How I got a ticket to Wimbledon

It’s a well known fact in quizzing circles and even outside that the Centre Court at Wimbledon is going to have a retractable roof by 2009. The immediate outcome of this construction is that there are more seats available in the stands this year. Obviously, these seats were not sold before the event began as no one was certain that they would be available. So, they sold these tickets online via ticketmaster everyday at 8.30 pm local time for the matches to be held on the next day. A novel scheme.

Taking advantage of this facility, I bought one of these tickets. The seat was somewhere high up in the stands but the chance of seeing live tennis on Centre Court was a rare one. Since I do not have a ticketmaster account and I am probably not going to need one in the near future, I bought the ticket using my aunt’s account.

Next morning I took the train to Southfields station and reached the grounds at 10.30. Then things started to mess up. At the entrance, the security bloke asked me for a proof of identity. Now the ticket bore my aunt’s name and there was no way I could have matched my face with hers. So I explained the situation to them and offered to submit a proof of my own identity as Kaustubh Bhat and a proof of my relation with her. Sounds fair enough. Then a lady in charge of all grievances and disputes told me that no proof would be of help and that only my aunt could enter on that ticket.

Then I offered to call my aunt there for them to verify my claim. But the lady didn’t budge. I stood there feeling hopeless and pretty pissed off. But at the same time probably my face looked very pitiable too because immediately she said,”Well, we are releasing about five to six Centre Court tickets right now. I you want one, I will keep one for you. But you will have to pay cash.” Joy! I practically ran to the ATM, got cash and immediately bought the ticket.

Now fate has weird ways of working. The seat I got now was right behind the referee 12 rows behind. So all the crap I suffered was quite worth it with me ending up with a better seat. Just like the great Birbal said – “Jo hota hai so achche ke liye hota hai”