Arrived at London and got the tube to the hotel, checked in, logged on to am.com to see if anyone else had arrived and then went to get some dinner.
This morning we got up and had breakfast before heading off for Wimbledon, the transport for london website lied and we caught a bus expecting a short walk to the courts but instead had a 20 minute up hill trek.
Finally arrived and headed to Court 1 as play was due to start so no time to go to the am.com meeting point. Found our seats and said hello to our neighbours (Linny and family) settled down to await the introduction of the players.
We were treated to some opera singers before the players came out (an improvement on last years terrible dancers) and then out they came!
Very impressive bursts of fire accompanied their entrance, pleasantries were exchanged and then it was onto Boggo vs Melzer......
Boggo made a really good start taking the first set and going up an early break in the second, but as is so often the case it all went downhill from there and after losing the break and the tie break it seemed as if Boggo gave up a little bit, not sure if he had lost his confidence?
We went to grab some lunch shortly before the end of Boggo's match as we thought the queues would be bad. Arrived back at the court just before Andy came on.
Andy got an early break in the first set and from then on it was pretty much an easy victory. He did get broken at one stage but the victory was never truely in doubt!
Am off to get something to eat now but will add more details when I get back!
So after the end of Friday's matches we packed all our things back into our bags and by this time most of the am.commers had headed off (to see Judy we now know).
I decided that we would go to the players entrance in the hope we might catch Andy or Jamie.
When we got there I was surprised at how few people were waiting as last year it was very busy. The staff told us that Andy had already gone in but we decided to wait anyway. It was still warm and the queues for buses quite long.
After a short while who should appear? John Lloyd!!!!! I got him to sign one of our tickets and we had a chat about the day. Such a nice man!
We then waited for ages with nobody interesting coming in or out.......and then out comes the umpires! I surprised Cedric Mourier(?) by asking him to sign a ticket, and then he almost walked off with it!
Luckily my boyfriend got him to give it back before he disappeared down the tunnel.
They then announced that the grounds would be closing in 15 minutes, so we continued waiting as we figured they would kick us out when it came time to leave!
Anyway about 5 mins before closing I decided to pop to the ladies in case they shut them, leaving the boyfriend with my copy of 'Hitting Back' just in case..............
And when I got back he was walking down to meet me - having seen Andy got my book signed and had a little chat. Apparently he told Andy I would kill him if he hadn't got it signed, to which Andy laughed and did a very nice autograph just inside the front cover.
So, with one of the goals achieved we headed off to catch the bus back to the hotel. Went to sleep quite early due to being tired from the sun, but a good day.
Today to come a little later - Strictly Come Dancing is on soon and I want to watch!
Day 2
We were quite glad of the slightly later start today as it gave us time to go get some lunch and water before leaving for Wimbledon, £2 for a bottle of water is a bit shocking really!
Caught the bus to Wimbledon Station and then the special DC service direct to Wimbledon and arrived a few minutes after the gates opened.
We headed over to the am.com meeting point and found Mintsauce, Knightowl, Davech and LT if I remember correctly!
Had an interesting chat about usernames and I found everyone mentally calls me 'Liz zim' as opposed to 'Lizzi m' my first name followed by the first letter of my surname! However given that Dave will forever be 'Davech' I don't suppose it matters!
We decided to go and eat our lunch before play started so that our M&S sandwiches didn't get hot so headed for Murraymount for a picnic! After eating we went back over to the meeting point and who should I almost bump into on the way? Jamie!!!!!!
Unfortunately as didn't see him coming I was not prepared to get him to sign anything but given that I had almost knocked him over I thought I should get out of the way!
Back at the meeting point we saw many am.commers, unfortunately I still don't know who everyone is as there were just so many people around. Ross was still practicing at this point and so we waited to see if anyone would emerge to sign autographs. They did and I managed to get Alex to sign my DC programme!
Had a little bit more of a wander and then went to Court 1 to find our seats for the match. Was sat next to LT and Linda was next to her but due to the short match didn't really have an opportunity to chat.
Obviously a disapointing match and Jamie looked really unhappy, I guess he felt he had not perfomed to his best and he felt he had let the team down.
So match over we all went to have our photo taken by Kim, this was quite fun - although I am not a fan of me in photos but I think I managed to hide quite well. My boyfriend (Rob) also took a few of the group so will put them online when he has had a chance to resize them.
After the photo (which generated quite an audience) we wandered off, saw Judy but she was surrounded by other am.commers and I had met her at Queens so we decided to go and see if we could find any players at the competitiors entrance........
So, where was I? Oh that's right on my way to the players entrance.
We got over there and there were only a few people there again. Several very irritating people who were being very critical of Andy/Jamie, it seems that they can't win no matter what they do. Jamie had apparently not tried hard enough and Andy still getting moaned about for not going to Argentina (although personally I think this weekend more than vindicated that decision!)
I bit my tongue as it seemed there was nothing that could be said which would change their minds and I didn't want to spoil my day and waited.....
After a little while out of the tunnel popped Ross, Jamie and John (obviously back from the press).
Managed to get Ross to sign his page in the programme and then went to the other end of the line to try and catch Jamie. He signed what seemed to be the last person and started to walk away, so I called out his name in desperation and he came back So I managed to get Jamie to sign his page as well.
At this point was wondering whether it was worth waiting as there was no sign of Andy. But these annoying kids went and had a look and announced that they had seen him on a nearby court, we were unsure as to whether they were telling the truth but thought we'd stay just in case.
Only a few minutes later and along strolls Andy!!!!!!! He was carrying a few bits and pieces but still came over. I waited for him to sign a few of the kids books first before asking him to sign mine - he obliged and I said thanks before getting out of the way. He signed quite a few but then went inside, he said he'd be back after he had a shower.
Having achieved the goal of seeing Andy and getting autographs from the rest of the team we decided to head back to the hotel and get an early night ready for the early start the next day!
Day 3
An early start this morning so we got up and had breakfast in the hotel before checking out. We popped to the petrol station to pick up some water (to avoid Wimbly prices) and headed to the bus stop. We arrived at Wimbledon and left our luggage in the storage place (which interestingly was free!) and went in.
One thing we noticed was that the bag searches were really quite bad, in 3 days we were not searched once. The first day Rob was wearning an NYPD t-shirt and the guy said don't worry! The other 2 days there were already people being checked so they just waved us through - not really a good sign as if someone was trying anything it would not be that difficult to get in and cause chaos!
Once again we headed over to the am.com meeting point, on the way over we saw Andy Ireland so I said hello and asked him how Andy was, wished him good luck and he headed down to the practice court.
We said hello to a few am.commers - Davech, Knightowl and a few others, I am forgetting already who! Andy was on court so we decided to go and take some pictures from the roof garden area. I figured Andy would not sign many autographs after practice so didn't hang around.
I bought some raffle tickets from Fitz, which again turned out to be a mistake as they were not getting picked To be fair he did warn me beforehand.
So onto the tennis, today we were sat next to Jambon and some of team ASE, although didn't get names.
Andy came onto court and got an amazing welcome!
The first few games were a bit tense but Andy was clearly the better player on the day, took the first set and really should have won the second. He played much better in the 3rd and 4th and pulled off some amazing shots. It was great to be so close watching him win, he was clearly delighted to win and asked the crowd to support Alex in his match. At this point Andy stated that he believed Alex could win, and went off court.
We rushed out to grab something to eat in the hope we would make it back before the start of Alex's match. I am not sure why they don't allow a little longer between matches as they must realise people need to eat!
More soon....
So, we joined the shortest queue for food which was Pizza, not a bad option as Rob quite likes pizza! It felt like it was taking forever, and by the time we had finished them Alex was just starting his match.
We then had to wait until after the 3rd game before we could get back in, once back in my seat I made up for my absence by trying to give Alex as much support as I could. This involved calling out "Come on Boggo" at the top of my voice repeatedly and beating together my clappers ridiculously often! I believe the boyfriend was considering denying knowing me at this point.
After the great first set as we all know it all went a bit downhill from there. Obviously we all know now that Boggo was carrying an injury, however I still didn't feel he gave it his all (I know this may be an unpopular opinion but that was just the impression I got).
Team GB were going absolutely crazy for the first set and a half but I guess they didn't feel they could lift Alex once it started going wrong. I also think Andy left as he was becoming increasingly frustrated with Alex's performance and as we all know he can't stand to lose!
So despite our best efforts Alex lost in 4 sets and the Austrians were obviously delighted to be back in the world group.
We said goodbye to those am.commers nearest us and left the court.
I had bought a tennis ball the day before and decided to see if I could get Jamie/Andy to sign it before we left.
We got to the players entrance (and I am sure the security guy must think I am a stalker!) and waited.
Not too long after we got there and along came Jamie. I asked him to sign the tennis ball and he dutifully did, not as tidy as the one in my programme from the day before but I know who it is and that's all that counts!
We continued to wait as we were in no hurry (our train was booked for 8:15) and soon enough we saw John Lloyd and Alex, I wanted to get John to sign my programme as the other day he signed my ticket. So I called out his name as everyone was more interested in Alex, and he came across and signed it for me. I also got another alex autograph on the front of my programme!
I stayed there to see if Andy would appear and after a little while a guy came out from the building and gave away a few used tennis balls, and he let me have one! So now I had a bit of a dilemma, did I want to get Andy to sign the same ball as Jamie or the Wimbledon ball?
I decided that I would get try and get the same ball that Jamie had signed as then it would have both Murray brothers on the one ball. So I gave the other one to Rob to look after it for me while I waited.
Then I was standing there looking at the entrance to see if Andy would come out and I didn't even notice him appear from the side! Can't believe I didn't see him!
Luckily I did notice him in the end so I asked him to sign the ball, which of course he did cos he's great like that!
So all of my goals achieved for the weekend (aside from us winning) and we decided to head home - well actually back to Waterloo to wait for 2 hours before catching our train home!
My favourite sequence of photos:
Shaun with Jamie:
Link to all photos: http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn9/Lizzim_photo/Davis%20Cup%202008/
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