Every year I usually catch a little bit of Wimbledon from San Antonio. In the past it has mostly been because I am just awake super late in the summer, so it was the only thing on TV. This year was way different. I purposely woke up several times at 8 a.m, I streamed Serena Williams on my phone in the car, and I kept the gentlemen’s final on TV until the very end even though Novak Djokovic got to celebrate winning.
There is an obvious reason why I couldn’t take my eyes off ESPN this year more than most. Just a few weeks before The Championships of Wimbledon began, I was at those very hallowed grounds that host the most famous tennis tournament in the world.
I was excited to visit every single venue on our itinerary, but I was a little extra pumped to visit Wimbledon. In the year ahead of our trip to London, I had joined Tennis I for my physical education credit at Trinity. I loved it so much, and I so enjoyed being coached by Trinity’s assistant women’s tennis coach Annie Wise, that I stuck with it another semester for Tennis II. Along the way, my brothers bought me a tennis racket for my birthday, and I attended as many Trinity tennis matches as I could in the spring.
Despite growing up on the baseball diamond, the tennis court started becoming a second sports home for me. Now, there’s a reason I cover, write about and broadcast sports. I have certainly never been the best athlete, but something about tennis is incredibly freeing and fun. Especially in a PE class, I have never felt pressure to perform or do well. Two times a week I got to distract myself from my to-do list and just have fun playing tennis. After a full year gaining love for the game, I couldn’t wait to visit Wimbledon.
The Wimbledon group adequately prepared us with their podcast and presentation on the morning of June 2. We all learned that the grass at Wimbledon—perennial rye—is mowed every day with a Toro cylinder mower ahead of and during The Championships to be exactly 8mm tall. Sipsmith is the official gin of The Championships, and the most clear fact of all: Maeve Armand, Emily Ellis, Amelia Powell and Christian Settles love grass.
When the grass enthusiasts’ presentation ended, it was time to head to Southeast London. Just like our track to Twickenham, we took the tube and then the national rail services. This makes sense because like rugby, tennis was born as a more exclusive, upper-class sport that felt the need to be in the suburbs rather than in the heart of the city.
Once we exited the train and stepped foot in the town of Wimbledon, it became clear we were in an affluent suburb. I counted several Aston Martin’s and Rolls-Royces on the roads, and the houses were big and beautiful while the landscaping was top-notch. We got to see plenty of the neighborhood as we walked about a mile-and-a-half before crashing into the All-England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, also known as the home of The Championships of Wimbledon.
The class went straight into our tour with Alfie, another Blue Badge Guide. The tour began with a walk around the grounds to see some of the smaller courts that hosted early-round matches. Not to be dramatic, but this place was perfect. Flowers of all different colors bloomed at every turn, old bricks covered in ivy made it feel like we were walking through history and of course, the famous Wimbledon grass glistened under a pristine blue sky.
In yet another lucky break for our class, since our visit got postponed from December to May, the grounds were bring prepared for their big show that started at the end of June. This meant everything was truly in tip-top shape, and the weather could not have been better.
One of the highlights of our tour came as we entered No. 1 Court, which is the second largest court at Wimbledon behind Centre Court. No. 1 Court hosts many key match-ups, and unlike the courts we had just seen, this has the build of an actual arena with seats and a new retractable roof. As Alfie spoke, someone was even mowing the grass. How cool is that?!
From No. 1 Court we made our way to Henman Hill, which is where ESPN’s cameras always capture people sitting and watching matches on big screens. As you can imagine, tickets to Wimbledon are hard to come by. However, Wimbledon does have some creative options to allow anyone to enter their grounds, which Alfie explained to us here.
People can buy tickets to sit on Henman Hill for just 27 pounds, or about 32 dollars. Not bad at all. The catch is that people must stand in line—or the queue as they say in England—to get those tickets. Alfie said that fans will camp out overnight for tickets. There is even wifi provided, and food is allowed to be delivered to those waiting. Talk about dedication! Once you’re on Henman Hill, if you are lucky, people who leave No. 1 Court or Centre Court early will give up their tickets to be resold to those on the hill. It still isn’t easy, but it’s a pretty neat opportunity.
The hill is also where we learned about strawberries and cream, Wimbledon’s iconic snack. Two million strawberries and 10,000 liters of cream are consumed every year at Wimbledon as people rack up orders of strawberries and cream, which only cost 2.50 pounds. Wimbledon likes to keep prices relatively low since they know how difficult it can be to even be at The Championships. Unfortunately, there were no strawberries and cream ready for us at the cafe. I guess we will have to come back for the Championships one day!
Some other cool spots we got to see were Court No. 18, where John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest match in Wimbledon history (3 days!), the media center, the press conference room and the balcony from which reporters line up to ask players questions. This is where I pretended to interview our very own tennis star Christian Settles. Maybe one day we can do it here for real after so many interviews at Trinity.
We discovered how hard it is to become a member at the All-England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, which is the official name of all these courts and club. The easiest way to become a member is to…win Wimbledon. Super simple! Otherwise, you have to have a lot of money and wait a really long time. Once you are a member, you have access to use Wimbledon as your private country club. You can play on the courts, use the locker rooms and eat as many strawberries and cream as you want. I’ll have to get myself on that waiting list.
The very last thing we saw was the one and only Centre Court. Some last-minute construction kept us from going down toward the court, but we stood at the top of the concourse and still got a great view. Again, tickets to Centre Court aren’t too expensive at 75 pounds for day one and then 250 pounds for the final. The problem is getting them. Wimbledon runs a ballot that randomizes who gets tickets. The only way to guarantee a place in the house is the “Debentures” program, which only costs 80,000 pounds for a single seat, but it is guaranteed for five years. I’ll take two, please!
It is no secret that Wimbledon is extremely elite. From the exclusivity of the club, to its requirement for players to wear all white, Wimbledon is not for everyone. But it is also no secret how special of a place it is. These courts are steeped in history, and anyone who is anyone in tennis dreams of playing on these grass courts.
ESPN does a wonderful job during The Championships of showing so much of the atmosphere and the grounds. They talk about the traditions and really make you feel like you’re there. Well, I was there. I really was there, and I still can’t believe it. Every time they showed the outside of Centre Court, or the walkways between the smaller courts, or discussed strawberries and cream, I was transported right back there to that magnificent place.
Since arriving home, watching Wimbledon has definitely provided the most tangible sense of nostalgia. I can still smell the grass to this very moment, and while it will always be wonderful to remember, it will also be bittersweet, just like looking back on this entire class will be.
This post marks the last of my venue visits. It likely won’t be the last time I write about this experience, but for now this ends this particular series. It still boggles my mind that we got to do what we did.
We toured Wembley Stadium and then watched the League Two and Championship League finals at the Cathedral of Football. We played football at Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium and fell in love with QPR. We played cricket and then watched England against New Zealand at Lord’s, the world’s home of cricket. We took a train to Manchester and entered The Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford. We paraded around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which remains as beautiful today as it was 10 years ago on TV. We traveled to Twickenham, where we learned all about rugby and its place in English culture. We walked around Wimbledon just a month ahead of the Championships, getting to see grass at its finest.
Our final assignment for class was to write a reflection two weeks after arriving in San Antonio from London. The aim was to have each student explain what they learned from the class, and the minimum was 2,000 words. Well, this post alone is nearing 2,000 words. The reason I chose to write about each venue was because each one of them provided countless memories, and I knew I needed to take time to process them individually. I’m so glad I’ve done this, and I appreciate all of you who have traveled along with me by reading my words.
As hard as it was to capture my feelings for that reflective essay, I did love the way I ended it, so I’ll put that same final paragraph here. It is my best attempt to sum up what this class meant to me.
“I am glad we’ve been given the opportunity to try and capture our emotions in this reflective essay. It is a great challenge and a great way to process what we learned and saw. However, as much as I love writing, it is difficult to face the reality that I don’t think I will ever be able to capture just how much this class meant to me. I made 18 lifelong friends. I learned from four of the best mentors anyone could ask for. I gained two little brothers. I traveled back in time in one of the world’s greatest cities. I attended some of the most important sporting events and venues in the world. I even celebrated the longest reigning monarch in the history of Great Britain, and that’s a long history! I’ve been writing this essay at times while watching Wimbledon on TV. Every time I see No. 1 court, or hear about berries and cream, or watch a montage about the longest match at the Championships, I fail to comprehend that we were really there. But guess what? We really were. For the rest of my life, I will look back on our time in London as some of the best days of my life. And to think, on December 17, 2021, I thought they would never happen. I am eternally grateful that they did.”
As our very first tour guide, Marc Belben, said: “London is the sporting capital of the world, the birthplace of modern sport.” Thanks to Trinity, four incredible professors, a fantastic study abroad department and cooperative IES counterparts in England, I somehow got to explore this magical city for two weeks with some of my favorite people. I will never, ever forget Sport in England.
Awesome article Brian!! But why are you hating on Djokovic? Ha ha I’m so glad you guys had a great time! It sounded like the trip of a lifetime.