until Andy won (thanks for the text kels) did I find out and I said rather loud “YES!” Much to the surprise of the others on the train. But hey, Andy won! :D When I got home, I watched the highlights and was delighted! Found out that we had tickets for the next day so I had a bit more of a lie in again. :D Phew! End of a crazy day! But had not handed Jamie over the card yet. :(

[xenon21]

A few pictures of the day (not that great)

Fed-ex's match

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[xenon21]

Jax's match

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At the beginning when watching Jamie's match, I didn't even recognise Jamie (because of his hair) and was wondering where Jamie was lol. I had been told previously that Jamie had shaved his head though

[xenon21]

And more

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[xenon21]

Here are the very very few pictures od Andy's match

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By the way, the team Murray shirts did bring about some attention from fans. Some in awe of it lol and some shouting "Come on Murray" when they saw it.

[Pam]

Thanks for sharing with us Xenon. Loved all the pics of Jamie and Andy.

SO nice to see you again.

[hfwardhouse]

Love the blog Xe - it was great to meet you!!

[RFS]

Fabulous - and I think you even caught me in the crowd in Jamie & Max's match!!!

Will tidy up my blogs - last day today at Wimbledon and I really hope I can top it off with a Jamie and Liezel victory!

[xenon21]

2nd Tuesday!

Wimbledon rest of blog

On Tuesday, through a long story, we had centre court tickets but it was a ladies day which me and Kels were not too interested in. Sally was there as well and was able to have a great time on court 1. It was so great meeting up with you again Sally. You are a star! So, in comparison to Monday, today was a bit more of a relaxing day! We had no actual game plan but we did have an order of play which helped! Lol. Me and Kels went one way and Sally the other with the promise of meeting up later. We knew from Judy that Jamie was playing on Tuesday. Something which we had no idea about! Thank god for Judy! I think that Jamie was down in place of a To Be Decided match as well as Max Myrini. So, our plans for the day was relaxation, catch some ladies tennis, watch some of Jamie’s match somehow (as it was on court 2) and try and catch Judy. (and for me, I had to go watch the Woodies play).

So, our first stop was to the practice courts. Noone too interesting was practising. And there weren’t really any players we really wanted to watch. The place to get autographs is soooooooo addictive! But that day was very very slow. One of the stewards said that Nadal and Andy might be practising later at around 1 although he was not sure, so we went for a long walk around the Wimbledon site before coming back. There was not really any time to watch any part of any match just in case we missed Andy (though turned out not to be too much of a problem). For the three days we were there we had probably done several rounds of the whole of Wimbledon! The guy who we talked to initially turned out to be someone we’d regularly see that day and Wednesday lol! Kels had never met Andy before so she was very eager to meet him and get his autograph. A picture would be perfect but that didn’t happen unfortunately.

So, onto the waiting and waiting and waiting for autographs. Kels’ friend was there and kept us updated on who was practising on the courts. It was way too hot on Tuesday (oddly enough the rest of the week is down as horrid). The heat was just sapping away at our energy and was hard to move away from our place at the gates lol. So, my friendly steward knew how much we wanted to see Andy and Jamie and kept teasing us about that. Though, he was not so clever as he knew barely anything about the players. He did have a funny story though. Jamie had previously cut his hair and one embarrassed worker did not recognise him. He actually asked for ID but how embarrassing for him!

So, we had knowledge of the fact that Safin was on court practising. But there was no news on Andy or Nadal. :confused: In fact, what made it even more confusing was that there was a Spanish tv person who was supposedly waiting for Nadal but he never came out. Of course, we found out afterwards that Nadal was out and forgot about his practice session and came in the evening… supposedly. But we weren’t to know that at that point. Now, this hunt for autographs turned out to be interesting to say the least. First up was Max Myrini! Initially, I was not sure if it was him, but it definitely was him. Noone else knew he was. I called Max over and got his autograph but got a bit tongue tied and barely said anything (like about his site or mentioning his wild card for the Olympics). But I did find out that he was playing that day and wished him luck. He posed for a picture but not sure mine is too good or if I can get it uploaded. Max was very nice though and it was a pity people didn’t know who he was. Me and Kels had to explain it to people. It’s annoying that people do not know who Jamie’s doubles partner is.

Next up was Federer. Now, I would love to get his autograph! So, I went into the queue to get his autograph and had the programme out on the page and everything but then… he stopped signing autographs, just when he came to me! I was so annoyed! Definitely put me off him for a while and for a while, I had him down next to Hewitt (though not as bad) and Tim who all ignore me or stop doing autographs right at the time they get to me. That was to change though a bit later lol. So, while I was getting annoyed away, Andy came out! Ok, I can’t remember the order of who came out when but that’s not important I guess. Lol! So, finally, Andy came out, but he didn’t sign autographs initially, I think. But he was off to practice so he would come soon. After waiting an age seeing juniors and other people coming out, we saw Clement. But we didn’t realise it was him till it was almost too late. But he came back after doing some interviews so I got him! Lol.

Now it was time for Federer to come back. I was curious as to whether he would make up for missing me last time and he did! In fact, he came to me first which was very nice of him. And he signed Kels’ flag. He really was very nice. I felt bad for being annoyed at him earlier. After signing autographs on our side, he went to the other side and it went crazy! People were like “we love you Roger,” “we’re your biggest fans…” was slightly mad! We were just rolling our eyes. At the back there was Max walking away and I felt sorry for him not getting the attention so I called out “We love you Max” lol. At this time, some people were complaining to the stewards about why Nadal was not there yet and when he would be out. I was thinking, stop laying into them. It’s not their fault. Grrrrrrr. Plus, they were annoying my newly found steward friend. We met Rob who was wearing sorry to say Rob, but not quite so fashionable green shorts lol. Had a small chat with him before he had to run off again. I felt annoyed at not giving Rob Jamie’s card as Jamie was not in the best mood before and after practice (he was upset at losing men’s doubles) and didn’t sign autographs (or take his card). Was on the verge of giving up here! I got Safin’s autograph (who was very nice). Then, Andy came out! Woo! Again, was a bit tongue tied and forgot to ask him if he liked his book and DVD. I got him to sign my copy of Murray Madness and Kels met him and he signed her copy of Hitting Back! (mine was even less recognisable than the previous day lol). We then decided to leave and go to watch some tennis!

[xenon21]

Sorry about the lack of pictures by the way. The ladies match which was Petrova vs Dementieva was actually pretty good. By the time we got to centre, we realised that we really had spent ages on the practice courts lol! The match was close and at times seemed as if Dementieva just didn’t want to win the match lol. Some decent shots but I do much rather prefer men’s tennis. There I ate a bit of food, we had some strawberries and cream ice cream and were very thankful that we were under the roof (oddly enough not as good seats as the ones from previous day even though they were 1 row in front. They weren’t in the middle). It was so hot that the roof provided us with some sort of shade. We weren’t too bothered about watching Serena play so we went to go and see if we could watch Jamie’s mixed doubles match.

Turned out that we had already missed out on the start of Jamie and Liezel’s match, so really struggled to actually find a standing space to try and watch the match on court 2. But it was very very tough! It was boiling hot and almost impossible to catch the tennis. It is not nice being short and trying to be on the standing part of the stands. But we tried to stick it out. I was on my tiptoes for most of the match and craning my neck for each point. Not very comfortable at all. In the meantime, I received a text from Judy to tell me that she could meet us outside court 2 after the match. Liezel and Jamie were playing well and gelled well together but the difficulty of watching got to be too much. Plus, Jamie and Liezel were close to winning so we decided to try and skip the crowd and come out of the stands.

We hung around the exit of the court waiting for Jamie to finish his match. I STILL had his good luck card to give him. Sally had rounded up a few others including hfwardhouse to meet Judy. Only problem was that we had no idea where to meet her. Luckily she said to go under the clock (where we would have never thought of checking). Was soooooooooooo lovely to see Judy again! Seemed like an age since I had last seen her. And as Judy said, it had been a year since she had seen Kels. Judy always remembers my brother and asked about him but I told her she had missed him! He was there on Monday. I gave her Jamie’s card and showed her the Murray Madness book we had created. The first thing she commented on was the hypnotising eyes picture made by me. Whoops. We chatted for a while.

Then there was a group of kids (lucky kids. We never had any good school trips to Wimbledon). As usual, Judy was amazing with the children and treated them great! She handed them over picture cards of Jamie and Andy which were different from before (well Andy’s anyway). Judy being as amazing as she is handed over some Jamie cards for us. After a quick chat about me and Kels coming the next day, she left to do some more work. Is amazing though that Judy takes time out to meet us. NikNak and his mum were there too and met Judy as well. Was lovely to meet you all! My favourite part of the day was actually at that time. Judy’s brother was there and remembered us from last time. Was amazing that he spent time chatting to us too. Lovely guy!

Eventually, hfarwardhouse and the rest separated from me, Kels and Sally. Sally went to get some stuff from the small Wimbledon stand. Then we sat down and talked for a while in the shade of course as it was sooooooooooo hot! It was nice to just sit down and relax a bit. Was still relatively early but Sally and Kels wanted to get an early night and reach home in time to try and get centre court tickets for Andy vs Nadal match. Not that we were expecting to get tickets but it was worth a shot! I wanted to hang around a bit more because there was a match which I really really wanted to see. You see, back when I was 16, I was able to catch the Woodies play (before they retired) at least for a few games at the end of their match. I so badly wanted to get their autographs but was not able to find the exit for the court and missed getting their autographs. The Woodies are my favourite doubles team of all time! So, would I miss out on a chance to catch them play again? No way Jose! So, I said bye to Sally and Kels. Kels I would see the next day but not Sally. :( But was great meeting Sally again.

I rushed off to court 18 which to my surprise was pretty packed! In fact there was quite a queue outside but no way was I going to miss this. My aim was to get decent seats watch most of the match and then leave right before the end to be able to catch them and belatedly get their autographs. I would have loved to have sung “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” but you kind of need a few people for that. The queue was moving very very slowly and I had no idea what was going on or what the score was. In fact, I missed the whole of the 1st set. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! People were milling around wondering who was playing and I had t reply loads “The Woodies” but I do realise that not everyone would love them as much as me lol! But after the first set, loads of people left so I was able to get in pretty easy! I was watching them play! Even got in a few “Come on Woodies!” Was great watching them play together again. Todd Woodbridge was always the more solid server of the 2 as far as I remember. Also, I noticed that Todd often used the same ball after it hit the net. Was weird that as I have hardly ever seen that happen.

Surprise surprise, the Woodies won! Woooooooooooooo! By this time, I was outside the players exit having left 2 games early (just to make sure). There was no way I would miss them again. I got one of the dudes who the Woodies were playing (can’t remember who though whoops) and his partner just ran off. Then the Woodies came out. There were kids behind me and usually I’d let them go first but this was the Woodies! When they came out, I told them that they were my favourite doubles players of all time! I also asked Mark why they retired lol. He said it was time for them to retire. Well it was time for him to retire. They were both so lovely! Mark was very cheerful too. I got pictures with them and of them and wished them luck for the rest of the tournament. I am so glad t have met them and I hope they go far.

Then it really was time to go home. I went home elated to have met the Woodies! And on the way home, I received some good news that Kels had menaged to get us centre court tickets for Andy vs Nadal woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[xenon21]

My pictures of the woodies (don't ask why I have none of Liezel and Jamie. I only just remembered my camera at the end doh!)

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[xenon21]

More woodies

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[xenon21]

And after the match

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[xenon21]

2nd Wednesday

So, the day had arrived! Andy vs Rafa! Woooooo! And my final day at Wimbly unless I go for Jamie’s mixed doubles final should he make it. Started off with a chase after some people to see if there was someone who can get to Wimbly to make full use of Judy’s 2 spare ground tickets. And after a bit of hunting, we found someone… Pam! Still needed a bit of chasing around which involved talking our way into finding out if the tickets had been left at the gate and then finding out that it would be left at noon. But it all turned out good in the end. And amazing Judy had enabled Pam to come to Wimbly. :) Well, that excitement was over but it shows how amazing Judy was to think of the fans!

Before meeting up with Kels, I had to make my way there. There was talk about the match and stuff and I was surrounded on the train by people who had amazing tickets! One guy I got to talk to had corporate tickets who refused to swap tickets with me lol. He had come a few times and had wicked tickets. He had one funny story where he was watching a match in front of a guy who was talking a lot about the match and stuff. He really wanted to tell him to be quiet. Then the next time he went to Wimbly, he realised that that guy was actually the umpire! Lol!

I met up with Kels who had decided that it was better to leave her luggage (as she was going home) instead of lugging it around Wimbly. Clever idea! Next clever idea from me was to freeze some bottles of water so we could have cold water throughout the day. Annoyingly it was the one day we didn’t really need it too much! As for food, oh yeah I had some food but me and Kels have a little problem. We can’t eat much if it is hot or if we are excited! As a result of not eating too much (apart from ice cream and a bit of sandwich) and running around and doing loads of rounds of Wimbly grounds, I think I lost a bit of weight lol! That should be a losing weight regime! Go to Wimbly!

Today was all about rain! But it was not raining when we got there. First place we went to was… can you guess? The practice grounds! And guess who we saw? The same steward as the day before! Hehe! He was like “Not you again. After Andy again?” Ummm, what does he think seeing as we had worn our Team Murray shirts by now. We stayed by the practice courts as word was that Andy and Nadal should be practising. The question was Where and When! First up was… Nadal! Now, odd thing was that me and Kels were in prime position to get decent pictures. Right at the front. But Nadal took forever to turn around and face our part of the court. So, we took a few pictures (mine are not too great. Maybe Kels’ are) and decided that trying to find Andy practising was more important.

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Told you they weren't good. But don't worry, Andy pictures are better

[xenon21]

We went down to the lower practice courts to see if we could find out when Andy would be practising and where. To our surprise, they said that he was already there! Wooooooooooooo! We ran over there to grab a good spot. At that stage, a good spot meant not in front of the court but a bit away. There were people in front of us. However, bit by bit, we inched closer and closer to the court and at the end we had a great position and our pictures will be able to show that! As we had nowhere else to be and to be honest, the day was all about Andy, we stood there watching the practice eagerly in our Team Murray shirts. There was a very nice couple next to us who were nice and chatty and really nice to us.

We took out our cameras and started snapping away. I could not take too many pictures though as my camera battery was only half full, but kels took a couple of hundred more lol! We had fun recognising all of Team Murray and amused ourselves with the image of Miles doing butterfly exercises which made him look really funny! I missed that image but I think Kels has that. Then, to our surprise, Treacle (who once on Monday or Tuesday, I had called out his name, well Treacle anyhow but am pretty sure he didn’t see me) came over to us and said hi and asked how we were. I was well chuffed with that and the couple next to us were like “what, how did you guys have him say that?” Our reply was perhaps the Team Murray shirts which make us special :wink:. To which we had a nice short discussion about the site and the shirts.

The couple kind of realised that we were pretty big Andy and Jamie fans and when they left let us move up a bit closer to the courts. So, our pictures got even better. At one point, we had thought that Andy would give us a little show of his keep it uppies but didn’t quite happen lol. And then it started raining! Well, really spitting. Thankfully for us, Team Murray stayed on court. Andy was looking very relaxed and was joking around and stuff. Miles practiced with him which a guy in white shirt and jeans (looked familiar but didn’t recognise him. We can’t link him to any of Team Murray as shown on the home page) took him through the drills.

One of my favourite moments of the practice was when I had a little joke around with Treacle who is a wicked guy. See he was kind of acting like a ball boy, feeding balls and collecting them. At one point, he messed up the collecting of the ball. I called out to him that he was not a very good ball boy to which he agreed. I also told him not to give up his day job. It was good to be able to make Treacle laugh. He’s a good sport. While it was raining, we saw and heard Pam Shriver under a huge umbrella talking about Andy, the guy in the jeans and the weather. Close to the end of the practice, we were right in front of Andy, and got some good photos of him serving. Perfect timing as Andy was right in front of us. All too soon, it was time for the end of practice. Andy and Treacle had a bit of a wrestle before a quick team talk and then off went Team Murray leaving Andy to plenty of interviews.

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[xenon21]

Now for the barrage of photos (please do not take my photos unless you ask me and I agree)

At the start when we were further away from Andy

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Miles (but after his butterfly impression)
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Andy stretching
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[xenon21]

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Group huddle (praying that they do not come off for the light drizzle)
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Andy comes on our side and we get better pictures. :)
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[xenon21]

More pictures. At this point we are right behind the court and in ideal places to watch Andy practise. :)

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[xenon21]

Andy serving

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[xenon21]

More pictures

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[xenon21]

Initially, we were standing on a bench intending to shout out good luck but decided to just go to the queue to the lockers as it would be easier. Due to the large number of interviews Andy had to do, we had plenty of time to go round to the other side and queue up to wait for Andy. In that area, we met a kid who missed out on Nadal’s autograph :( I reassured him and his mum that Andy will definitely sign all of the autographs! Thank god Andy is so nice! I know he will not miss out fans especially not children! And the boy was not to be disappointed of course. Andy signed the kid’s programme and there was me hunting around in the programme to find is picture. For some odd reason, in my rush I didn’t see it/ Andy was waiting for me so I handed it over but said that I couldn’t find his picture. Luckily he found it and signed it. He might have recognised us as he looked up to us and we wished him luck again and said we would be watching him play. Andy said thank you to us again (as he did on Tuesday). And, Andy signed Kels’ Scottish flag as well. :D Andy was on his way to the locker rooms when another person asked for his autograph and he turned around to sign it and a few others. Then on his way down, he did a u turn and chucked a pen which he had forgotten to give back over to the person on the ground. :D Am glad he didn’t take it like Serena once took my pen.

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Andy chucking back the pen
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[Pam]

:rolling: :rolling:

I have never in all my life seen SO MANY pictures of Andy - it must have taken you ages to load them all up. Loved all the pics of Jamie too and Max. It's really nice that you can get to Wimbledon so often and that you take the time to share it all with us - thanks very much XE.

.......and thanks again for the part you played in making sure I got my tickets. Judy is an absolute star to take the time to make sure they were there on time for me when she is so busy.

[xenon21]

And to finish off the blog

So, while we were watching Andy practice, we sort of figured out that it was spitting a bit (emphasis on A BIT). Much to our despair, the announcer said that plain would be suspended and that at the moment, they were expecting rain until 4! WHAT?!? I mean, if they call this rain, they are crazy! So, the spitting had stopped but there was still no play. Me and Kels were extremely frustrated with this all as Kels had to go home the next day and we had to watch Andy play Nadal on that day! So, we were kind of shouting out “It’s not raining!” and I made up a new song…

“It’s not raining
It’s not pouring
The Wimbly officials are so annoying!”

In the midst of our complaining, we managed to get Pam her tickets and decided that this was a good time to meet her and her friend. In the meanwhile, our complaining seemed to pay off and soon we heard an announcement that play would begin on Centre Court at 1:30p.m. (half an hour later than it should have we thought) Luckily, it was not long before Pam and her friend came. Was nice to see them again and what a sight we were adorning our Team Murray shirts (as seen on Pam’s blog). Looking good! :wink: Before heading off, my favourite steward came up again! Lol, stalker! Then me and kels went off to Centre Court where freakily, the steward from Monday recognised me and said hi and stuff. :) Lol, been at the top too much!

Our seats were actually better than last time. Pretty much near the centre again but about 5 rows further down! Wicked! Now, you could pretty much tell that the main reason everyone was here was because of Andy vs Nadal match so you won’t be surprised to know that the people around us and us wanted Fed-ex to finish off Ancic (sorry, we like Ancic and all but Andy was more important) in 3 sets especially with rain being predicted. We were definitely behind Federer all the way there for a bit. And Federer didn’t let us down. He went a set up before… MORE RAIN! Trouble with being under a roof was that we had no idea how heavy the rain was or that it was even raining! And we had no idea when the play would restart. Was even worse when the tent cover was fully blown up. Next was a restless wait till play restarted. Aaaarrrgggghhh!

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[xenon21]

The wait was agonising! For the pure fact that the longer we had to wait, the less likely should Andy put up a great fight, the match would be over that day! We decided to have a bit of a walk around and Kels had to put on her lucky shirt as well. While she was doing so, I had a lovely chat with another woman who shared our frustration about having to wait for rain. She like many of us was waiting eagerly for Andy’s match. Interesting story that one time I think they were waiting for a Tim match, and there was a woman’s match before it. People were not interested in the match at all and even booed some of it at times (a bit overboard).

Finally (after what seemed like hours), we had someone come to inspect the courts. He didn’t even go on the court initially. Then there was a bit of waiting and we all held our breath! The covers started to come off but then… they stopped! Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Queue more discussion and we were still living in hope. We even had a clap going on because of course that would persuade the umpire! As it was, it was all to no avail and the covers went back on to the groans of the crowd. :cry:

Then, finally, the covers really did come back off, and I (and am sure some others were looking at their watch) a few times. I just wanted Federer to hurry up and win. At one stage, there was about a 20 minute game and I felt really miserable. Luckily, the rest of the match went smoothly and relatively much to the huge cheers of the crowd! The main match up was soon to be up. Huge cheers for Andy and Nadal when they came out but you could see that there were quite a few more Nadal supporters in the crowd that Gasquet ones in that match. Groan! What was more annoying was that these 2 women were 2 rows ahead of me and turning around each time I shouted support for Andy. Sorry but that is silly as duh! Most people in the crowd did want Andy to win.

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[xenon21]

Mine and Kels’ nerves were huge as the match started and unfortunately, Andy did very little to help ease them. Nadal was on fire from the start! Each game for Andy was turning out to be pretty tough. The 1st game was a joke! Nadal seemed to take the mickey (probably not intentionally) by playing I think 3 drop shots against Andy and winning them. We didn’t see a single drop shot from Andy all game. It was hard to see how Andy would be able to break Nadal as he wasn’t getting too many points on nadal’s serve. We hardly saw many of Andy’s amazing shots and he was drawn into long baseline rallies (some of which he won). Nadal gave away no cheap points! And Andy had to fight for most of them.

Unfortunately, Andy was on his way to losing and the frustrating thing was that people around us were complaining and saying silly things about him, saying to be more aggressive… Was getting pretty annoying. At one point, I said “unlucky Andy” and you could hear a sound behind of one annoying bloke saying “that was not unlucky” grrrrrrrrrr! We tried our best to gee Andy up with all our cheers on his service games and I would like to think that we helped him in some rough games but in the end Nadal was too good and too strong. All too soon, the match was over and we all stood up to applaud Andy on a great tournament! Pity he had to face Nadal in the quarters when the other opponents were beatable. We left the court a bit deflated.

(sorry about the shadows in the pictures)

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Me and Kels finally found the players' box
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[xenon21]

Andy towelling off... again
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[xenon21]

I had the bright idea of trying to see if Jamie was still playing. After all, we really did need a bit of cheering up. We managed to convince a guard to let us up the stairs (instead of the long way) seeing as we had just come back from the Andy match and were deflated. He let us and we were able to get a good view at the corner and front of the standing area of court 2. We had thought we were special to be allowed that way but others soon joined. Lol. We kind of needed Jamie and Liezel to win in the 2nd set as Kels then needed to go home and Jamie and Liezel obliged. We left a bit early as I wanted to catch Jamie to congratulate him. He came out and I pushed forward a kids’ tennis ball (which he was afraid would not get signed) and then said congratulations and got him to sign his picture card.

So, that was the end of the Wimbledon adventure. We had a chat with Pam who told us of her exploits with Jamie and started making our way to the station. As Kels collected her left luggage, I was pretty upset to discover that I had lost my oyster card and debit card (which I had stupidly left in there). In a last ditch effort, I said a premature bye to Pam and Kels and tried to get into Wimbly (which was pretty hard as Kels had the tickets!) I finally got in but to no avail. It was lost. Gutted and more deflated, I made my way home pretty late and cancelled my card. Not the idea end to my Wimbly adventure but what an adventure it was!

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[JAMES4579]

Great stuff Xenon!

[lynne]

Great blog Xenon!! & Really Good pics!!......sorry about the card, butas you say the day was an adventure!!!:thumbup:

[LadyTigress]

:) Once again, great blog Xenon! I should put my own Wimbly blog up here too!:swingin:

[RFS]

:) Once again, great blog Xenon! I should put my own Wimbly blog up here too!:swingin:

You totally should...! It's been really interesting reading other people's views on it all!

[LadyTigress]

:) Done. Now people can enjoy my blog on Jamie's forum too! :swingin: Yes - I saw Jamie but um... *sheepish* :o I didn't get to stop him for photo and autograph or a quick chat... *feels guilty*

[RFS]

:) Done. Now people can enjoy my blog on Jamie's forum too! :swingin: Yes - I saw Jamie but um... *sheepish* :o I didn't get to stop him for photo and autograph or a quick chat... *feels guilty*

But then again... I felt SOOOO guilty when I asked him for a photo after he lost the singles qualies at Queens...

And somehw I ended up on the opposite side EVERY TIME to where he was coming and going... you'd think with all the matches we saw I'd have at least physically been on the right side of these folks!!! In fact I think we were closest to Andy on the night of the Reeechaaaarrrrrrr match!

[LadyTigress]

But then again... I felt SOOOO guilty when I asked him for a photo after he lost the singles qualies at Queens...

And somehw I ended up on the opposite side EVERY TIME to where he was coming and going... you'd think with all the matches we saw I'd have at least physically been on the right side of these folks!!! In fact I think we were closest to Andy on the night of the Reeechaaaarrrrrrr match!

Well, I feel bad cause no one else recognised him except me, no one stopped him, he must've felt like he had no support at all, and I took too long registering in my brain that it was him and then fumbling around in my bag for my autograph book and camera... should have called out to him!

[xenon21]

Lol, it was dfficult to recognise Jamie at times, but I did recognise him all times

[LadyTigress]

:p He'd just done his hair the other day as well, even though I'd seen photos and read about it I still did a double-take.

[xenon21]

Lol, trust me, isn't as bad as watching Jax warm up and wondering where on earth Jamie was because I couldn't see the long hair!

[LadyTigress]

Hahaha... :p Okay that beats me...