BBC SPORT | SOL AT WIMBLEDON | Wombling free on Centre Court

By BBC Sport Online's Steve Cresswell at Wimbledon

They were only a mile from their Common home but four of the Wombles chose to join the queue on Wednesday night to get into Wimbledon.

There was plenty of opportunity for Orinoco to catch up on his sleep, and Madame Cholet's cookies made sure that Wellington was kept well fed.

But it was Great Uncle Bulgaria that guided them to the front of the queue and those treasured Centre Court tickets.

And the furry friends looked right at home as they took to their seats just below the Royal Box.

Could the real Wombles please stand up
Fancy dress may not be quite such commonplace at Wimbledon as it is at Test cricket, but four lads from Yorkshire dressed up as the Wombles last year and had such a good time that 12 months on they have repeated the feat.

Neil Bentham (Madame Cholet) Nathan Bowers (Wellington), Shaun Mallia (Orinoco) and Jon Kulczycki (Uncle Bulgaria) travelled down on Wednesday and are staying until Saturday.

But the tennis-crazed lads were about the only people on Centre Court to be glad that the temperatures of the opening couple of days had dropped.

"Wearing this costume is like being in a Persian rug," admitted Nathan, while Shaun descriptively implied that he felt like "a grilled fish on a barbecue."

But there was no rubbish to be found for the four Wombles as they had Andre Agassi, Lindsay Davenport and Lleyton Hewitt to entertain them.


	^^ Back to top
	Front Page \| Football \| Cricket \| Rugby Union \| Rugby League \| Tennis \| Golf \| Motorsport \| Boxing \| Athletics \| Other Sports \| Sports Talk \| In Depth \| Photo Galleries \| Audio/Video \| TV & Radio \| BBC Pundits \| Question of Sport \| Funny Old Game ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> \| BBC Weather >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMII\|News Sources\|Privacy