Tennis fans are queuing round the block to get their hands on gin and tonic scented candles at Wimbledon. The Wimbledon Shop is flogging an array of weird goods, including a trio of scented candles – gin and tonic, strawberries and cream and fresh cut grass.
The whole set was priced at £45 and when the Daily Star visited the shop, stocks were running low with a group of intrigued customers getting a whiff.
One visitor, who smelt the gin and tonic candle, said: “That is genuinely quite nice.” Elsewhere in the shop punters could grab some massive pink tennis balls or get their baby a tennis-themed bib.
There was also an official Wimbledon umbrella ‘on sale’ for a meagre £59. Other quintessentially Wimbledon offerings included a £10.30 pint of strawberries and cream flavoured Stella lager.
Before entering visitors experienced one of Wimbledon’s many queues – it took as long as 20 minutes before they were able to aroma of the candles.
One American visitor moaned: “These Brits will queue for anything.” It wasn’t as bad as the waiting time for strawberries – some people complained to that they had been waiting for “over an hour”.
It’s not just the beer that’s hitting the bank accounts hard. Pimm’s also now costs a whopping £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.
At least the water appears to be free, with fans able to refill their bottles at various points around the festival for no charge. They do still have to queue though.
Meanwhile, nearby pubs say they have been forced to take on extra staff as thirsty tennis and football fans combined together to make this week “the busiest yet” for the tournament. Several of the neighbourhood’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, south west London.