We invented football, rugby, golf, cricket and tennis, gave them to the world and took a pasting, though in the case of tennis it took a while – the first Wimbledon Championships in the new sport of lawn tennis were held in 1877 (for men – women waited until 1884), and no foreigner took the title until American May Sutton in 1905, Aussie Norman Brookes the first overseas man to triumph two years later.
Wimbledon , strictly amateur until 1968, is also a mirror to the strange survival of our class system. For most of us getting a ticket involves luck or hard work - participation in the annual draw or ages spent in our true national sport of queuing. The rich and powerful have debenture seats in return for their investment in the club. And players must bow to the Queen (perhaps understandably) and Prince Charles (mysteriously) when they attend the royal box.
There is so much about Wimbledon that makes it an institution: yes the strawberries and cream , and yes their ridiculous price; the bright green grass (South London’s little piece of Cumbria , where the turf originated), which makes the championships authentic and arguably still the nearest thing to a world championships – the clue for the rest is the game’s called lawn tennis. Add the brief dash to municipal courts by working-class youngsters often with more talent than 99.9 per cent of the LTA’s endless stream of plucky posh kids; and the excellent coverage by the BBC – though for every Dan Maskell there will inevitably be a John Inverdale – going since 1937 and yet to film a British men’s champ, and it’s easy to see why this is one of our great milestones, pointing toward school holidays and the seaside.
More British Institutions
Afternoon Tea
Allotments
April Fools Day
Big Ben
Binge Drinking
Black Cabs
Bonfire Night
British Sense of Humour
Brown Windsor Soup
Burns Night
Cadburys
Castles
Changing the Guard
City of London
Coronation Street
Cowes Week
Cricket
Crufts
Dad’s Army
E-Type Jag
Eccentricity
English Country Garden
Fish and Chips
Fish Fingers
Fox Hunting
Full English Breakfast
Gin and Tonic
Glastonbury
Glorious Goodwood
Grand National
Grouse Shooting
Harrods
Highland Games
Hogmanay
James Bond
John Bull
King Arthur
Land Rover
Lloyds of London
London to Brighton Veteran Car Rally
Marks and Spencer
Monty Python
Morecambe and Wise
Old School Tie
Oxbridge
Panto
Picnics
Pimms
Point-to-Point
Punch and Judy
Queueing
Real Ale
Red Arrows
Red Telephone Boxes
Remembrance Poppies
Robin Hood
Rolls Royce
Royal Ascot
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Savile Row Suits
School Discos
School Sports Day
Seaside Piers
Speakers’ Corner
Stag Nights
Stiff Upper Lip
Strawberries and Cream
Street Markets
Summer Festivals
Sunday Roasts
The Archers
The BBC
The Beano
The Boat Race
The Brass Band
The British Bobby
The Bulldog
The Church of England
The Cup Final
The Curry House
The English Rose
The Garden Shed
The Honours System
The Kilt
The Last Night at the Proms
The London Bus
The Mini
The National Trust
The NHS
The Oak
The Pub
The Queen’s Speech
The Rolling Stones
The Royal Christmas Message
The Spitfire
The V Sign
The Village Fete
The Weather
Travelling Fairs
Trooping the Colour
Village Greens
Wedgwood
Wellington Boots
Wimbledon
Wine Gums
Yeomen of the Guard
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