Wimbledon 2001
Jun/27/2001
by Dee
Dee, Jun/27/2001
Monday's
practice will live in mind for a very very long time! Pat was dressed in all
grey and looked very sexy (so no surprise there then) - and NO HEADBAND, thank
the Lord. He's such a big tease, he strikes all these subtle little poses -
photo opportunities, because he knows there's a line of desperate women all with
their lenses poking through the stupid wire netting! Anyway, at one point he
turned full face towards us and looked Sue straight in the eyes and her face was
an absolute picture - I so wish I'd caught it on camera. She said she felt like
a Tom and Jerry cartoon, where the cat gets hit on the head and slides down the
wall and onto the floor without bending! They when he was leaving he walked
towards us but we were all to dumbstruck to speak, and finally I managed to say
hi and good luck for tomorrow, and he said thank you and then smiled the most
wonderful, sweet smile, followed by a wink according to the others, although I
was in shock from the wonderful smile I didn't even notice the wink!
Yesterday we had the most traumatic day ever, since we were in the queue at 3.30
am but still just missed out on Centre Court tickets. Everybody was in tears.
Sue and I were nauseous. Cat got stung by a bee. I mean, how much worse could
this get? While we were in the queue (that the line, for the Americans) I spoke
to a guy with his 4 sons who all had Centre Court tickets and he said that after
Williams and Agassi he probably would have had enough and may have a spare
ticket, and his friend had one which she was definitely interested in selling,
so that was one, possibly two, and we needed five (me, Catriona, Sue, Annie and
Irishface). So when we got inside Sue and I accosted everybody who had Centre
Court wristbands, but no luck. Finally, after much hard work and desperation,
the wonderful Sue, God bless her eternally, had one finally try and found 2 guys
and 2 girls who were kind of interested (the girl said she sees Rafter every
time she comes to Wimbledon and wasn't interested in seeing him again !!!), but
it was really our Kafelnikov tickets that were the clincher - we said they got
to watch Agassi and Williams on Centre Court, then Kafelnikov on No.1 Court with
our tickets, and all for free because we would pay for their Centre Court ones,
and they said they preferred Kafelnikov to Rafter anyway, so that was what swung
the deal! No accounting for taste, but Y2K was our very own ticket fairy
yesterday, so we love him too now.
Then we found Carol, who also had only managed to get No.1 court and had come
3000 miles to see Pat and no ticket. I said I still had the promise of this
possible ticket from the original guy, so she said she would try her luck in the
returned tickets queue and if not she'd meet us after the Agassi match to see if
my other ticket came through. In the end she was lucky in the returns queue, but
her friend, Beth, still didn't have a ticket, but the wonderful and generous man
decided he would give her his ticket and in the end she swapped tickets with him
and ended up with me on the FRONT ROW, Centre Court. Cat and Irish were opposite
us on the second row, and Sue and Annie were near the other Babblers a few rows
back. Only Carol was way up in the back, but she was happy just to get in there,
so everybody was just stunned and happy.
Even Pat's headband couldn't dampen our spirits. He looked lovely in white,
despite the blue and red headband (which somehow didn't look as bad as it might
have), and he did take it off at every change of ends (he kept wringing it out -
how attractive is that? *lol*). He was in playful, if distracted, mood (at one
point he had to check with the umpire if it was his first serve!), and there
were some wonderful moments in the match and one completely heartstopping rally
which I'm sure you all saw on TV with impossible shots and angles - the crowd
was screaming! Some very nice smiling and joking between the players, and in the
end the match just flew by - I wouldn't have minded another couple of sets, we
just didn't want the day to end. Cat and Irish were directly behind Pat's chair,
so those lucky girls were nearest in the race to take the ultimate butt shot to
end all butt shots when Pat bent down to pick up his bags in his soaked through
and therefore completely see-through shorts (Cat said you could read the writing
on the waistband of his undies!) Watch this space for the photos!!! And Sue's
camera had a zoom lens, so guess where she was pointing it? *lol*
We had an absolute ball at a beautiful, sun soaked, Pat soaked Wimbledon and we
are all very tired, very happy little bunnies. Wish you could all have been
there. Photos to follow soon, we promise.
One final word of thanks to my lovely companions, Catriona, Sue, Annie and Irish
- the most wonderful friends you could wish to meet and a credit to this board,
and to Carol and Beth, and all the other Babblers who were there and will no
doubt give you their own reports soon. Our warrior is looking strong and
fabulous and we KNOW he's going to be Wimbledon Champion 2001. GO WARRIOR PAT!
