As the daily results unfolded in a genteel manner towards the enthroning ceremonies of this year’s Wimbledon champions, there was no more fitting guest in the Royal Box than Her Majesty The Queen, who was accompanied by her sister Annabel Elliot.

Peter Phillips, the son of the Princess Royal, was also present on Day 10 of The Championships, and royal associations were further amplified by Welsh opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel, whose wife, Hannah Stone, was Official Harpist to King Charles from 2011 to 2015 when he was the Prince of Wales.

One imagines the bass-baritone’s celebrated basso profundo tones were heard in conversation with Dame Norma Major over the Royal Box luncheon amuse – today, a torched Cornish mackerel, served with Riesling jelly, marigold pickled cucumber and bronze fennel – as the former prime minister’s wife is the author of a magnum opus biography of opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland.

As for Sir John Major himself, his famed political slogan “Back to Basics” was a ready reminder should Mirra Andreeva, Belinda Bencic, Flavio Cobolli or Novak Djokovic struggle with a sudden dip in form on the Centre Court grass below.

In a glorious collision of associations, there too was Hugh Grant – the prime minister who danced athletically down the stairs and around a fictional No.10 to the Pointer Sisters’ ‘Jump!’ in the Richard Curtis romcom, Love, Actually.

The charming devious cad of the Bridget Jones films found himself reunited with Baroness Kidron of Angel, a politician and advocate for children’s rights in the digital world, whose film career credits as Beeban Kidron include directing Grant, Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth in the second instalment, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Back in her former fiefdom of the All England Club was Sarah Clarke, otherwise known as Lady Usher of the Black Rod, the first female to hold the position in the 650-year history of the role. In this role, she took part in the state funeral of Elizabeth II and the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

Before she embarked on her ceremonial role – most notably, knocking three times on the door of the Commons chamber for the State Opening of Parliament – she was Championships Director, the first woman in history to be a Grand Slam tournament director.

Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of the British Olympic Association, former Chair of UK Sport and 2012 Olympic double sculls gold medallist, arrived as if a lead boat in a flotilla of awesome oarspeople.

Swapping their Lycra rowing onesies for jacket and ties were Morgan Bolding, Sholto Carnegie, Jacob Dawson and cox Harry Brightmore from the British men’s eight who won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In their wake cruised Lola Anderson and Georgina Brayshaw, two of the gold medal-winning blade-wielders from the women’s quadruple sculls.

So, pretty much two halves of two boats… and continuing the theme with a tennis twist was Paul Haarhuis, one half of one of the most successful Grand Slam doubles partnerships of the 1990s. He and fellow Dutchman Jacco Eltingh collected a career Slam winning the Australian and US Opens in 1994, the French Open in 1995 and Wimbledon in 1998.

On the rugby front, the score was deuce, or more specifically a tale of two Jonathan Davieses, both former Wales rugby union internationals.

JD the elder, who played in the 1980s and 1990s representing Wales in both rugby union and rugby league, is helpfully nicknamed “Jiffy” while the younger JD is known as “Fox” because his parents ran The Fox and Hounds pub in Bancyfelin.

In the wings, too, was another Jon Davies, managing director of Levy UK, which provides hospitality services at The Championships.

Like Jiffy, the Radio 4 Today presenter Nick Robinson has experience of switching codes. Appointed the BBC’s chief political correspondent in 1999, he moved to ITV News as political editor (2002 to 2005) before returning to the Beeb in the same role.

The Beeb honoured fellow Royal Box guests Trevor Painter and his wife Jenny Meadows in the Coach of the Year category at last year’s Sports Personality of the Year event. Together, they coached last summer’s track golden girl Keely Hodgkinson to 800m glory in Paris.

From track to the field of cricket… Kumar Sangakkara, former captain of Sri Lanka and a former president of the MCC who once described the home of cricket as “the greatest cricket club in the world”, returned to inspect the bounces on the hallowed grass of London SW19.

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