9 things you didn’t know about Wimbledon

1. 250 Ball boys and ball girls are selected from 750 applicants and they start training in February every year.
2. 23 tonnes of strawberries are served every year, laid end to end someone worked out that this would stretch about 60km.
3. About 55,000 balls are used in the Championships and they are changed after the first 7 games then every 9th game. The used balls are sold for in the Wimbledon Shop.
4. An estimated 250,00 glasses of Pimms are sold during the Wimbledon fortnight
5. There are line judges and they change them out every hour but in the heat they changed them over every 45 minutes.
6. There is a team of guys who are assigned the dreaded job of covering the courts in case of rain
7. Hamish the hawk is on duty every morning at 9am to scare away the pigeons but this doesn’t always deter them as some can still be seen to disrupt matches.
8. The name tennis came from the French word Tenez which means ‘take ‘or ‘receive’, shouted as a person served.
9. The fluorescent yellow balls were introduced in 1986 replacing the white balls. My friend argues that they should use pink balls as it gets darker to make it easier to see.

For tips on how to queue for Wimbledon tickets go here.