LAWN TENNIS.
THE NEW “WIMBLEDON.” READY NEXT YEAR.
Lawn tennis players the world over will learn with interest that the new centre court has been laid. Its fine Cumberland turf, imported from Silloth, is at present unknitted, waiting for Nature and Commander Hillyard to bring it to that state of perfection associated with the old centre court, but that the floor of the new championship arena is now down is an event deserving notice.
On visiting the new All-england ground a day or two ago – it is situated off the Wimbledon Park-road, and adjoins the Wimbledon Park Golf Club – one was impressed at once by the spaciousness, the permanence, and the significance of the enterprise. Here is the capital of the Empire, the birthplace of the game, marching, as it should, in front of all other countries. Paris has its championship arena set amid the sylvan beauties and romantic environment of St. Cloud; New York can accommodate 12,000 spectators on a ground which lacks nothing in astute organisation; Johannesburg offers its great Rugby stand at the Wanderers’ Club for spectators to watch international lawn tennis; Melbourne is building at the moment a new ground of imposing dimensions; but no lawn tennis headquarters will be so generously planned, so efficiently carried out, or so permanent as the new Wimbledon. If the weather is kind to the builders – that is, if we have an open winter, permitting uninterrupted work – it should be ready for play early in June next. That consummation will mean that the championships of 1922, due to begin on June 26, will be witnessed, not by 6,000 or 7,000 people, which was all that the old ground could accommodate, but by 14,000, the full capacity of the new centre court. This is no speculative estimate. The demand for seats has been steadily, in later years overwhelmingly, rising since 1913, the year of Mcloughlin and Wilding. When the Debenture-holders had been allotted seats last year there was only a balance of 500 for the public. And for this residue there were 10,000 applications. Even on the new ground, where something like 4,000 reserved seats will be available, there will have to be a ballot. But, of course, for those who draw blanks there will be many more additional seats, available on the day, besides standing accommodation on a liberal scale.
Only begun last April, the new ground already presents in outline the majesty and dignity of its orientation. Its area, 13½ acres, is more than four times greater than the old ground; but the increased room to play and to watch is not its only improvement. The whole environment is changed, radically changed. Standing on the concrete amphitheatre, which in twelve connected segments is to surround the centre court, the visitor commands a view, open and placid, that no other metropolitan ground in the world can boast. Round almost the whole of this giant structure, on its outside, will be a promenade, from which the side courts can be seen. Most of the latter have already been laid; indeed, they are more advanced than the centre court. All are perfectly designed for sunlight and background. Those on the flat will have yew trees behind; the spectators will assemble on broad, dry paths and sides. But the overflow big matches, those not staged on the centre court, will be catered for on two or three well courts, so constructed that hundreds may stand on the banks and see every stroke of the match.