The Wimbledon Queue
Queuing at Wimbledon is something I’d always wanted to do - I don’t mind camping, and I knew the atmosphere would be amazing. It’s also a pretty sure fire way of getting tickets for Centre Court or Court No. 1 if you get there early enough or are prepared to camp for two nights, which is what we did!
Arriving at around 8pm on the Thursday evening, we were aiming to get in and watch the matches on the Saturday. We took along our tents, camping chairs, snacks and alcohol (of course!) and were all set to enjoy our time camping and chatting to other people in Wimbledon Park.
On arrival we were given a queue card which was for the Friday, we were around 600th in the queue. This meant that we could have gone in on the Friday and been the 600th people to enter, meaning we probably would have been able to get tickets for Court No. 2 for that day.
We went to sleep, having decided to wait until the Saturday to go in. Having informed a steward of our intentions they told us that the following day we’d be told to move our tents further up the queue when those going in on the Friday had packed up and entered. We’d then also be able to swap our Friday queue card for a Saturday one, which would be a much lower number.
Woken up at around 5.30am by stewards - and the need to go to the portaloo due to all the wine we’d consumed the night before! - we got dressed and waited to be told to move our tents. At around 8am, we shifted them so we were in the first line of the queue, and tried to guess what number we’d be given for Saturday. I guessed we were around 100 in the queue. I was wrong - we were numbers 57-60, and we were chuffed. This meant we would definitely get Centre Court tickets for the Saturday.
The Friday was roasting hot, and we struggled with the heat and the tiredness from not having a proper nights’ sleep. However, everyone in the queue was in great spirits and we enjoyed our morning. Some fellow campers had made a makeshift ice bag using a roll mat with a carrier bag of ice in the middle, into which they let us put a bottle of Champagne for later on!
We had been told in advance that we wouldn’t be able to leave the park or the queue at any time. However, we had parked nearby and knew that we could get away with saying we were going to/from the car for supplies if we were stopped. We decided to go into Wimbledon for lunch, and told the people behind us in the queue what we were doing and gave them our contact number in case any officials wanted us to come back or there were any issues.
Off we went, straight into Wimbledon town which was heaving with people! We managed to get a table for lunch at a café and spent a good couple of hours enjoying being out of Wimbledon Park. On our return, our neighbours said no-one had been round to query our absence - we’d gotten away with it!
We spent the afternoon lolling around, eating ice-creams and wandering around the park when we felt we needed to stretch our legs. We decided to go back into town in the evening to have a few drinks. We went to a local pub and watched some of the games being played that day - there were some great people playing and we wondered if we’d made a mistake waiting to go in on the Saturday.
Back to camp we went for another restless and interrupted night of sleep, excited for the morning to come, knowing we’d be on Centre Court soon!
When the morning came we were up and dressed by around 7am, ready to dismantle the tents and take all of our things back to the car before entering the grounds. We did all of this by around 8am, grabbing a quick coffee on the way back from the car which was parked in Wimbledon town. The queue marshals were so efficient and everything was so well run that they had us in the correct order and lined up ready to go in by around 9am.
The line moved quickly and we were taken in to a marquee area where we had to approach desks and choose which ticket we wanted to purchase. As we had already decided to go for centre court, the lady working on the desk told us which section of centre court she had tickets for. Not quite what we wanted, she conferred with her colleague on the desk next to her whom had tickets for a different section of centre court - one block back from the very front, and on the side exactly where we wanted to be. We scooched over to her colleagues desk and bought the tickets. They were around £120 per person, so very expensive, but worth every penny!
We moved on through the marquee and into another queue. Our bags were checked and then we were waiting for the grounds to open at 10am. The staff and marshals kept us entertained in the queue waiting to go in - Lavazza were providing free coffee’s to everyone and they also had iPad’s that they were taking around for people to play games on and win prizes.
Before we knew it, our time in the queue was over and the gates to Wimbledon opened. It was the strangest thing, being one of the first 100 people inside Wimbledon that morning. It felt so empty and we could wander around at leisure; like we had a backstage pass to the whole arena.
Once matches started we watched some junior doubles on the outside smaller courts, before going to find Henman Hill/Murray Mound or whatever you know it as - and watching the big screen for a little while. It felt surreal to finally be walking around the grounds after seeing it on the TV every year. We played some games in the American Express fan zone, got lunch from the canteen and got our first Pimms of the day.
Matches on Centre Court started at 1pm, where we took our seats to watch Alcaraz vs Jarry - two men’s singles major competitors. The match was incredible and Alcaraz won in 4 sets, going on to win the whole tournament. We also got to see Jabeur beat Andreescu and watch Brit Katie Boulter play, even though she lost to her opponent Rybakina (the defending ladies’ champion).
We were absolutely exhausted when the games rounded up at around 11pm, and getting back to the car took a while as the crowds emptied out of the grounds. We eventually got home to Gloucester at around 2.30am. What a few days - an epic way to get tickets for Wimbledon.
Would I do it again? Definitely.