Wimbledon

Well with all the events going on this summer are we all really surprised that the weather so far has been pants!?!  From the beginning of the year people were saying we had the perfect storm for a wash out summer (Jubilee, Wimbledon, Olympics and the a hosepipe ban) and apart from a few odd weeks they seem to have been right.  However in typical British tradition we don't let a bit (in some cases alot) of rain ruin it and we carry on regardless :)

So with the Jubilee all over and done with, and both Wimbledon and the Olympics just around the corner I thought it was about time for a bit of a history lesson, and today's lesson is..................Wimbledon.

So first off the basics, the first Wimbledon was held in 1877 by 'The All England Club' which was only itself founded in 1968.  A private club, it was originally known as 'The All England Croquet Club' and it wasn't until spring 1877 that they renamed it 'The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club'.  Within 5 years the clubs activity was almost exclusively lawn tennis and in 1882 'croquet' was dropped from the clubs title, not for long though, in 1899 they restored the word croquet to the clubs title once more for sentimental reasons.

'The All England Club' added lawn tennis to their activities in 1876, a game that was originally thought up by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield (what a mouthful) about a year before and was originally called 'Sphairistrike'  which I must say I am very glad they changed the name, imagine trying to say that every time you were talking about tennis.  1876 saw the name change to the much more sensible lawn tennis and the introduction of a new standardised code of laws which replaced the old laws previously administrated by the Marylebone Cricket Club.  The first tournament was held on 4 acres of land that the 'All England Club' rented between Worple Road and the railway tracks of the London and South Western Railway, the recorded attendance for the first ever 'Wimbledon Final' was a measly 200 with seats for only 30 people on a temporary 3 plank stand.  There was only 22 entrants to the competition all men as women were not allowed to enter until 1884.

Wimbledon is known for it's very strict dress code for players, who are only allowed to wear the traditional white whilst on the court, on more than one occasion over the many years a player has not been allowed on court until they have changed into 'suitable attire'.  The all white rule and controversial marketing strategy that courtside sponsorship is not permitted means that all the sponsors of the big tennis names must keep all they're branding to an unobtrusive and rather measly 3 inches square or less.  For some brands like Adidas and Nike shrinking their logo whilst still standing out isn't to bad, other not so well known brands struggle to be recognised.  Even off of the court branding and sponsorship is limited to a certain few.  Wimbledon is extremely sponsor aware and ensures that only the few brands that have been chosen to sponsor the event are shown, this means if you show up to Wimbledon with food or drink it will be taken off of you, if you are wearing large branding on your clothing you will be asked to change.  The reasoning for this is that they believe it is not right for companies that have not paid for the privilege to advertise at Wimbledon to potentially get TV coverage to push their brand.  I can kind of see their point it's not very fair if you've paid huge sums of money to be one of the privileged few advertisers and then people in the stands are using everyone else brands.  As such the only brands you can buy inside Wimbledon is those that are official sponsors.   For 2012 Wimbledon are working with the integrated marketing agency 'Space' to create a Wimbledon Village on the golf course next to the infamous Wimbledon Queue, this will open up an amount of sponsorship to other brands.

Whilst I have tried my best to find some juicy scandal on Wimbledon to liven this article up a bit it's actually a very clean and gentlemanly sport, the best I have managed to track down is possible match fixings but they were never proven, a possible bout of food poisoning in the players lounge..again never proven and I got really excited by the headline 'Murder Off the Grass Court' but it actually turned out to be fairly mundane, a retired tennis player was arrested and charged with murder back in the early 1900's, he died in jail a year later.  So whilst the rain continues to pour (thank goodness they put the new roof on) I'm sure there will be many of us inside watching this years tournament possibly partaking of our own champers and strawberries (I cannot believe I forgot to write that earlier, it has to be one of the most well known Wimbledon traditions) hopefully at a cheaper price than at Wimbledon itself  :)