WIMBLEDON 2008

The Build Up

Well another year another Wimbledon Tennis Fortnight, The planning started as soon as Wimbledon 2007 finished, what did we learn, how can we improve things? It all kicked off on 19th June with our Heineken Marquee being erected in the car park, over the next couple of days it was fitted out with its own bar and decorated with palm trees and coloured lanterns dangling from its roof, and just as much planning went into the music selection that would be played in the marquee (You have our loveable Linton to thank for the music choice) The Heineken green carpet was laid out ready for the opening night. Meanwhile the Cocktail bar was also being prepared with Shaun, Oli and Sophie deciding what mouth-watering cocktails will be on offer this year.

Lets not forget the main bar, we couldn't exactly fit much else in there than we have already but shelves were ripped out to make way for anything else that we could possibly fit in (Don't forget we need to save space for the 8 members of staff who will be working in there every night over the next 2 weeks) Glasses are removed and replaced by beautiful shiny plastic glasses!! Extra stock has been ordered we have Mount Bulmer's in our cellar and other small hills have also been growing in other areas of the building. Extra staff have been chosen growing from 26 for the week before Wimbledon to 44 for the 2 weeks of Wimbledon. With most of the regular staff doing 7 days a week for the next 2 weeks. Meanwhile Jane our wonderful receptionist has been busy sorting out all the hotel bookings and making sure everything will run smoothly for our hotel guests during their stay with us, most of them returning every Wimbledon Fortnight to see us and the tennis of course...

Wimbledon 2008

It all kicks off on Monday 30th June 2008, the day shift shows nothing of what we can expect to come, 6pm all tables and chairs are removed from the bar & restaurant areas and stored away for the next 6hrs as it will be everyday for the next 14 days, some customers ask what's going on? We tell them they obliviously have not been here during a Wimbledon Fortnight!!!

7pm and the crowds are starting to arrive the usual sea of green Wimbledon ball boy and girl tops are on display by 9pm it is hard to find a spare place to stand the atmosphere is great everyone is having a great time including the members of staff who are all in good spirits, by the end of the night almost 300pints of Fosters have been sold and over 400pints of Heineken that not even counting the Halves!!! Hope we have enough stock to last!!!

Midnight and the clean-up begins the crowds are starting to leave all the plastic glasses that are scattered around are collected and washed and ready for the next day, the courtyard and marquee bar are swept and tidied, all the tables and chairs have to be replaced. We need them by 8am the next morning for breakfast for our hotel guests. Our Head house keeper Jetta will be arriving at 5am to give the area a final spring clean before serving breakfast to our 25 hotel guests, a task she will be undertaking throughout the next 2 weeks, Outside the building is swept, the bottles are put safely away to be put in the recycling bin the next morning, bags and bags of rubbish are cleared. It takes a team of thirty just over ninety minutes and everything is back to normal for it all to happen again the next day!!!

And so it goes for the next few days, even one night we lost power to the Marquee, a race was on to trace the problem before it got too dark to see, thankfully this problem was quickly dealt with and it was all system go again. Middle Saturday of Wimbledon arrives and everyone available to work is here and waiting, the new staff briefed on how mad it will be on this night, if they thought the last few days we're busy they ain't seen nothing yet! It started off less busy than a usual middle Saturday of Wimbledon, then slowly from about 9pm the crowds suddenly grew and grew and by 10pm it was a struggle to move between the crowds, by 1am it was time to close and begin the clean-up operation like no other before it, but we're a well groomed team by now and everything runs smoothly we have a chain-gang of staff replacing the furniture, others on bottle and plastic cleaning duty, Sweepers are busy sweeping and amongst all of this we see the most strangest thing – Linton is cleaning the carpet!!!

most of us didn't even think he knew what a vacuum cleaner was let alone how it works, but there he was happy vacuuming away listening to music on his headphones unaware of the crowd that gathered to watch this once in a lifetime experience.

At the end of the day it was time for the staff to sit down and have a well deserved drink. During the night we sold an amazing 461 pints of Heineken, 434 pints of Fosters and a amazing 232 bottles of Bulmer's not forgetting that's 232 empty bottles to dispose of...

The Last Day

Sunday 6th July arrives the last day of Wimbledon 2008, everyone is feeling a little tired by now most of us working over 100hrs in the last 2weeks and some even nearer to 150hrs. We close at 11pm tonight and it's all over, The last official Wimbledon 2008 duty we have to perform is get ready for our staff party after we close, so midnight comes and everything is finished for another year!!! Will all get ready for one last night of drink before everything goes back to normal for another year.

The theme for the staff party this year is "Superheroes" Which I must say some staff member really made a special effort including our beloved manager Nicky who went as Wonder woman! Special thanks go to the "Dog & Fox" who hosted the end of Wimbledon party once again this year. We may have been working nonstop for 2 weeks but it didn't dampen our spirit and we partied on till the late hours of Monday morning… By the end of the 2weeks we sold an incredible 7124pints of Heineken, 6390pints of Fosters, 3777 Bottles of Bulmer's 2891 shots of Smirnoff Vodka, 1620 glasses of Pimm's, 1157 shots of Jaegermeister, 2429pints of Young's Bitter, 679 packets of crisps and 742 Burgers!!!!

Final Note

Many thanks to all the staff who worked this year!!

Shaun, Sue, Lee, Linton, Liam, Aninka, Gavin, Olly, John, Sophie, Monika, Justyna, Rene, Ruby, Will, Chris, Natasha, Michael, Sophie, Phil, Lois, Felix, Louise, Ben, Rosie, Kat, Guy, Lucy, Wes, Gary, Maurille, Peter Denaj, Bozena, Majka, Roger, Iwona, Dorota, Tanya

Special thanks go to: Nicky Our wonderful manager, Jane our brilliant receptionist and finally Jetta our special housekeeper

And to all of you who came and made it special for us.

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