Queuing Wimbledon fans come up with the best way of staying comfortable
A group of tennis-mad fans had the right idea to make sure they had the best seat in the Wimbledon queue – and brought their own sofa.
The gang from south London had to take apart their velour two-seater before re-assembling it once they got their place in line in Wimbledon Park.
Although it might seem a bit over the top, fans often queue for hours and hours to get tickets for the tennis tournament, with some even camping overnight to get the best spot.
After making it through security, the group of friends put it back together before enjoying strawberries and cream as they eagerly awaited the day-one action.
Chris, one of the men in the group told The Sun: ‘We all live together in South London, about 30 mins away by car.
‘We’ve been before, but tickets are getting harder to get so we wanted to come prepared this year.
‘We were planning our queue experience and one of my housemates had the idea to bring [the sofa] along because you can take it apart and put it together again and we can queue in comfort.
‘We are a bit worried about the rain and hope we can get it back at the end.’
The company who sold the sofa, Snug, even offered to reimburse the group for their tickets.
A spokesperson said: ‘Loads of social media users have flagged to us that one of our sofas has been brought into the Wimbledon queue.
‘Fair play to these mad tennis fans, it’s an incredible hack for queuing in comfort.
‘We reached out to them to find out if they’ve reached the front of the queue and we just offered to cover the cost of their Wimbledon tickets to reward them.’
The group were part of thousands of fans who started queuing at the weekend to make sure they got tickets to the first day of the Championships today.
First in the queue, Julia Barker, 47, was given the number one ticket alongside her husband Nicky, 54, and son Dan, 23.
The family, who have lived in Ireland for more than 20 years but are originally from Latvia, have been camping out since 7.30am on Saturday.
Dan said: ‘We didn’t expect to be first.’
He said they had hoped to secure tickets for Centre Court or Court One.
‘Then we realised there was nobody here,’ he added.
Sarah Hedley, a civil servant from Hull, has been to Wimbledon every year since 1995, with the exception of 2020 when the tournament was cancelled because of the pandemic.
She celebrated her 53rd birthday in the queue on Sunday and told PA: ‘My friend and I came in 1995.
‘We were watching the six o’clock news in Birmingham and saw an article about the queue. I said: ‘I would really love to do that.’
‘We were actually in the pub. We finished our second drink, went to mine, got a sleeping bag and got here at one o’clock in the morning.’
Karen Mardon, from Surrey, said the Wimbledon queue is ‘very democratic’.
Standing in line with her three friends, all in their 60s, she told PA: ‘It’s very democratic as well.
‘It doesn’t mean that you only get to go because you have got lots of money.’
She added that it stops tickets only going to the ‘fantastically rich’.
Lawyer Katrin Causch flew from Berlin to join the queue for Wimbledon for the fourth time.
She arrived at Wimbledon Park at 11pm on Sunday night equipped only with a sleeping bag and no tent.
Asked what the draw of Wimbledon is, she said: ‘It’s just Wimbledon. It’s just unbelievable, it’s great.
‘It’s the famous tournament and they make it possible for people to queue getting tickets, instead of paying very high prices.
‘It is amazing in the queue to meet people from all over the world.’
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