Military Steward Wimbledon
Championships 2022 By Private Avishek Subba
‘As a big tennis fan, being selected from over 800 applications for the Wimbledon Championships 2022 as a Military Steward was an incredible personal opportunity’.
T
Pte Avishek Subba Wimbledon Centre Court 04 July 22.
his year marked 100 years of
Centre Court since opening in 1922, the Championships which took place between 27 June to 10 July was the 135th Championship since 1887 and made Wimbledon the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
The British Army have been involved in the
tournament by providing Military Service Stewards since 1947.
On June 27 after being selected for the Centre Court, with tasks including crowd safety and security, I walked along the corridors of Court No 1 where images of previous Champions and players were hung on the walls and a view of Centre Court could be seen - words cannot explain my experience. A special ceremony took place on Sunday July 3rd to mark the milestone of a century of play at the world-famous venue. Previous Champions of Wimbledon walked on to Centre Court including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Martina Hingis, Billie Jean King and Venus Williams to name a few and Freya Ridings performed her song: Lost Without You on a piano.
This year also marked Sue Barker’s final year as a Wimbledon Presenter, where she has been synonymous since presenting at Wimbledon from 1994. A bittersweet moment for her admirers and Wimbledon fans.
My most memorable match was the final between Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios as I was able to observe the match
from the front row whilst undertaking my duties, which was exhilarating. The five- set thriller between Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz was phenomenal, I could feel the electrifying energy from the grunts and heavy shots from Nadal ripple across the Centre Court, not to mention the roar of the crowd in Centre Court during matches.
What I loved about Wimbledon were the great matches and the audience participation, particularly as I was able to chat with people the most memorable being; a child who had travelled all the way from a village in Austria with his father just to watch Wimbledon (his father is a tennis instructor), a Canadian who had been to tennis school with Denis Shapovalov and a lady who mentioned that her son was a Staff Sergeant in Signals Regiment in Stafford, serving for almost eighteen years. She commented on how smart myself and my RAF friend looked in our twos uniform.
While walking around the court area in our uniform I heard child say “Mum I want to join the Army when I grow up.” I will always remember hearing this.
This was such a brilliant experience, my only regret was not being able to take a picture or get an autograph from Stefanos Tsitsipas and I hope to be given the opportunity again and maybe I will see my favourite player Dominic Thiem.
Finally, thank you to my team leader for the event; Staff Sergeant Andrew Boddington and all the friends I made especially from the RAF, Marines and Army. I cannot thank enough; Sergeant Henry Mtonga (who recently finished his tour on 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment), the 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment and our RAO for letting us attend despite the hectic schedule in the Department.
AGC JOURNAL 2022 103
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