Rain reigns
Centre Court has been re-laid, but it's the same old rain
Posted: Friday June 19, 1998 04:10 PM
WIMBLEDON, England AP) -- Coming off the wettest Wimbledon in
history, head groundsman Eddie Seaward won't venture a guess about
the weather prospects for this year's tournament.
"I haven't really got a clue," he said. "I don't look
long-run. If I did, I'd just get paranoid about it."
Frankly, it doesn't look good.
It has rained almost daily in southern England for the last
three weeks, disrupting all the Wimbledon warmup tournaments and
Wimbledon qualifying.
And the London Weather Center doesn't see much immediate
improvement.
"Naturally it's a wee bit too far ahead to be sure, but mild
with showers would probably describe the first days," the duty
forecaster said. "Typical British summer."
Last year, rain washed out all play for two days in a row for
the first time since 1909. And for only the second time in
tournament history, officials scheduled matches on the middle
Sunday, usually a rest day, to help clear the backlog.
At this week's draw, Wimbledon referee Alan Mills announced that
Pete Sampras is scheduled to play the first match on Centre Court
at 2 p.m. on Monday -- "we hope."
Weather permitting, Centre Court is ready with new grass.
The world's most famous tennis court, re-laid for the first time
in almost 40 years, gets its first match with Sampras against
Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty.
"Visually, you won't notice a change and our experience is that
the ball will bounce very well," said Seaward, who heads a crew of
23 groundsmen, plus 120 students who pull the covers on and off the
courts.
"Nobody knows for sure the last time Centre Court was done
over" but an old groundsman called and said it was 1960," he said.
In the vanguard of wet-weather technology, the All England Club
has put in two huge fans at each end of Centre Court and has also
installed a new, more translucent rain cover.
"We're giving the court every chance with more ventilation and
more light even when it rains," Seaward said.
Despite the non-stop rain leading up to Wimbledon, Seaward said
Wimbledon's two-dozen courts had been covered "at night and when
it rains and are ready as ever."
"If the weather is good, this job is a lot more relaxed," he
said. "Otherwise, it's always on the go with everyone else
waiting."
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