The Royal Box is reserved for members of the Royal Family and guests of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and on Day 4 it was very fitting to see the nation’s favourite food writer Dame Mary Berry take her seat in a venue famed as a temple to a particular summer fruit (1.92 million strawberries are consumed here each year).

She is of course revered for her showstopping Wimbledon Cake recipe, an absolute winner of a confection of strawberries, passion fruit and whipped cream, but the original judge on the Great British Bake Off can also contribute refreshing new angles to conversations about slice - a subject often commented on when Rafa [Nadal] or Coco [Gauff] are serving up a feast of tennis.

When asked once how she maintained her fitness, Dame Mary said, “I walk, and I play tennis, and I eat all the things that I love, including cake. Cake is very important to me. But it’s all about the size of the slice!”

Oh to be a fly on the wall during the afternoon tea break! Is it too fanciful to imagine Dame Mary Berry chipping in with a quip about no ‘soggy bottoms’?

The perennial debate about the weather - that is, whether or not it would rain - was a topic that fellow guest Kate Hughes – Director, International Climate Change in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – might have discussed with the meteorologist Dame Julia Slingo, a former Met Office Chief Scientist, who has been honoured by the Queen for services to weather and climate change. 

On the day that the Club hosted an Environment Positive Panel to discuss the role of tennis in addressing climate change, other influential movers and shakers present were Amy Pickerill and Hannah Jones, respectively the Director and CEO of the Earthshot Prize, which is designed to incentivise change to help repair the planet.

Others included: Tim Wainwright, Chief Executive of WaterAid, a charity supported by the Wimbledon Foundation that helps to bring clean water to communities around the world, and David Peppiatt, who was awarded an MBE for services to the Red Cross international humanitarian programme.

‘Forward-thinking’ is the Club’s ethos – values shared by Shalini Khemka, founder of E2 Exchange, a network scheme for connecting and mentoring the UK’s entrepreneurial community, and also Mursal Hedayat, founder of Chatterbox, an online language school that trains refugees as teachers, who was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to social enterprise, technology and the economy.

In terms of sporting empathy, Fred Stolle, a multiple finalist at Wimbledon (men’s doubles champion in 1962 and 1964, singles runner-up in 1963, 1964 and 1965) was on hand to witness the latest stage of Nadal’s attempts to move further ahead in the GOAT race, while former ballet dancer Dame Darcey Bussell, Artist Laureate of the Royal Ballet School, knows too well the pain the Spaniard experiences while performing with foot injuries.

Ron Dennis, the former Chair, CEO and founder of the McLaren Group, is known for his motorsport career, but as Founder of Podium Analytics, his mission today is to help reduce sports injuries in young people.

The promotion of health and fitness is a happy byproduct of appreciating elite players in Grand Slam action.

Royal Box guests whose clinical achievements in this field are a source of inspiration and gratitude included Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Professor Nick Webborn CBE, Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine at the University of Brighton and Chair of the British Paralympic Association.

 

Also enjoying Katie Boulter’s spirited victory over last year’s finalist Karolina Pliskova was Patrick Hutchinson, a local fitness trainer and anti-racism campaigner who was so memorably photographed carrying to safety a white counter-protester during a Black Lives Matter march in 2020.

In 2017 singer Ciara Wilson and her husband Russell, NFL quarterback with the Denver Broncos, received an offer of tennis lessons from Serena Williams. From Seattle, via Colorado, to Centre Court. Five years on, Ciara has been chosen to narrate the BBC’s opener for the Finals Weekend and the couple enjoyed a day in the Royal Box.

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Following along from home this year? You can still experience the classic Wimbledon atmosphere on the Virtual Hill, presented by our Official Partner American Express.