Wimbledon’s boozers have been forced to take on extra staff as thirsty tennis and footie fans combined to make this week “the busiest yet” for the tournament.
Although they are welcoming the extra footfall, several of the district’s pub managers admitted to the Daily Star it’s “going to be a challenging week”. With the Round of 32 in the World Cup colliding with the opening days of the tennis competition, there was a “festival atmosphere” in Wimbledon Village.
Mick Dore, the manager of The Alexandra pub, said: “The weather certainly helped – as did the footie – but we were rammed last night.
“We’ve had to take on new staff – obviously we were prepared from years before but this was huge. It’s busy but it’s the best time of the year. Last night was the busiest first day of Wimbledon we’ve ever had, in terms of bar takings and stock. Pretty decent start if you ask me.”
His remarks rang true – when your Daily Star popped in on the way to the train station from the tennis, there was a ring of punters around the bar with lively music blaring in the courtyard.
The pub boss said: “You want to get down here on the weekend. It starts really picking up on Thursday and by Saturday… it’s like a mini Glastonbury on this strip.”
Just over the road at All Bar One, general manager Gabriel Lita was revelling in the “challenge ahead” of him. He said he had also brought in new staff to help contend with the surge of tennis fans, with Wimbledon’s population nearly doubling for the course of the tournament.
Mr Lita said: “It’s a tough couple of weeks, but it’s so rewarding. We’ll get help from our sister bars around the UK and we need to make sure we have new stock in.”
Asked if he will he be watching any of the tennis himself, he said: “Maybe – if I get any time.” But he added: “I love this time – all the tennis fans are very well behaved and we usually get folks from all four corners of the world.”
It comes after we reported that tennis fans have slammed Wimbledon bosses as the price of a pint creeps towards the £10 mark. They claimed that they are not happy about the hike in the cost of Pimm’s either.
A pint of Stella Artois at the tournament costs £8.85 while a special limited-edition strawberries and cream Stella is £9.30. Pimm’s now costs £13.45, up £1.20 since last year. Punters wanting to pair it with strawberries and cream, which costs £2.85, will have to pay £16.30.