The All England Club’s staging of The Championships is revered for its attention to detail so it cannot simply be a happy coincidence that on the second Thursday of the 2024 edition, actor Roger Allam – also known as DCI Fred Thursday in the highly addictive Morse prequel Endeavour – was a guest in the Royal Box.

In the long-running television drama set in the 1960s and 70s, Thursday’s daily sandwich – a subculture in itself – is a rota of luncheon meat, bloater paste, corned beef and the sort of fare that one doesn’t have to be a detective to deduce is many ranks below the special menu conjured for VIP visitors on ladies’ semi-finals day.

As well as catching up with his fellow distinguished thespians Sir Trevor Nunn and Rob Brydon, was it too much to picture Allam enjoying a teatime debrief with Sir Richard Moore, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, over smoked salmon or cucumber sandwiches (crusts off, natch)?

Or with Robert Peston, political editor of ITV News and writer of explosively plotted thrillers, or indeed The Right Honourable The Lord Bragg of Wigton, more popularly known as Melvyn, and champion of working-class fictional characters on television?

On the subject of attention to detail, one should note that the secret-squirrel allusions above have nothing to do with fellow Royal Box guest Mark Shapiro, President of Endeavor (spelled American-style without the u), the global sports and entertainment company.

But back to Centre Court action where the motives and actions of Jasmine, Elena, Donna and Barbora were under the magnifying glass as they took to the grass in pursuit of a place in the final denouement.

Footwork is key to Grand Slam success and it was doubly (we might even say, paso doble) thrilling to see Strictly graduates Annabel Croft and Judy Murray up in the judging seats in their finery.

It was also particularly lovely to see former AELTC Chief Executive Richard Lewis, who stepped down after The Championships 2020 (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), enjoy the spectacle with a full Centre Court crowd on a sunny summer’s day.

The occasion was fittingly witnessed by WTA founder and six-time Wimbledon singles champion Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss, herself a former Wimbledon junior champion and No.1-ranked doubles player.

Thanks to some brilliant detective work, we can reveal that even BJK, with her catalogue of record appearances, might have been out-attended at Wimbledon by John Barrett.

The former player, commentator and Club Vice President is said to have walked through the gates of the AELTC every day of The Championships since 1950, with the exception of Middle Saturday in 1991, when he attended his son’s graduation.

Other tennis sages present included the other half of the Woodies, Todd Woodbridge (his teammate Mark Woodforde having been a guest of Club Chair Deborah Jevans earlier in The Championships), and the inseparable Colombian doubles maestros Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in one of their first joint-appearances since hanging up their rackets last year.

The pair, crowned Wimbledon doubles champions in 2019, were the first Colombians to win a Wimbledon title and built their career after picking up their first main draw Grand Slam win on the SW19 grass in 2011.

Other guests with significant links to Club life and event security included:

Sir Demis Hassabis, computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of DeepMind (in the year in which it was the revealed the Club uses AI to protect players at The Championships from online abuse).

John McCarthy, hostage in the Lebanon crisis from 1986 to 1991, and a Club Guest Speaker in 2022. 

General Sir Nick Parker, former Commander Land Forces of the British Army, Chair of REACT Disaster Response, military security advisor for London 2012.

The Club’s own Chief Medical Officer, Dr Fenella Wrigley, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer of the London Ambulance Service, had the treat of a day surveying the players and crowd whose wellbeing she provides for so rigorously each year.

In her early years on the medical team, Dr Wrigley used to drive the Club’s golf buggy-type ambulance with a pair of fuzzy tennis balls dangling from the mirror, an acknowledgement that Wimbledon is essentially about ensuring a fun day out for all.