Today's trivia

No, it's not Bastille Day, nor Presidents' Day, nor Bonfire Night, nor St George's Day.  It's just plain old 9th July - or July 9th if you are an American or a British newspaper man.  For some unexplained reason, British newspapers follow the American way of writing the date with the day numeral after the month name.  Out of curiosity I looked up the historic events that have taken place on 9th July expecting to find the usual raft of birthdays or deathdays of not-known-to-me celebrities.  But I came across a rather interesting snippet.

Today is the 135th anniversary of the first ever Wimbledon tennis tournament.  It was in 1877 that the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club invited men to enter the championships.  22 men registered, each paying the entry fee of one guinea, but on the opening day, 9th July 1877, only 21 men turned up.  The champion was W Spencer Gore and his prize was 25 guineas.

Given that yesterday was the men's final day and the last day of Wimbledon 2012 all this trivia seems quite appropriate.  And by the way, I don't know what the entry fee is nowadays, but the winner of the singles receives a prize of £1.125 million or thereabouts!

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 While the shenanigans were going on yesterday afternoon, Fern and I dodged the showers and walked across the fields by the Upper Lodge Wood.