The empty seats at Wimbledon last week will do nothing for the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s dream of building 38 new courts and a show court on the Capability Brown parkland across the road. Cynics would ask why do they need it? They only have 375 full and life members, which is so bizarre it led Tim Henman to a rare joke: “The easy way to get in is to win it”.
I grew up in south-west London and it is true that the championships managed to make it slightly less boring. It was the only time in the year that anything happened. It was as if tennis had landed on us from outer space.
