It’s over! An intense weekend has brought the 13 days of The Championships to a close.
As well as the announcements to the Grounds there has been a lot else going on behind the scenes.
I had to introduce the ritual of the pre-match coin toss on Centre Court for both singles finals.
Every year, a special child acting as ambassador for their charity performs the task to decide who will have the choice of serve.
For the gentlemen’s final it was 11-year-old Luca Schmetzer, for the ladies 12-year-old Rebecca Jones, accompanied by her younger sister Katy. All three impressed me with their enthusiasm and poise on court, and Rebecca and her sister for their ability to stay the course. It was a very long day on Saturday with that marathon fifth set in the men’s doubles Final.
Today, a three-setter from Roger Federer that catapulted him into the record books and a two-set mixed doubles final meant a shorter day. In it I have chomped my way through a bunch of grapes – a good energy drink.
And there have been some hair-raising moments.
I was getting a baked potato when the message came through to get into position at the back of Centre Court in case Marin Cilic retired from the men’s singles final. We’d seen him having physio and in tears mid-match, but whether from pain or frustration or a mixture of both was anyone’s guess.
There have been some quieter moments, such as watching a new cohort of ball boys and ball girls limbering up, including one or two that seemed scarcely more than tots, already learning to improve their coordination skills.
There has been the odd interview or recording, such as the trio of David, Russ and Mark, who are making the official film of these Championships.
There was diversion from visitors in sparkly outfits and tennis-ball boaters, and from Grace Jones arriving in a black flying suit. As a ‘slave to the rhythm’ I was chuffed to get a snap with the singer.
Also flying in today was a second wave of those ants.
Here comes our sound engineer, Ian, to dismantle the communications panel and microphone.
It can be very full-on or nothing, this job. It’s a pretty relentless run of days then suddenly it’s over and the sense of being plugged into the excellent team delivering this wonderful tournament evaporates.
The courts will be watered soon. Just the other day, I was standing too close and almost got a dousing.
Tonight, I think we’ll all go a bit crazy.
