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So what's happening with Wimbledon this year?  Will last year's tix be accepted this year, or did they do another draw, and tough on last year's holders?  Also, assuming that Boris will let us out of jail on June 21st, will they be able to fill the venues and allow people to roam around, maskless?  They might be one of the first events where 'normal' can happen...

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52 minutes ago, Sim said:

So what's happening with Wimbledon this year?  Will last year's tix be accepted this year, or did they do another draw, and tough on last year's holders?  Also, assuming that Boris will let us out of jail on June 21st, will they be able to fill the venues and allow people to roam around, maskless?  They might be one of the first events where 'normal' can happen...

 

There is no public ballot and those who had tickets for last year will be offered the same tickets for this year.  Any that are not taken up will probably be offered to LTA members by ballot.

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10 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

There is no public ballot and those who had tickets for last year will be offered the same tickets for this year.  Any that are not taken up will probably be offered to LTA members by ballot.

Very pleased that those who had tickets for last year can go this year instead.  Sadly I am not one of them, but the main thing is that the event will happen and that, hopefully, the venues can be filled to the rafters!

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Given option last year to bounce tickets to this years tournament or refund. Since informed that tickets won’t be eligible for this year as don’t know what the capacity and social distancing will be so now valid for 2022. 

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17 hours ago, Jane said:

Given option last year to bounce tickets to this years tournament or refund. Since informed that tickets won’t be eligible for this year as don’t know what the capacity and social distancing will be so now valid for 2022. 

meanwhile the LTA is punting various membership upgrade schemes to get preferential access to tickets, and Wimbledon are pushing 'hospitality packages' that guarantee a place:  "if you would like to guarantee your attendance at The Championships this year before mid-June, then we would like to make sure you are aware of our hospitality ticket options.
 
Whilst this summer may look a little different at Wimbledon, our exclusive hospitality packageswill provide you with a long-awaited first-class day out, that is also safe and comfortable."
 

So the message appears to be - you can buy your way in if you have deep pockets :(

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  • 3 weeks later...

Personally I’m getting fed up with these Pilot schemes supposedly to ascertain if they are safe which I’m sure is just a bit of a lame excuse when it comes to the Euros and Wimbledon. 
Is it fair that Wimbledon can have a capacity crowd of 15,000 when we still haven’t opened up properly under this pretence of a “pilot scheme” 

If there is a delay in order to get many more people vaccinated that’s fine and makes sense but loopholes like this for sporting events are likely to scupper the whole thing! Why could not Wimbledon be delayed until after July 19th or they should have reduced capacity attendance. 
Im just fed up with there always being things allowed to happen which undermine what the rest of us are trying to do. 

 

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Contrary to what the French Tennis Federation seem to think, you can't just move a two-week Slam on a whim/with no notice like that.  Moving Roland Garros by a single week did serious damage to several "ordinary" tournaments, not to mention some players' preparations for Wimbledon (it cut a week out of the grass-court calendar, effectively).  Plus there's the little matter of the Olympic tennis, which is still allegedly due to start a few weeks after Wimbledon.  As I understand it, it's only the finals which are supposed to be at full capacity - although I can't see how they can manage that under the current circumstances (any more than I can see why the Royal Albert Hall thinks it can get away with full-capacity events at present).

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Great news about Sue Barker! 
Sorry to sound so grumpy about this but it’s all the getting there and getting back as well! There only has to be one cancelled train and they end up at full capacity as well ....as happened to people travelling to Brighton last weekend just glad it wasn’t me having to do it. 
It’s just the inconsistencies of all these rules  as some families still can’t go and stay with each other because of the rule of six indoors and no dancing at weddings lol but never mind that we can have perhaps over 200,000 going to stadiums!!! 
Although the virus is spreading rapidly at the moment even in Brighton   I’m not particularly bothered for myself everyone has to assess their own risks to do things  if they are not vaccinated but don’t want to be on track to let another variant in so never move forward out of this pandemic. 
 

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It was the Wimbledon ticket free-for-all today and we managed to get a pair for Court 3, which is perfect - we find Centre Court just too big and most seats too remote from the action.  That just about makes up for our Birmingham tickets having been bumped to next year!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I thought Covid-adapted Wimbledon worked well yesterday.  The ticketing app added a degree of stress, as it doesn't deliver the QR codes for entry till the working hours of the day itself, but the queuing and security was then way quicker than usual.  Most seating in outside courts had spaces left between each group of spectators, but it looked like Centre Court was solidly filled.  People were largely being sensible, and we saw some good matches from great viewpoints when the drizzle finally stopped at 3pm, five hours after we'd entered....  Liam Broady was in very good form, and I was impressed by Elena Rybakina, who looks both bigger and much younger than on TV.

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I'm wondering about the apparently "full" Centre Court.  Could it be that air circulation up near the roof means that fewer seats can be occupied up there, whereas the sections which are in the open air can be more or less full?  I'd be interested to know.

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15 hours ago, alison said:

I'm wondering about the apparently "full" Centre Court.  Could it be that air circulation up near the roof means that fewer seats can be occupied up there, whereas the sections which are in the open air can be more or less full?  I'd be interested to know.

Good question.. Can't tell from the photos I've seen - in the lower tiers people don't appear to be spaced out, but it's not possible to see into the gloom of the upper tiers under the roof (and having sat right up there before, I can say it's not possible to see much from them either - it's like squinting at the court through a letterbox; colossal waste of money).  Overall the venue was supposed to be at 50% capacity, but it looked like that was unevenly distributed between the big show courts and the outside courts. For the finals, they are going back up to full capacity .

 

 

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I was very impressed by Brit Emma Raducanu winning her match decisively in 2 sets. I hadn't seen or heard of her before, but will be looking out for her in her next match. Overall, much tennis to enjoy today & most of my personal favourites won through.

 

Was surprised at how full Centre Court appeared & very little mask wearing was being done (I've only had 1 jab so not tempted to try my luck despite wanting to be there). 

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On 30/06/2021 at 23:59, alison said:

Emma's reasonably local to me, so I've been keeping a bit of an eye on her for a few years now.

 

She's been doing A-levels at Newstead Wood school this summer; that's 10 minutes down the road from me! I have cleared my schedule to watch her tomorrow against Soraya Cirstea on court 1 & I think she can win it!

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I hadn't realised she was a Newstead girl until just how when I was winding through today's coverage.  I wandered down the road her old (current?) club is in a few years back by accident, and went "Oh, that's Emma's club".  (And Gillian Lynne used to live down there too, apparently :) )

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On 30/06/2021 at 00:39, alison said:

I'm wondering about the apparently "full" Centre Court.  Could it be that air circulation up near the roof means that fewer seats can be occupied up there, whereas the sections which are in the open air can be more or less full?  I'd be interested to know.

 

A friend who was lucky enough to have tickets told me they filled Centre Court from bottom up, so it was completely full at the bottom, empty at the top, and presumably half-and-half inbetween the two.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm normally an avid tennis watcher, but I find the Olympics matches are not presented in an engaging way - the couple I've seen had no commentary, no audience or even much seating, so it felt like they were just being played in a car park somewhere, and a wide angle camera that emphasised the near court and made the far baseline all but invisible.  By contrast, the taekwondo and judo coverage has been excellent, with enough of an in-bubble crowd to generate some atmosphere, and multi-angle camera work that shows every throw from multiple perspectives. I hope when it gets to the final rounds, they'll move the tennis to a better venue.

 

 

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To be honest, I haven't even bothered looking.  Tennis is such a minor part of the Olympics, and I'm far more interested in the BBC's (unfortunately, rather more limited than in previous years) coverage of other events.  Really can't be bothered to go online and look for the tennis, assuming that's where you have to find it.  But good on Liam Broady making the most of his opportunities (and hope I haven't jinxed him by saying that!).

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2 hours ago, alison said:

 Really can't be bothered to go online and look for the tennis, assuming that's where you have to find it.  But good on Liam Broady making the most of his opportunities (and hope I haven't jinxed him by saying that!).

 

I was frustrated by the limited BBC coverage, so in case it's of interest, you can sign up for one month (then cancel) of Discovery+ for £6.99 on your smart TV / fire stick or equivalent, and that gives complete coverage of every event, sorted by sport.  It works very well indeed.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Emma Raducanu is giving us a pretty thrilling ride at the US Open and seems set to become our biggest female tennis star for a long time.  The way she turned round her recent defeat by Zhang to a solid victory in the second round shows that she is an impressive learner.  Fingers crossed for her encounter with Sorribes Tormo.

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Remind me which big player Sorribes Tormo put out at Wimbledon, was it, or Roland Garros?  Fingers crossed indeed.  I've been trying to follow Emma's career since she was about 14, when her potential was first pointed out - and it certainly didn't hurt that she was a local girl, too.  I just hope that the media give her the time she needs to mature - on and off the court - and don't start putting the pressure on her to win Wimbledon like they did for Andy Murray.  I'm also minded to tread a bit cautiously, since GB has a history of well-thought-of juniors not making it in the senior ranks.  She certainly seems different, though, so I'm hopeful.

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33 minutes ago, alison said:

Remind me which big player Sorribes Tormo put out at Wimbledon, was it, or Roland Garros?  

She beat Barty in the Olympics, and Osaka somewhere - has a reputation of being a very awkward player.  I only discovered Emma in the 'Battle of the Brits', as we've been disconnected from the juniors since our lads grew up, but thought then that she looked a completely different proposition to other recent hopefuls.  She needs to keep some distance from her media coverage, as they love to build up an unrealistic fairy story only to tear it down again, and ideally put in a year or two of hard slog round the circuit, playing as many different styles of player as possible and building up physical resilience. Hard to avoid the hype machine now though - she's young, personable, photogenic and her game is exciting to watch, so the media and sponsors will be queuing at her door!

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