Round Up Week 26 2014

I’ve had an eventy couple of weeks, well it’s that time of year isn’t it – you can’t move for things happening. There was the Glastonbury Festival last weekend that got many pulses racing (including Media Centre Editor Ben’s), we’re in the thick of the World Cup (I got Nigeria in the office sweepstake so green’s my colour this summer), the Proms are on the horizon (my Ed Jon will be looking forward to that), plus the annual BBC TV Drama Writers Festival organised by the lovely folk at BBC Writersroom was on Wednesday (more on that to follow in a blog next week). We are also coming to the end of one of my favourite fortnights of the year – Wimbledon.

My blogs seem to be taking on a rather self-flagellating, confessional air (I’ve previously admitted to being a geek and a bore), now I have to confess a further foible: I am rubbish at sport. Not a little bit – a lot. While my peers played hockey I was so useless my devoted teachers tried me on a myriad of other sports: netball, rounders and golf (I kid you not). In the end I dabbled in synchronised swimming and scored for the boy’s cricket team during our Wednesday afternoon sports lessons.

But the sport I really wanted to be good at was tennis. Once again my coordination failed me but during those long sessions with Miss Black screaming at me to, “keep your eye on the ball Khalil”, I developed an unlikely love of the sport, which has never gone away. And I may not be good at playing by golly I’m good at watching tennis – I could do it for a living.

So imagine my delight when for the first time ever (and I’ve applied for several years) I got a pair of tickets through Wimbledon’s open ballot, to watch the tennis, live, on Centre Court. For those of you not in the know you have to apply, in writing, (brilliantly old-fashioned no?) to the club and then apply for tickets through a lottery – if you are lucky enough to be awarded them and you can afford the tickets (a mere £60) and can make the date, you are in. I was thrilled, but then when the line-up was announced last week for my session I was bouncing off the walls with excitement to learn I’d be seeing Nadal and Federer as well as British star Heather Watson.

I had the most incredible day – ok, so I was sat pretty far back, but I think it’s safe to say that there are no bad seats in Centre Court and thanks to the roof, when Federer pointed out there was a bit of drizzle (which turned into a torrential downpour) I certainly got my money’s worth – a full day’s tennis.

It was a brilliant experience – don’t get me wrong, but as the first Nadal match started I realised we were sat just a few rows behind a couple of the BBC television cameras – the ones taking the overview shot of the court. And something strange happened – these cameras acted as a reminder of how I’d be watching the matches if I were at home… I sort of missed McEnroe, Henman and Virginia Wade’s insightful analysis (the couple next to me were more interested in chatting about what they needed to pack for their holiday to Tenerife). And I missed the stats (how many aces had Federer played this set? What was Nadal’s serve/ volley percentage winners?), the replays, the close ups.

Now I’m not saying I’d rather have watched it at home – especially Heather Watson’s game, which – despite the fact she lost – we, the crowd, really felt like we were helping with lots of vocal encouragement; but it really made me appreciate watching the tennis from my sitting room. That doesn’t mean next year if I get tickets I’ll be passing them on – just that if I don’t, I won’t moan too much – I’ll just settle back, turn on BBC Two and enjoy the tennis from my sofa, safe in the knowledge I won’t miss anything vital if I have to nip to the loo.

Hannah Khalil is Digital Producer, About the BBC website and blog