As the draws narrow towards the crowning of this year’s Wimbledon champions, there was no more fitting guest in the Royal Box than Her Majesty The Queen, who was accompanied by her sister Annabel Elliot, both elegant in white, complementing the player dress code.
There was a distinctly stately air to the retinue gathered in the Lloyd Loom wicker chairs as guests of All England Chair Deborah Jevans on Day 10.
Presiding over the Centre Court congregation was The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Dame Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music – both of whom helped make last spring’s Coronation such a success.
Welsh singer Sir Bryn Terfel was in the wings, on hand to belt out a hearty ‘Come on!’ in his famed basso profundo tones.
The opera superstar was accompanied by his wife Hannah Stone, who was the official harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2011 to 2015, and therefore a kindred spirit to the competitors on the grass below in mastery of a stringed instrument.
The Royal Box was chock-a-block with multi-talented musicians from all genres, mirroring the diversity of the competitors’ facilities where the cohort divides into various specialists in singles or doubles, on clay, hard or grass.
Top of the pops was Bjorn Ulvaeus, the actual guitar-playing Bjorn from Abba and not a holographic avatar.
A few years ago, HM The Queen was reported to have been seen ‘bopping in the aisles’ at ABBA Voyage with her five grandchildren – quite literally a dancing queen, not to mention a super trouper of a grandmother.
Elaine Paige, singer, actress and President of the Dan Maskell Trust, added a different timbre to the group, as did Feargal ‘A Good Heart’ Sharkey, lead singer of The Undertones and now an environmental campaigner.
Accompanying his actress wife Keira Knightley was James Righton, the former lead singer of Klaxons; his most recent output was a solo album called The Performer.
Performance is the name of the game here in London SW19. And how thrilling it must be for Elena and Elina, as in Rybakina and Svitolina, to be watched by notable stars from the biggest stages and most boggled television shows.
Actor and director Richard E Grant has certainly scrubbed up from his Withnail and I days. The star of period dramas such as Gosford Park – set in the reign of the very same George V who officially opened the new Church Road site of the All England Club – was accompanied by Jemima Khan, herself a screenwriter and producer of note.
Sir David Suchet, most famous for his role as Agatha Christie’s much-loved Hercule Poirot, popped along from his home nearby, applying little grey cells to the case of, well, not so much a whodunnit as a ‘who will do it?’
After the disappointment of his retirement at last weekend's British Grand Prix, it was great to see George Russell take up pole position for Centre Court viewing – though his motto, ‘If in doubt, go flat out’, was probably more applicable to No.1 Court where Jelena Ostapenko was smashing balls with her trademark turbo-charged power.
Knocking balls for six used to be the aim of former England cricketer Chris Cowdrey. One wonders if the Kent-born all-rounder brought along some local knowledge of Wimbledon’s speciality strawberries, which are grown in his home county.
How nice, too, to see Graeme Souness enjoy a day watching superlative tennis. The former Liverpool and Scotland footballer was recently awarded a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list for his services to football and charity.
Last year, as Vice President of DEBRA UK, a charity supporting people living with epidermolysis bullosa, the then 70-year-old swam the channel as part of a team to raise funds and awareness.
Away from the wet stuff – hooray, the Centre Court roof was open – skill at doubles was showcased in the absence of the scheduled men’s semi-final between Novak Djokovic and the injured Alex de Minaur. This seemed a fitting tribute to two great former men’s doubles champions in the Royal Box.
A round of applause please for Mark Woodforde, one half of the legendary Woodies, who won the men’s doubles here in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000 with Todd Woodbridge, and Jonas Bjorkman, who triumphed in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
That's what you call numerical dominance, as two distinguished guests would be well placed to agree: Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, now Financial Advisor for the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 under UK Presidency, and The Right Honourable The Lord Layard, Director of the Wellbeing Programme Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
