I have spent a great week in London. It is so good to be back in this city.
Tour of the All England Club
On Monday I walked down Church Road past the All England Tennis Club. Through the gate I saw a tour group forming. I decide to take the tour.
The tour took us around the grounds and through some key buildings including Court Number One, the members’ club house, and Centre Court.
The tour guide was a very good and quite amusing. As with typical for such a tour all the participants had to identify their nationality. Most of the people of the tour were Americans, with a sprinkling of Europeans and Japanese. Surprisingly, I was the only Australian on the tour. The guide took the opportunity to ask ne questions and make some disparaging comments (in jest) about the current state of Australian tennis and sport, in general.
I know that the All England Club is a private club and this reason the way the Championships are run is unique among the Grand Slam and other tournaments. However, the guide told us something sI did not know. These include the following:
- There are only 375 members, over 90% are men
- To be a member you have to be invited by a member and have the support of three other members. You have to be a good player (‘A’ grade pennant equivalent or better) and have skills (and the time) to contribute to the running of the Championships.
- The members are typically in their mid-forties to late fifties with legal, finance and business backgrounds.
- All the seats in a particular court (say, Court Number One) on are particular day (say, day 3) are the same price, irrespective of where they are.
- There no ‘corporate boxes’ or corporate seats
- Most of the seats are sold via a ballot. These seats should not be re-sold
- Some seats are allocated to tennis clubs, for allocation to members. This includes allocation to international clubs (e.g. Kooyong) and associations. The later was how my Dad got tickets.
- Apart from The Championships, the grass courts are hardly ever used. They are used for an inter-service completion and a competition between Oxford and Cambridge University and Harvard and Yale
I can recommend the tour.
Tate Britain
When I was in late in late seventies, the art gallery on the north bank of the Thames in Pimlico was called the Tate. Now it is called that Tate Britain. I think this is because there is new gallery down the river called the Tate Modern.
The Tate Britain is great. I love the Turners, the Constables and the Hockney’s. I am not sure about the Freud’s. I just don’t get Damien Hirst’s stuff: a table with a packet of cigarettes and full ashtray on it, in glass box is not art for me.
A great Juke Box Musical
After checking out the Tate, I went to see ‘We Will Rock You’. It is a musical written by Ben Eton and the remaining members of Queen. It uses all Queens greatest hits. It is very clever how the songs are woven into the plot. Some of the lines are very amusing.
There have been a few of these ‘juke box’ musicals lately. Jersey Boys and Mama Mia are other examples. My host tells me that ‘We Will Rock You’ was panned by the critics. The audience loved it. So did I.
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