Hats are Wimbledon's hottest seller after scorching start

Telegraph

a day ago

Wimbledon has had a boom in sales of baseball caps after the hottest start ever to the tournament fortnight.
While players have been relying on ice towels to keep cool, spectators have turned to a variety of hats to protect them from the searing sun in SW19.
Dan Ashmore, Wimbledon's head of retail, merchandise and licensing, said more than 45,000 baseball caps were sold in the first five days, when 210,000 spectators came through the gates. He predicted more than 100,000 pieces of headwear would be sold by the end of the championships fortnight.
Temperatures surpassed 32C on Monday, making it the hottest opening day on record and prompting organisers to set up more than 100 water points around the grounds.
And the heat made the £35 baseball caps – available in a variety of colours or with an embroidered strawberry on – the All England Club's bestseller this year, with sales up 25 per cent.
'Days one and two this year were a scorcher, baseball caps were selling very, very quickly, particularly in the Queue Village,' Mr Ashmore said.
'So those guests who were arriving early were shopping [for] the baseball caps.'
He said this was a change from previous years, when cold and wet weather made sweatshirts and other warm garments the most popular purchase.
This year's weather has also prompted fans to pop open bottles of chilled champagne while courtside – much to the annoyance of US player Amanda Anisimova.
The world No13 was about to serve on Friday afternoon when one spectator popped open a bottle, which earned them a dressing down from the umpire.
Emma Raducanu also dealt with a flying cork during her first round victory over Mimi Xu, leading to questions about whether the courtside tipple would be banned. However, sources at the All England Club said this was not being considered.
The Met Office is predicting a third heatwave within four weeks for some parts of the UK.
This follows two weekends of heatwave conditions for much of the country in the final weeks of June, which was the hottest on record across England, with Faversham, Kent, hitting nearly 36C last Tuesday.
Rain warnings in Scotland
Zoe Hutin, a Met Office meteorologist, said temperatures were expected to reach the high 20s in the South East on July 9, with the potential for low 30s on July 10.
She added that hot conditions were expected to continue into the weekend because of an area of high pressure building from the west then stretching across the South of England and drawing in warm air from the Atlantic and Azores.
Meanwhile, a yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office for rain across parts of Argyll and Bute, the south Highlands, Mull and Skye until Saturday afternoon, with up to 60mm of rain predicted and more than 100mm in mountain areas.
The Environment Agency has issued flood alerts in Cumbria after heavy rain on Friday for the rivers Duddon, Crake and Mill Beck, and other watercourses, from Coniston to Barrow-in-Furness, including low-lying areas around Ulpha, Duddon Bridge, Broughton-in-Furness, Kirkby-in-Furness, Dalton-in-Furness and Ulverston.