Wimbledon crowds are essentially twats: Discuss

[looney]

Did she, fair enough. I knew she'd vaguely achieved something, unlike most British players.

Slept with cliff richard?

 

[Austrian Gull]

The fact that we haven't produced a half-decent female player since Jo Durie is a bit of a national embarrassment.

 

[Icy Gull]

I love threads like this, so many people slagging Wimbledon off whilst SO OBVIOUSLY actually watching it. If you hate it and what it stands for so much and the fact that the English are rubbish at it (which you knew before it even started) why the f*** are you bothering to watch?

I f***ing love the second week of Wimbledon but only vaguely watch the generally one sided matches in the 1st week, some of the tennis played by people like Federer is a joy to watch.

 

[Gluteus Maximus]

Wimbledon may not be everybody's cup of tea, but surely it is a good reflection on the diversity of our nation - beer swilling, tattooed hooligans one minute, strawberry munching ra ra toffs the next. It would be pretty sad if the nation was full of uniform football fans, as it would if we were all educated at Eton and Roedean. Whatever you say the UK isn't boring. Take Denmark where I am, christ what a uniform nation, the lack of diversity can bore the tits off you (though the cloning of blonde, tasty females does compensate some what).

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It is embarrassing how few even half-decent British players there are. But my limited experience of tennis clubs is thay do make efforts to get young people involved. There are of course older people who play the game - as it is a game that can still be played when you get older without fear of injury - and some of those people are miserable fuckers. But where does that remind you of ?

And I hear about elitist clubs who no doubt put people off from joining. But these are also the clubs who tend to have the best youth set-ups.

I don't know enough about the set-up of the LTA to say where they are going wrong in bringing through world-class stars - but look at the money spent on football. There are people here *cough*Brovian*cough* who say we do not have any world-class footballers.

If it was easy every country in the world would be doing it.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

The one world class event we manage to hold yearly in this country and we slate it.

 

[Gwylan]

The one world class event we manage to hold yearly in this country and we slate it.

Hmmm..
Glastonbury - the world's largest music festival
Notting Hill Carnival - Europe's biggest street event
Edinburgh Festival - the world's largest arts festival
The Open Championship - one of golf's four majors and the only one outside the US
The FA Cup - the most watched domestic football tournament in the world
The Derby
The British Grand Prix

And that's not to mention the seasons at the Royal Opera, one of the world's top opera houses, and the RSC, probably the leading theatre company in the world


oh...and the world conker championships and the world marbles championships

 

[Danny-Boy]

I beg to differ Lord B, tennis was originally known as "lawn tennis" because apart from the public courts, it was played on the lawns of country houses. It would nerver have developed if players had not been able, in those Victorian days, to move around on a "giving" surface, long before roads were properly paved. Do you think they could have invented tennis on cobbles?

All that has happened is that for climatic reasons, other countries have had to switch to artificial surfaces over the years. Both the US and Australia legs of the Grand slam were formerly played on grass, the US at Forest Hills.

The French has always i believe been played on clay, but since most courts were built for the Brits down on the cote D'Azur originally, that's hardly surprising. The fact is that tennis on grass looks fantastic, it was a happy coincidence that colour TV came to the UK at the same time the game went open, in 1968. It televises to me like no other sport.

I miss the old open-ness of wimbledon which I used to go to regularly in the days of Newcombe and roche, Ivan lendl Borg and the stars of the 1970's. But the women then wre not a patch looks-wise on the babes of today.

Navratilova versus Sharapova? No contest...

She lost.... but I got the best laugh of the day later from BBC's "Gruntwatch"

 

[Danny-Boy]

The fact that we haven't produced a half-decent female player since Jo Durie is a bit of a national embarrassment.

The fact that Austria regularly produces more seeded players than we do is much more of an embarrassment, how many people live there - 15million? 10?
Where do all our millions go?

I was coached by Becker at school but (err) it wasn't BORIS Becker...

 

[Danny-Boy]

Moving slightly on from justified bashing of the Daily-Mail-reading, probably-go-to-a-West-End-"show"-after-their-day-at-Wimbledon crowds...

Another thing that narks me is the obsessive cut-to-shot of the player's girlfriend/boyfriend in the box seats. If it's a Brit male playing, girlfriend will be a posh bird called Lucy or Lucinda wearing designer sunglasses and looking inscrutable if slightly crushed as her chap exits with a whimper in 4 sets. If it's a woman on court, it will be a massive East European called Sergei, alongside 47 other similarly mustachioed members of her entourage, all bellowing instructions to the slightly bewildered player.

I know the whole WAG thing kinda took over the 2006 World Cup, but is there another sport on earth that's so ****ing obsessed with showing the player's partner every thirteen ****ing seconds?

Well I saw Maria Sharapova's other half in the stands, he looked like a lump of lard. Maybe I HAVE got a chance....

 

[Hannibal smith]

I spoke to an old doris on the train yesterday who was on her way to Wimbledon.

She wanted ‘Roger’ to win because ‘He was lovely’ and told me chapter and verse about Murray’s win and how he should make the final this year. She thought Roger would win and only lost last year because he was ‘poorly’. She also said ‘Bless you’ when I sneezed, offered to share her food with me and hoped I would have a nice day at work. I can’t think of any other fans of any other sports who are so polite. I bet she would have gone mental if a pigeon had landed on Centre court as well.

I didn’t have the heart to tell that I thought Andy Murray is a complete bell cheese, that I find tennis about as interesting as varnishing the fence (excellently summed up by Brovian as an elitist wankfest). Still, much better than staring ahead in silence and having elbow barging matches with the fat bastard that sits next to you.

 

[bhafc99]

Well I saw Maria Sharapova's other half in the stands, he looked like a lump of lard. Maybe I HAVE got a chance....

Didn't allegedly Andy Roddick allegedly shag Sharapova, and allegedly comment afterwards she just lay there like a plank of wood?

 

[Gazwag]

and until the LTA 'do something' to destroy the snobbery surrounding lawn tennis in the UK I shall cointinue to mock Wimbledon for the poncey wankfest it so clearly is.

Golf in this country has far more snobbery than tennis will ever have

 

[Simster]

I don't know enough about the set-up of the LTA to say where they are going wrong in bringing through world-class stars - but look at the money spent on football. There are people here *cough*Brovian*cough* who say we do not have any world-class footballers.

If it was easy every country in the world would be doing it.

Good stuff and I agree with most of what you say. Tennis is a demanding sport but is simply not accessible to huge swathes of people in this country. It's quite easy for people to mock the chattering classes who frequent Wimbledon, but the simple fact is that it isn't their fault we're so shit at it. It's not even entirely the fault of the LTA, in my opinon because there is no way the governing body of any sport can be expected to provide equipment to all those that want to play. Does the FA pay for the nets of every football club in the country, or indeed the land they play on? The RFU hires out some of its promotional kit at extorionate rate to its clubs, even if all the local club wants to do is promote the game (and club) at a local fair!

And is the fact that we're shit at tennis really that much of a national embarrassment? Doesn't it just show that the sport really just isn't that important to us as a nation? We just happen to have a grand slam tourny for historic reasons.

So I'm with DKM on this one, although I would say that one thing the LTA really ought to do is to introduce 2 days where 90% of tickets are open to pay on the gate spectators. I think that would certainly help inspire more people to play the game.

 

[Austrian Gull]

The fact that Austria regularly produces more seeded players than we do is much more of an embarrassment, how many people live there - 15million? 10?
Where do all our millions go?

I was coached by Becker at school but (err) it wasn't BORIS Becker...

8 million-ish. I think Austria's relatively good performance is down to Thomas Muster being world number one about 10 years ago. Suddenly, thousands of kids wanted to take up the game and the elitism went out the game- similar to what happened in Germany when Becker, Stich & Graf started winning tournaments.

Pretty much every village has a tennis club and membership fees are affordable. In fact, they are desperate for members because playing numbers are down over recent years.

 

[Austrian Gull]

Golf in this country has far more snobbery than tennis will ever have

From my own experience, I'm not sure that's true.

Within five miles of where I grew up, there were two excellent municipal golf courses that had more relaxed dress codes than any tennis club. Being a member as a youth was certainly cheaper as well.

The municipal tennis courts were in a disgraceful condition and private clubs were financially out of the question.

Most of my schoolmates turned away from tennis and a lot played golf.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Didn't allegedly Andy Roddick allegedly shag Sharapova, and allegedly comment afterwards she just lay there like a plank of wood?

I HAVE got a chance then...:yahoo:

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I HAVE got a chance then...:yahoo:

A - Rod is a stud

 

[murraymints4brighton]

If you were any sort of tennis fan you would have noticed its 2 days and not 2 weeks

I am sorry but you are talking out of your rear end again... How long is Wimbledon on the TV for? if it were two days my friend then the players would be f***ing knackered!

I am also a coach and player as well as a fan.

 

[Gazwag]

I am also a coach and player as well as a fan.

Which club do you coach at?