11:00
The first rubber gets underway between Bogdanovic and Jurgen Melzer. After winning the opening set Bogdanovic collapses to a 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 6-1 defeat.
WIMBLEDON RENOVATIONS
I 14:00
Andy Murray arrives on court, with team coach John Lloyd, to a rousing reception. He fully justifies his new world ranking by breezing past Alex Peya 6-4 6-1 6-3 to level the tie.
guess there are many who think that, after the Championships, Eddie and his staff have little to do other than return the courts to good condition by carrying out renovation work. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the
17:00
Play is over for the day and the crowd start to make their way home. The staff clean off any surface debris and water courts before covering for the night.
The whole process is repeated for the final two days of the tournament that finished in defeat for the GB team 3-2.
Championships, the All England Club has hosted the Seniors Tour, the ‘Road to Wimbledon’ junior event, an Inter Military Tournament between the RAF, the Army and the Royal Navy and then, of course, the Davis Cup. Each year, a few weeks before the Championships, Eddie employs additional staff to work alongside his permanent team of fourteen. In total he has about thirty people to supervise, who are responsible for court preparations, maintenance and repairs. The majority of them remain after the Championships, until all the end of season renovations have been completed, usually in mid to late September. Eddie has to
meticulously plan his renovation programme around the busy fixture schedule. Of course, on some of the unused courts, work will have already begun, whilst other courts remain open up until the last minute for use by members.
It is important to get the renovations completed as soon as possible while weather and soil conditions remain favourable. It will be all hands on deck to get the remainder of the courts completed. Once done, they can all get a well-earned rest and recuperation. Once the final tournament is over, Eddie and his staff finish off their end of season renovation works. Most courts are renovated in exactly the same way, with the exception of one or two that may need some deeper cultivation work to restore levels. With the courts at around 10mm,
they are aerated with a Soil Reliever and Koroed off to 10mm in two passes. This cleans off the surface vegetation. Each court is then heavily scarified using a tractor mounted Graden. The
court.
Germination sheets are used to speed up germination rates. The grass is usually up within seven days, and gets its first cut when at a height of 14mm using pedestrian rotary mowers. Once the sward has thickened the height is reduced to around 6mm. They are then topdressed with four tonnes of Surrey Loam which is dragged into the court using a 2 metre levelawn. This will restore any slight loss of levels.
During the winter months the staff
carry out a number of cultural practices to keep the courts in prime condition. These include brushing the surface to remove dew, aerating as required, mowing to maintain a winter height between 10-12mm and the occasional application of iron to maintain colour and harden the turf. Somewhere in amongst all that, Eddie and his staff will take a well earned holiday to recharge the batteries before it all starts again!
15
courts are then re- sown using a Perennial ryegrass seed mixture containing 50 % Jessica and 50% Pontiac. The seed is sown in four directions applying about two bags per
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