Wimbledon Tennis 2008 ~ Wimbledon Tennis Information
The Wimbledon Tennis 2008 start
dates are: 23rd June to 6th July 2008.
Wimbledon Live on your PC | Wimbledon Schedule | Introduction | Tennis Travel | Parking
Latest Tennis
News | Short
History of Tennis | Strawberries & Tennis | How to Get
Wimbledon Tickets
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If
you arrived at this page looking for the Wimbledon Timetable,
or Results, there is a Programme of Play here (external link). Alternative terms: program
of play,
order of play & schedule.
Introduction to Wimbledon
2008
Wimbledon
is home to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club who
organise the world famous Wimbledon tennis tournament held in the last
week of June and first week of July. The tennis complex in
Church Road is
also home to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. Here there
is an impressive display of tennis material relating to the
long history of the sport. On view are collections of
tennis outfits, rackets, balls and other tennis memorabilia.
Wimbledon championship trophies are also on display. The famous
Centre Court can be viewed. There is also a coffee shop
within the museum. See also London
Pass details for free admission to the Wimbledon
Lawn Tennis Museum and other top London attractions, together
with free travel throughout London.
Wimbledon
2008 tennis travel information Travelling by
car
Parking in the streets around the
championships is not allowed and offending vehicles will be towed
away.
There are several car parks in the vicinity of
the tennis club and you can find more details
about travelling by car and car parking,
including Wimbledon Park and Ride, in an
external link here.
Travelling from Central London
In addition to regular public transport connections
(see Wimbledon - Travel Tips) there are special bus services
to and from the tennis championships run by the London General
bus company. These buses link Central London,
Southfields and Wimbledon stations direct to the
Wimbledon tennis club.
For daily
availability and timings visit London General's website
at www.londongeneral.co.uk/wimbledon/index.htm.
Arrival at Wimbledon (District Line underground &
South West Trains overground)
If you arrive at Wimbledon Station by public transport there
are several possibilities of getting to the Wimbledon Tennis Club in Church
Road.
Head for the forecourt of Wimbledon Station (main
exit) where you will see signs leading you
to special bus services run by London General. Marshals representing licensed taxi drivers
(mornings only) are on hand to direct you to shared
taxis, should you choose this option.
If you wish
to walk, "Walk 2" detailed on our Wimbledon
Walks page will guide you to the tennis
club.
Arrival at Southfields Station (District Line
underground)
Similar arrangements are in place and you may choose
between special London General's tennis buses or shared taxis.
Leaving the Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis Club
Again similar arrangements are in place: special bus and shared taxi
services.
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of page
Latest Wimbledon
2008
Tennis Headlines
On Saturday:
Venus Williams wins her fourth Wimbledon singles title.
If you want to see Venus Williams at Wimbledon, you can check out all the live coverage and on demand here.
Short
History of Tennis
Major
Walter Clapton Wingfield, a British army major is credited with
inventing the game of tennis in 1873. He patented the game
under the name of Sphairistike in 1874, basing the name
on sphairistike techne which is Greek for the "art
of playing ball". It is believed that Wingfield
adapted the popular English indoor games such as badminton,
squash rackets and court tennis for outdoor suitability.
Although the game was known widely for some time under
Wingfields patented name, players gradually started using the
terms Tennis-on-the-lawn or lawn tennis.
Strawberries
and Wimbledon Tennis
Strawberries are a variety of the rose family called Fragaria.
They are short plants that grow sideways spreading out
runners. The ends of the plant stems swell up and redden
after the flowers have been pollinated. The actual fruit
is the tiny seed embedded in the fleshy strawberry. Strawberries are, therefore, not berries.
The word strawberry comes from the Old English streowberie or streawbelige. This is probably a combination of
the words strewed & berry. Strewed means scattered or spread across. Straw could have
referred to the straw that was used to keep the
strawberries fertile and dry. Animal dung was often mixed
in with the straw.
There are also small wild strawberries that often grow
on the edges of woods. These taste and smell delicious.
The Romans were the first to cultivate the crop while the
14th century saw a popularity of growing
strawberries in the gardens of French palaces. They were a
luxury and poor children would pick them to sell to the
rich.
During Shakespeare's time the playwright George Peele
in his play The Old Wives Tale, wrote a song linking
strawberries with summer and delight.
"When as
the rye reach to the chin,
And chopcherry, chopcherry, ripe within,
Strawberties swimming in the cream,
And schoolboys playing in the stream..."
In those times strawberries were eaten fresh or made
into a sauce
to be eaten with meat. In 1874 sugar tax was abolished and
consequently sugar became cheaper. This saw a huge
increase in boiling strawberries with sugar to make jam
and by the 20th century there was widespread
strawberry cultivation in Kent to supply the markets of
London.
Strawberries are a source of natural sugar and provide
good quantities of vitamin C as well as potassium, which
is a mineral essential in our diet. Unfortunately,
strawberries rapidly lose their vitamin C after picking.
In the UK strawberries are in season between May and
September. During the rest of the year they are imported
from countries such as Spain or the USA. Most commonly,
strawberries are grown on fruit farms and shoppers buy
them in supermarkets either fresh, frozen, canned or as
jam. Many fruit farms encourage people to visit and pick
their own fruit.
Every
year about 27,000 kilos of strawberries are
eaten during the Wimbledon Tennis
Championships, together with 7,000 litres of
cream. * The popularity of serving
strawberries with cream is possibly as old
as the event itself.
* Source: BBC:
BluePeter sports section.
© Wimbledon Visitor.Com 2002 - 2008
How to Get
Wimbledon Tickets
Wimbledon. To a tennis fan, the word sums up all that's wonderful about the game.
Wimbledon--as shorthand for the championships played each year in the London suburb of that name--conjures up sportsmanship and athletic prowess, not to mention socializing on a grand scale.
A nice thing about the championship tournament at Wimbledon is that it's one of the few major sporting events for which the average fan (neither rich nor well-connected) stands a decent chance of gaining entry.
So how do you get a ticket to Wimbledon?
We'll tell you, but first a little background.
Some Wimbledon Tennis History
The Wimbledon championship tournament is staged annually by The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
This is a private club founded in 1868 as simply the All England Croquet Club.
The club held its first tennis championships in 1877.
They were witnessed by a few hundred spectators in what is described as a "garden party atmosphere."
Today, the Wimbledon championships are attended by more than 500,000 people as well as carried to millions around the world through mass media and the Internet.
The tournament starts six weeks before the first Monday in August and runs for approximately two weeks.
Players from more than 60 countries regularly compete.
Now, if you're planning to be in London during the two June or July weeks when the tournament is being played, how can you get a ticket?
The Wimbledon Tennis Public Ticket Lottery
The simplest procedure is to enter the public ballot that is held for some of the Centre Court and No. 1 Court seats.
You will need some luck to score a ticket this way, but it's worth a try.
To enter the ballot, send a request for an application form, along with a self-addressed envelope to: All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Box 98, Church Road, Wimbledon SW19 5AE England.
You should enclose an international reply coupon, which you can purchase at your local post office, to cover the cost of return postage.
By the way, your request for an application must be postmarked by
December 15th and the application itself must be returned by
December 31st of the year prior to the tournament.
The drawing is held in January. If you are successful, you will be notified in February and asked to send payment at that time.
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/tickets/publicballot.html
has more details.
Or You Can queue
Finally, several thousand tickets are put on public sale during the tournament itself.
You'll have to queue for these and, in the end, you might not be able to score a seat, but if you're in the area anyway and have some patience, you can certainly give it a try.
The place to start your Wimbledon ticket quest is the official tournament site, www.wimbledon.org. Here you can learn what seats are available in the public balloting. You can also learn more about how to get one of those same-day
Wimbledon tickets.
About The Author of the article "How to Get
Wimbledon Tickets"
© Copyright 2005/2008 by Steve Smith. Steve Smith is a writer who lives near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His Web site, Tops 4 Tennis (http://www.tops4tennis.com), includes the complete text of The Art of Lawn Tennis by Bill Tilden, plus other articles and links for tennis players and fans.
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2008
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