Martyn Falconer, the head gardener, and his 16 assistants are tending some 50,000 plants including hydrangeas, petunias and lavenders that are designed to give Wimbledon the air of an English garden. The bane of Falconer’s life is the iconic ivy that covers the outside of the Centre Court and requires endless tending. ‘It grows six inches to a foot in a week,’ he complains cheerfully. ‘It certainly keeps us out of mischief.’
Anthony Davies, head of food and beverage, is meanwhile preparing for what he describes as ‘the biggest annual catering event in Europe’. From 150 restaurants, food courts and kiosks, his team of 2,200 – 330 of them chefs – will feed 39,000 spectators each day, as well as 8,000 employees, 3,000 media, over 500 players, 375 members of the AELTC, plus corporate guests, and assorted presidents, princes and prime ministers.
Amazingly, someone somewhere collates the figures. The above will consume 330,000 cups of tea and coffee, 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s, 110,000 pints of beer, 29,000 bottles of champagne, 86,000 ice creams, 76,000 sandwiches, 16,000 portions of fish and chips and the odd strawberry – 28 tons to be precise.