sport news Welcome to… The Last 8 Club at Wimbledon trends now
Happy Hour inside Wimbledon’s Last Eight Club, and Neale Fraser was holding court about what happened after he won the men’s singles in 1960.
At 6pm every day during the tournament those eligible to use this exclusive lounge, discreetly tucked away in a corner of the All England Club, gather to swap stories.
The oldest visitor so far this fortnight has been 90 year-old Australian Fraser. He recalled how his prize 63 years ago was a £15 voucher to be spent at Lilywhite’s sports emporium, up in central London.
Having played in the Saturday final he went there the next morning, only to find it closed. The return journey, including taxis, cost him £17 and left him in deficit for winning the world’s most famous tournament.
Former British player John Feaver, who played thirteen consecutive Championships, has heard many such colourful anecdotes since taking over the running of what has quietly become a Wimbledon institution.
Former British tennis player, Jon Feaver, was pictured outside the Last Eight Club on Wednesday
Neale Fraser (left), the now-90-year-old Australian, has been the oldest member to visit over the last fortnight
The profile has been raised this week after Chris Eubanks expressed his delight at becoming a member
He oversees the hospitality space which was once the Club’s boardroom, used for committee meetings. On a wall by the kitchen, still in working order, remains the same old-fashioned doorbell that used to be rung by officials when requiring a liquid refreshment top-up.
The Last Eight has had its profile raised this week after American Chris Eubanks expressed his delight at becoming a member. The entry criteria is simple: you need to have made the singles quarter finals, the doubles semi-finals, or the mixed doubles final.
Feaver - who once smacked a record 42 aces with a wooden racket past defending champion John Newcombe in a losing cause - tells of its origins, which go back to 1986.
‘The then Chairman, Buzzer Hadingham, came across a couple of older players who were in the queue trying to get tickets, and he didn’t think that was quite right,’ says Feaver, sitting beneath a mural with every members’ name on it. ‘ He wanted to do something for them, because without them the tournament would not be where it is today.
‘Every year there are those that pass away and those that join, and at present we have got 603 who are eligible to come in.’
While that sounds a lot, most members are based overseas and it rarely gets too crowded, especially as the younger ones who visit The Championships tend to be busy working.
The Last Eight has a daily ticket allocation to the show courts, and for the big matches there has to be a ballot. In line with the lighthearted atmosphere which prevails, Feaver conducts it while wearing a hard hat, supposedly to protect him from disappointed
