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Anyone else here a tennis fan?


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I agree, Sim.  A really great photo of her.

 

On a slightly different tack, has anyone else been successful in getting one of the next day tickets on Ticketmaster?  This was an initiative brought out a few years ago by the AELTC.  When they first started, I was lucky enough to get a court 3 ticket three years running.  However, in the last 3 years, I don't know anyone who has managed to buy one at all for any of the courts available.

 

They say the tickets sell out in seconds.  We did an experiment two days running in the office, where 4 people logged on the second the tickets became available, and another person timed us.  We all went for different courts, and asked for one ticket.  The timer gave us a count down for our login, so we know that none of us missed the actual moment the tickets came on line.  Once you have selected your tickets, you have to go through that annoying procedure to show you are not a robot, by clicking on pictures showing a particular image.  I was unfortunate in that I got one that meant I had to click on 6 different squares, so I was the slowest at 8 seconds.  The fastest took less than 5 seconds, although he was so quick off the mark it was impossible to get an accurate timing. None of us got anything.  The "No tickets available" sign came up straight away. 

 

Now, maybe I am being a bit suspicious here, but it seems to me that anything that sells out in less than 4 seconds has got to have been attacked by bots.  I just don't think an ordinary person could be any quicker than that.  I know Wimbledon takes great care to make sure that the person buying the ticket bought it with their own credit card, and they have to show it on the gate when they arrive.  But I am pretty certain there are ways round this little obstacle!

 

 

 

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On 02/07/2017 at 19:33, Lisa O`Brien said:

The last female tennis player whose career I followed was Martina. 

 

Which one? ;)

 

On 05/07/2017 at 21:19, Quintus said:

Wimbledon on Friday, fingers crossed I'll get to see Garcia, who is very expressive and makes for great pics. 

 

How was it?  It was pretty hellish on Thursday until late afternoon/early evening.

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11 hours ago, alison said:

How was it?  It was pretty hellish on Thursday until late afternoon/early evening.

 

Too hot? I was going to go and join the early morning queue on Thursday, but woke up with a terrible sort throat.  In the end, I am quite glad I didn't go.  I don't cope well with extreme heat.

 

Now, is there anyone on this website who can explain to me why the BBC switched channels during the Murray match last night?  Coverage for Wimbledon was supposed to be on BBC2 from 11.30am to 9.30pm (including Today at Wimbledon which gets jettisoned if a match overruns.  Don't get me started on that one!)  Murray started on 2 at about 6.30pm (?).  So why, why, why did they swap him to BBC1 at 7pm, and put all the scheduled programmes for 1 on to 2.  I was out last night, and came back to find I had a lovely recording of something other than tennis. :angry:

 

Edited to add that this is apparently the number one complaint by tennis fans to the BBC.  Shame they don't listen. 

 

 

Edited by Fonty
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23 hours ago, alison said:

How was it?  It was pretty hellish on Thursday until late afternoon/early evening.

 

It was blisteringly hot - the Pimms just seemed to evaporate within seconds ;)  Thankfully from about 4pm onwards we were in shade on Court 1.  We got a great seat to watch Garcia, who has clearly undergone some serious physical conditioning and looks spectacularly athletic as a result; she played with real flair and risk taking, but made lots of duff mis-hits off the frame.  Konta had a good win, though I find her rather irritating to watch as her service routine takes about 8 seconds and never varies a jot. I'd love to see Garcia beat her in their upcoming match, but I suspect Konta's consistency will win out.  I saw Venus Williams for the first time against a very promising young player Naomi Osaka, who gave her a good run for her money.  Cilic v Johnson was a little dull - I must admit I prefer women's tennis as there tends to be more rallies and variety of shots, too much of the men's game is a just series of aces or a serve and a single return. And of course it wouldn't have been Wimbledon without seeing poor old Laura Robson lose a match - this time in the mixed doubles.

 

Here's Caro Garcia looking ripped..

DSC_8273.jpg

Edited by Quintus
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You sure somebody hasn't photoshopped Rafa's arms onto that photo, Quintus?

 

Fonty, it's really a good job you didn't go: you know that queue - no shade from sunup onwards.  And of course no shade on any of the outside courts, or in most of the queues.  People keeling over with sunstroke, apparently.  I kept slathering on the SPF and don't appear even to have caught the sun, but boy it was unpleasant - and humid with it.  Not a day I'd have chosen to go, under normal circumstances, but beggars can't be choosers.

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Can any posters give their experiences of getting tickets for, and attending, Eastbourne and Edgbaston as possible alternatives to Queens and Wimbledon which have become so expensive and hard to get into.

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Never been to Edgbaston, Aileen.  But tickets for Eastbourne couldn't be easier:

 

https://www.lta.org.uk/major-events/Aegon-International-Eastbourne/

 

In the past, I used to just turn up on the day and buy a ticket.  They are a bit more sophisticated now, you can buy them on line.  Either book way in advance, or do like I do and wait until the weather forecast is available and then see what you can get.

 

I've spoken about it to several people who went through the pain of the Wimbledon queue this year, and they have decided that they might give it a go next year.  I hope I am not making this tournament so popular, that I won't be able to get in!  

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Thanks, Fonty. It's amazing to think that in the 70s my school organised coach trips to Wimbledon from Hertfordshire arriving at about 11:00 whereupon we would queue up for ground passes and get into the grounds without difficulty. In the late afternoon people who were leaving the show courts would give you their tickets for free.

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7 hours ago, aileen said:

Can any posters give their experiences of getting tickets for, and attending, Eastbourne and Edgbaston 

 

I went to the qualifiers at Edgbaston this year.  I think I booked about a month in advance, at which point there were still plenty of 'proper' tickets available throughout the main draw week, via their website. Considerably easier than Wimbledon!

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2 hours ago, aileen said:

Thanks, Fonty. It's amazing to think that in the 70s my school organised coach trips to Wimbledon from Hertfordshire arriving at about 11:00 whereupon we would queue up for ground passes and get into the grounds without difficulty. In the late afternoon people who were leaving the show courts would give you their tickets for free.

 

Yes, I was reflecting only the other day that they'd never manage that now.  (Not that the queue actually closed until late morning, as far as I could see, several days last week, but you'd be foolish to bet on it).  And people even managed to come in from out of town in the morning.  And my first train out in the mornings was the wrong side of 7.30, yet I never had a problem getting in.  Ah, the good old days ...  And yes, the first time I ever went to Wimbledon someone gave us their spare Centre Court tickets.  It *was* raining, though, and we never got any play :)  That was back in the days when they still had standing on Centre Court.

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Oh, and yes, I keep intending to make it to Eastbourne one year (been considering it since the days of Navratilova).  But the way this year's been so far, I was just glad I was able to get my one day at Wimbledon: that'll have to do me :(

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Ah, those were the days at Wimbledon!  We also used to go by coach from school, get a ground pass, and rush for the standing places on Centre Court.   And later, when I went independently, how well I remember hovering outside one of the gates for the CC, knowing that at some point somebody would hand me their ticket because they were leaving.  I saw some fantastic play as a result. Happy days.  

 

Alison, I am surprised you say the queue wasn't closed until late morning last week.  For the past few years, if you are not there by 7am, the guides tell you that you will not get in until after 4pm.  Of course, some people are perfectly willing to wait nine hours or whatever, but I certainly would not be.  

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As is often the case with those who get put through the wringer in the round before, see e.g. 2012 Olympic final and numerous other cases.  I think the odds were pretty high that either Mueller or Cilic in the next round would have put Nadal out: it's a tribute to his tremendous fighting spirit that he held out for quite so long.

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10 hours ago, Sim said:

An amazing match but devastated that Rafa has gone!  Muller will probably lose in the next round, as is often the case with the giant killers.  ??

 

What can I say?  I am absolutely devastated too.  I fully expect Muller to go out in 3 limp sets in the next round.  If he played like that every time, he would be world number 1.  It reminded me a bit of the Australian semi final in 2009 (?), when Rafa was taken to 5 sets by Verdasco.  It was the latter's best performance ever, he faded away after that, hasn't really produced anything like it since.  

 

Alison, I am surprised you thought the odds were high that either he or Cilic would put Rafa out.  I know grass is not his best surface, but he has been playing very well.

 

 

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Yes, but Muller - as we now know - is an extremely good grasscourt player, and has improved immensely in recent years (IIRC, he was being coached by Jamie Delgado, who is now coaching Andy Murray) - he's not the player Federer put out in straights a few years ago under the roof.  He won the grasscourt tournament in s'Hertogenbosch the other week, and is at a career high ranking of 26, so the confidence is there.  Add to that the fact that he's a lefty, which I guess Nadal probably struggles with as much as anyone else, and I definitely thought the chance of an upset was there.  Cilic also is playing extremely well, and I thought could have caused an upset if he stayed mentally strong.  If Muller does go out limply in the next round, I think it'll be because he hasn't recovered physically, rather than anything else.

 

Good to see Nadal's knees appear to have held up, though.

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On 7/6/2017 at 10:48, Fonty said:

I agree, Sim.  A really great photo of her.

 

On a slightly different tack, has anyone else been successful in getting one of the next day tickets on Ticketmaster?  This was an initiative brought out a few years ago by the AELTC.  When they first started, I was lucky enough to get a court 3 ticket three years running.  However, in the last 3 years, I don't know anyone who has managed to buy one at all for any of the courts available.

 

They say the tickets sell out in seconds.  We did an experiment two days running in the office, where 4 people logged on the second the tickets became available, and another person timed us.  We all went for different courts, and asked for one ticket.  The timer gave us a count down for our login, so we know that none of us missed the actual moment the tickets came on line.  Once you have selected your tickets, you have to go through that annoying procedure to show you are not a robot, by clicking on pictures showing a particular image.  I was unfortunate in that I got one that meant I had to click on 6 different squares, so I was the slowest at 8 seconds.  The fastest took less than 5 seconds, although he was so quick off the mark it was impossible to get an accurate timing. None of us got anything.  The "No tickets available" sign came up straight away. 

 

Now, maybe I am being a bit suspicious here, but it seems to me that anything that sells out in less than 4 seconds has got to have been attacked by bots.  I just don't think an ordinary person could be any quicker than that.  I know Wimbledon takes great care to make sure that the person buying the ticket bought it with their own credit card, and they have to show it on the gate when they arrive.  But I am pretty certain there are ways round this little obstacle!

 

 

 

 

[thought I had posted this last Thursday but obviously not - thankfully it was still here waiting for me!]

 

I have been successful on this a number of times (all for centre court) since it was first introduced (including ladies' final day once).  Twice I have got a return (one in the front row, one in the second, both down in that corner where Sue Barker does her interviews),  I went on Monday (so booked on Sunday) and on Friday (booked Thursday).  When I did it on Sunday, it was about 9.06 when I finally got a ticket, on Thursday morning it was on my second attempt.

 

I would suggest not being logged-in before and just being on the tickets page and continually refreshing from one minute before tickets are meant to become available.

 

The reserved tickets are all together and nothing I've seen when there leads me to suspect bots are being successful.  There are a lot of fans looking for tickets and supply well and truly outstrips demand.

 

The anti-bot tests drive me scatty (surely you should only need to do it once).  I had one the other day where I had to click on every square!

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23 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

[thought I had posted this last Thursday but obviously not - thankfully it was still here waiting for me!]

[...]

The anti-bot tests drive me scatty (surely you should only need to do it once).  I had one the other day where I had to click on every square!

 

One of the benefits of the new software is that it does seem to retain your posting attempts rather better than the previous software :)

 

And yes, the anti-bot tests.  I had one recently where I had to click on every picture showing a road sign, so I did.  Only the software was including the poles as well, and I wasn't :(

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32 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

I would suggest not being logged-in before and just being on the tickets page and continually refreshing from one minute before tickets are meant to become available.

The anti-bot tests drive me scatty (surely you should only need to do it once).  I had one the other day where I had to click on every square!

 

That's the way I always do it, BBB.  As I said, I was successful several years running when it was first introduced, but not had any luck for the last 3 years, in spite of logging in immediately every day.  I've given up now, can't be bothered.  

 

However, I find it very odd indeed that when several of us tried, several days running, we were logged in within 10 seconds, only to be told nothing is available, all tickets have been sold.  But you managed to buy something after 6 minutes!

 

Edited to add, anti bot tests are a pain in the backside.  Strangely, on two occasions I didn't have to take one at all.  On another occasion, I had to go through 3 sets of pictures before it was satisfied.  

Edited by Fonty
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24 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

However, I find it very odd indeed that when several of us tried, several days running, we were logged in within 10 seconds, only to be told nothing is available, all tickets have been sold.  But you managed to buy something after 6 minutes!

 

 

Just because nothing is available doesn't mean everything has been sold.  Tickets can be in a basket and then returned or someone might be timed out.

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Brilliant match, both girls played so well.  It was a shame somebody had to lose, especially as I really like Halep.  

 

There have been some really good, exciting matches from the ladies this year.  Much better value than the men's, in my  opinion.  

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I'm glad he's out - he clearly needs to be resting that injury rather than trying to defend his title.  But Djokovic as well - this is getting quite ridiculous.  I hope both of them get better soon (or soonish, if applicable).

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