All England Club Becomes More Exclusive, Rain No Longer Allowed in Centre Court
When you think of Wimbledon, a slew of images leap to mind -- the all-whites, the green grass of the courts faded to beige in the second week, the implacable royal gaze of the Duchess of Kent at the awards ceremonies, very very rich people. And the rain, of course. Let’s not forget the endless stoppages of play due to rain.
Well, that bit, at least so far as Centre Court is concerned, now can be relegated to the dustbin of history. Years from now, we will tell our grandchildren that once upon a time Wimbledon was a tennis tournament that was discreetly snuck in between the regular barrages of rain that plague the average London summer. And they will say to us, “But Grandpa, why? Was something wrong with the bloody roof?”
And we patiently will explain that the bloody roof did not exist. But it does now. Centre Court finally has the retractable roof that has been talked about since time immemorial, and the All England Club is giving the media a sneak peek these days (check out the BBC Sport video here) in anticipation of the big Wimbledon Centre Court Celebration on May 17th. That is a star-studded event to debut the roof to the public that will feature Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and Tim Henman among others.
As Tim Phillips, Chairman of the All England Club, explains in the video linked to above, the Centre Court roof is a highly unique design, what he describes as a concertina folding roof, which (though I have no idea what he means by that) sounds somehow appropriately “British Empire” for the setting. Although it could never be so hilariously British Empire as Phillips’ response to the interviewer’s question about how, with the roof in place and the addition of artificial lighting, they will decide when to stop play. “Traditionally matches have stopped when it gets dark,” the interviewer points out, “but now you could play until two in the morning if you wanted to.”
“Well, we don’t want to,” Phillips replies. The Queen herself couldn’t have put it better.
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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