It's quite a drawn out process, as one writes away for an application form, receives it in the post, fills out and sends it back, then waits months to hear what tickets have been allocated. Again, once that letter is received, you must tear a portion off and send back with your cheque before waiting more weeks before any tickets arrive.
However, it is certainly worth doing if, on one's first try, one gets tickets to the men's finals!!!! And, my beginner's luck continued as the championship progressed and the final looked set to be Rafael Nadal (my favourite) versus Roger Federer (World Number 1).
There were a strange few days when all of England thought Andy Murray might make it through to the final round - whereby I would happily have scalped my tickets away to a patriotic punter for thousands rather than waste my own time with a match that would be over before you could say 'strawberries'. But anyway...
Mum and Dad had left the country by the 6th of July, so it was my tennis-mad girlfriend and myself who made the pilgrimage. Lucy had been to the All England Law Tennis Club before, so knew what was required to make the day easy. So, on finals day we got up really early and packed a picnic, before take the two and a half hour journey into the grounds.
I thought the atmosphere of the Club was wonderful, and loved the abundant purple and green trim - especially the flower baskets as we wandered around. It was something of an effort to resist the souvenier programme, cushions and umbrellas, but I couldn't resist buying a men's championshp towel and a few postcards to commemorate the main event:
Lucy and I had planned to sit on Henman Hill and drink champagne in the sunshine, but the weather was living up to tradition and the Club was clearly making a packet on sales of umbrellas and ponchos: 
(Perhaps they schedule the Championships in springtime especially for the profit margins in plastic?)
So, our posh picnic turned into Cava from plastic cups huddled into the concrete walkway around the food court. But, it was a good chance to people watch before heading Courtside.
I had initially moaned when realising our seat allocation, but it was actually really lucky since the seats were far enough back from the Court that we could sit under the roof and wait for the rain to finish.
This being tennis rather than football, the pre-match entertainment was a royal marching band. It was cool but dull at the same time:
Eventually the rain stopped, and the covers could come off one hour late. It was a very efficient process, and it only took thirty seconds for the big green tent to turn into a rather large piece of laundry. There were 25 men and women ready to spring into action:
Another anxious wait, and the finalists came out - Federer in his trademark K-Swiss classic wear, and Nadal all young-looking:
A gentlemanly coin toss, and they began their warm up. I decided I might use my video camera to prove I was there. Unfortunately, it only recorded ten seconds or so before the batteries ran out... but you get an idea of the good view we actually had from our seats:
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After that it was all on.... except for the half an hour rain break in the middle of the third set. Oh, and the hour long rain break in the middle of a fifth set with each players having won two of the previous sets and the game tied at deuce.
All this just added to the tension of 26 break points, 4 match points, rally after rally of impossible shots being returned at angles that amazed, and the overall battle between precision and passion.
Finally, almost at the 9:30pm limit for matchtime and with darkness definitely making a difference, the game was settled 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7. If you don't know the result already, you can see match point in all its glory on this video:
As for me, I still feel the excitement of when Nadal got that final shot, how relieved I was for him to win and how hard I was screaming and yelling and jumping when he toured the court. I don't need a video to remember any of it. Absolutely wonderful.
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