What a final it was yesterday. Sadly the best man lost but heh, Djokovich is a pretty good ‘second best’. And can only be admired even more for playing against a seriously pro-Fed crowd.

Tickets for such matches are valuable. Rare. Sought-after. They sell on the black market for, apparently, up to £44,000. Which, considering its free on tv (if you pay your license fee or even if you don’t and watch it later on i-player) seems a bit rich. But if you are a bit rich then Wimbledon is certainly a great place to get a little poorer. And for people who simply ‘have to be there’ for big events, there’s only so many ways to get there. Ballots and draws and waiting lists and queues.

Unless you’re famous. Then you get in free. In the Royal Box, no less. So the Queen saves her 44 grand for painting up Buckingham Palace. Not that she was there. Wills & Kate have been breezing in on and off all week. Pippa virtually moves in for the fortnight and Harry nips in once or twice too. Stars of tv are so important now that if Fanny from Eastenders turns up (I’m guessing; no idea who is in Eastenders, but there should be a ‘Fanny’) they kick the Queen out to make room. Hugh Grant was there yesterday. Cumberbatch. Kate Winslett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anna Wintour, half a dozen tv bakers, a whole host of former tennis winners and players.

And Lewis Hamilton. The racing driver. The world champion. Who was so buzzed up about going he posted a photo of his tickets online in the morning.

But you didn’t see him in the box. Nor in the stands. Even crouching down by the net as a ball-boy. They didn’t let him in. Lewis sadly didn’t read the bit on his tickets stating about ‘lounge suits AND TIES’, so turned up dead slick and cool but sans jacket and tie. Oh my. The world would end. Britain would crumble. Heaven would evaporate. A quick row with the steward (probably along the lines: “do you know who I am????”, “yes, Sir, but you ain’t wearin’ a tie so you can’t come in”), and off trots Lewis, refusing the offer of a borrowed kneck-tie, to watch the match on his SatNav on the way home. He’s a great driver, he can do that.

I’m the most pro-casual, anti-dress-code person in the world. I wanted to wear shorts and a Spurs shirt for my own wedding (vetoed, obviously). But if I went to the Royal Box at Wimbledon I’d wear a sodding tie (the most hateful implement of torture ever invented). Because you have to. I wore one at Lords (I had to borrow it from the son-in-law) and I’d wear one there. Its the rules. And I hate rules too, but sometimes, Lewis…

Happy Monday

A xxxx