Wimbledon makes Judy a new member
She once fell out with Wimbledon after being refused entry to the members’ enclosure because her jeans were considered too scruffy. But now Judy Murray and the All england Club appear to have forgiven and forgotten as she has finally been made a member of the exclusive institution at SW19.
Britain’s Fed Cup captain, and mother of the two boys chiefly responsible for Britain winning the Davis Cup for the first time in 79 years, will never be turned away from the privileged enclave again.
The Davis Cup captain whom she mentored, Leon Smith, has also been lined up for one of the much soughtafter memberships at the world’s most famous tennis club.
It completes a major turnaround in relations between Britain’s first tennis family and the All england, with Andy already making it his unofficial home training base after automatically being made a member following him winning the men’s singles in 2013.
In 2006 Judy was barred from entering the members’ area where she wanted to meet a friend, and subsequently wrote a newspaper article suggesting that the venerable club needed to modernise.
‘I love Wimbledon but it’s just a bit too formal for me,’ she wrote, making several unfavourable comparisons with the US Open.
She complained about the cost of merchandise, suggested more children should be allowed in and even went as far as, heaven forbid, calling for a burger bar to be available to the punters.
But there has been a rapprochement to such an extent that she has been passed by the club’s membership committee after being proposed and seconded, and her name is up on the club noticeboard. She will become a temporary member, which is usually the forerunner to becoming a fully fledged member with all its privileges.
There are around 100 temporaries and 350 full members, who pay what is believed to be a token subscription of £105 per year. Temporaries get full access to the club’s pristine facilities and courts all year round, except for the two weeks before and the duration of the summer Championships fortnight.
From his initial position as a rebellious outsider Andy has become a big admirer of the All england Club and chooses to practise there over the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, which he criticised after the Davis Cup triumph on Sunday.
he has spoken of how he finds inspiration by just sitting in the Centre Court stands at quiet times of year and contemplating the matches that he has played there.
his mother being welcomed to the establishment comes at a time when relations are inevitably strained between the Murrays and the Lawn Tennis Association following Andy and Jamie’s comments about the governing body on Monday.
Despite that, her acceptance is an indicator of how their stock has never been higher following the part the two boys played in this year’s Davis Cup competition.
however, there has also been disappointment for Judy (right, with Andy) in recent days, with it now seeming likely that planners will reject her scheme to build a tennis and golf centre in conjunction with Colin Montgomerie outside her home town of Dunblane.