Hi, everybody.

I wonder if there is anyone who went to Wimbledon (tennis!) for a late afternoon and who could tell me how are the queues if you don't have tickets.

When I came to England 14-15 years ago I went a few times with some work colleagues, leaving home after 4pm and getting in at Wimbledon at 5ish with no problems at all.

One of my son's coaches, though, told me that on Friday at 11am there was a queue of 10,000 people and that they were told that if they joined it they might have got in at about 5pm.

My question is: how are things if you get there directly at 5pm? Is it easy to get in then or given the nice weather that we are having it is just a dream?

As one of my boys is really into tennis now, may be I should try to get a couple of tickets through the LTA next year and wait until then.

I, too, used to do the after work sessions years ago and managed to see some very exciting games.

There are two main sources of tickets to be had on the day: 6000 ground tickets are allocated to the day queuers, with 500 of them being for the show courts (Centre, 1 & 2). People queue overnight to be at the front for the opportunity of the good tickets ( for the first time this year, they have provided proper camping space in a car park for these hardy souls).

The second wave of tickets is the resale tickets: as people leave the grounds for the day, there are boxes they can donate their tickets to (proceeds to charity) and these are sold at the same ticket office as the main day queue. They are available from about 3pm and that is what you have got 15 years ago.

It is a matter of chance whether you a) get in b)get to see anything worthwhile. The best chance is when the weather has been a bit bad (not an appalling wash out) all day and the games have been delayed - people already inside have had a long day and give up but don't reckon on the fickle English weather, which means that an indifferent day can often result in a lovely evening!

I would have thought that the coaches comment was a bit exaggerated , but it does seem to be very popular this year. Are you in England anyway? - I wouldn't chance a journey from Italy for returns.

Try the lottery for next year, anyway.

Thanks Panda! I am in England, although I go to Italy to my parents as much as I can :-)

I think I'll try to get tickets next year. My son is LTA registered and they have a chance of getting tickets too. Worth trying. I'll stick with the telly for this year although it looks like today in particular was a good one to be there ;-)