Today's Forecast

Mostly sunny again. High of 83.

Gothamist hasn't really been keeping up with Wimbledon this year, though when she was a kid, she loved to settle in with a box of gingersnaps and waste away the whole afternoon watching Ivan Lendl get freaky. (That's not the only thing Snoop and I have in common, incidentally.) The annoying part about watching tennis on TV--and, admittedly, some people just can't stand it altogether--are the innumerable rain delays. Wimbledon has a ton of them, and yesterday was no exception. It was a complete rainout.

This state of affairs hasn't gone unnoticed by the All English Court and Raquet Club---they've been keeping a detailed weather log since 1919. The BBC has a special Wimbledon weather section that gives you a better idea about just how seriously the London meteorological community takes the event, along with a synopsis of the most interesting weather-related moments at Wimbledon:

1949 - brilliant sunshine for the whole championship
1955 - a tremendous downpour flooded the tunnels adjacent to Centre Court
1976 - the hottest on record
1985 - a spectacular storm saw over an inch of rain falling in 20 minutes
1991 - probably the wettest first week ever - after 4 days only 52 of 240 matches were completed!

The solution to all these weather hijinks? They're building a retractable roof over Centre Court. If you fancy experiencing Wimbledon the old fashioned way, you've got til 2009. Don't forget your poncho.

Related: Gothamist Sports on Wimbledon

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

June 24, 2004 8:13 AM

Comments [rss]

KP

Wimbleton always reminds me of the classic days when they wore (way too) short shorts, had wimpy looking wooden small head racquets, and all the cool players wore headbands.

With all the pro Stuyvesant talk on Gothamist, I'm proud to say that John McEnroe went to Trinity with me back in the day. Of course, we were many years apart but were actually there at the same time. They still replay his matches (including the 1980 neverending match with Borg) when the rains fall. I think most people agree that those were the glory days of Wimbleton. You can't be serious!!!