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About Sports, Coronavirus and Some Interesting Wimbledon Facts…

April 2, 2020

The end of an era… The last nail in the coffin… Curtain closed!

Events industry, especially sporting events have suffered another major blow, a punch in the face from Covid 19… Wimbledon is CANCELLED!

It may sound a bit more dramatic than it should, but given the situation, I feel the level of drama is just about right!

Thanks Coronavirus! And yes, I know, being selfish here, this is a virus that is wiping out everything in it’s way – people, businesses, economy. Please don’t get me wrong, I do understand the seriousness of the situation and the safety and wellbeing of all people will ALWAYS come first! #stayhomesavelives

But, since our regular lives have come to a stop, as a massive sports fan, I feel like we still have the right to moan and vent a little! So here it goes…

Back in the day, when we used to get up and go to work (remember the good old days?) I’m sure most of us enjoyed watching some sports. Some of my colleagues at Cavendish conference venues would get very passionate about Rugby (I won’t say who, but they are Irish and wear glasses 😊) and others would be more of football, cricket, golf or tennis fans and personally I am more of a basketball and Formula 1 girl! We’d all meet in the conference office after a big game or other event and have a quick recap, when it all went downhill…

The first bad sign was when postponements of several Olympics qualifiers started, then it was racing followed by golf, football, rugby, basketball, cricket and many others. We then started hearing news of Coronavirus positive tests in sportsmen across the globe! NBA players, Formula 1 drivers, footballers, rugby players etc. and at this point we all knew this was the end of all sporting events for a while, but we still had our hopes for Olympics, Paralympics and Wimbledon… Sadly not for very long! With the news of Olympics and Paralympics being rescheduled to 2021, the last of my summer hopes – Wimbledon has also shut the door in our faces… Sorry Rachel, I know you were lucky enough to get tickets every year!

So in light of the sad news, we’d like to share some fun and interesting facts about Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament in the world with the first competition held back in 1877. With a rich history, there are plenty of interesting statistics and facts concerning the tournament:

Wimbledon

 

  1. 28,000 kg of strawberries and 10,000 litres of cream are consumed during Wimbledon! Over 140,000 bowls of strawberries and cream are served to the spectators and players. All of the strawberries come from one farm in Kent, where every morning before dawn, two teams of 40 pickers arrive at the farm to pick over 100,000 strawberries for one day’s consumption.
  2. Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation in Europe: in addition to strawberries and cream it also is serving 234,000 meals, 330,000 cups of tea/coffee, and 29,000 bottles of champagne, among other things.
  3. Being a Ball Girl or a Ball Boy is a serious job – around 250 ball boys and girls are selected from 27 nearby schools with approximate age of 15. They have to take a test to make sure they can stand completely still for at least 3 minutes. Each of them is then expected to attend weekly training sessions of 2.5 hours – and they have to be precise, disciplined and fast! The teenagers are constantly assessed, and if they don’t meet Wimbledon’s high standards, they aren’t allowed to take part in the tournament.
  4. Some players let out a huge shout when they hit the ball! The loudest grunt ever Wimbledon came from Maria Sharapova in 2009. She roared a whopping 105 decibels! That’s about as loud as standing next to an accelerating motorcycle!
  5. With 256 players and 254 matches in the singles tournaments alone, Wimbledon needs a lot of tennis balls! Balls are changed after the first seven games and then each subsequent ninth game. Last year, 54,250 balls were used across the Wimbledon championships.
  6. The longest match played in the history of Wimbledon lasted three days! With a total match time of 11 hours and five minutes, the 2010 Wimbledon first round match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut is the longest tennis match on record. The final set alone lasted eight hours and 11 minutes, with Isner finally winning at 70-68.
  7. The tennis balls used at Wimbledon weren’t always yellow. Originally, balls were white but were changed in 1986 so that they could be seen more clearly on TV.
  8. Over the course of the tournament, over 2,000 racquets are restrung by the repairs string team, using up to 40 miles of new string.

Thanks for reading and letting me vent! Hope you found the facts interesting and now back to business, those meeting rooms, training spaces and workshop rooms are feeling very lonely and empty now, so lets get cracking!

With Love,

Valeria

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