Foulling claims levelled at Wimbledon tennis fans
Mr Wright, from the Save Wimbledon Park residents' group, claims to have found human faeces and used tissues, raising concerns about health risks and a lack of respect for the historic woodland.
He stated that discreet signage urging visitors to respect the woods has proven ineffective, and he has observed individuals using the area as a toilet.
A spokesperson for the All England Club said they have not seen any evidence to substantiate the claims but confirmed that stewards regularly patrol the area to ensure it is well maintained.
Concerns about sanitation and limited toilet facilities for queuers have been raised previously, with similar complaints reported in 2015 and 2022.
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The Sun
29 minutes ago
- The Sun
Emma Raducanu gives new insight into her lovelife amid Carlos Alcaraz romance rumours
EMMA RADUCANU gave fresh insight into her lovelife after the Carlos Alcaraz romance rumours. Raducanu and Alcaraz announced they have teamed up on the court for the US Open mixed doubles event in New York. 5 5 But there have been suggestions the duo are linking up off it, too, especially after she watched the Spaniard in action at Queen's. A source exclusively revealed to SunSport the pair had a 'spark' and arrived at Queen's within minutes of each other amid suggestions of spending cosy days together. But Raducanu played down their possible relationship by giggling "we're just good friends" before Wimbledon started. However, after Wednesday's emphatic Centre Court victory over Marketa Vondrousova, she joked she had never been heartbroken. Among the VIPs in the Royal Box for the match was Olivia Rodrigo, fresh from her Glastonbury headline set. Raducanu claimed she did not know who was in the posh seats when she spoke in her on-court interview, insisting she was so focused on her match to notice. When speaking to the BBC, though, she confessed she had spotted golfer Tommy Fleetwood. But when told American singer-songwriter Rodrigo was in the crowd, Raducanu came back with a quick and cheeky response. The Brit, relaxed after booking her third-round date with world No1 Aryna Sabalenka, quipped: "She's got some great heartbreak songs. "If you're ever going through it, she's the one." Carlos Alcaraz claims he 'will do whatever she wants me to do' in revealing Emma Raducanu interview after Wimbledon win The BBC interviewer replied: "Thanks for the advice." Then the tennis ace laughed: "I wouldn't know though, of course not." Raducanu - who was told she was banned from having a boyfriend by her parents growing up - previously went out with billionaire heir Carlo Agostinelli, a former Harrow School head boy. Ex-Tottenham academy footballer Carlo is the son of tycoon Robert Agostinelli. The couple got together in May 2023 and were arm-in-arm at Paris Fashion Week as well as enjoying luxury holidays together in Greece and Mexico. 5 Wimbledon 2025 LIVE - follow all the latest scores and updates from a thrilling fortnight at SW19 But after they split up, they unfollowed each other on social media. On her relationship with Alcaraz and how they became friends, Raducanu said: "I've known him for years. "Wimbledon 2021 was the first time I started getting to know him, and I had a good run there and then also again in the US Open in 2021. "We have a good relationship still. He's obviously overtaken me a lot, but it's nice that we have that from a while ago. "I think for all of us, we really kind of value those connections that we had from when we were young because when you become a bit more known or a bit more successful, you just find yourself reverting back to people you knew from a young age because you're like, that's a real genuine connection. "Because it becomes very busy and you have a lot more friends but the ones that you've known for a long time mean a lot more to you." 5
Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
Chock-a-block Wimbledon hopes expansion plan gets green light
The Queue at Wimbledon is rightfully capitalised. Hundreds camp overnight and hordes more arrive in the early hours for on-the-day tickets. More than 10,000 people arrived as early as 6.30am on Friday. Once inside the gates, there are several more queues, snaking around the grounds and getting entangled — for the toilets, the water fountains, the bars, the food stands, the photo opportunities and, most significantly, for the tennis courts. The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has sought planning permission to treble the size of the 42-acre site to keep pace with the three other grand slams: the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. The club has proposed its Wimbledon Park Project that includes a new 8,000-seat stadium and 38 new grass courts on 73 acres of the former golf course over the road, which it has already purchased. A residents' campaign group, however, has objected, lodging a judicial review challenge to the decision by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to approve the planning application. On Tuesday, one of the quarter-finals days, the Save Wimbledon Park group will take its banners to protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice, arguing that the plans will be detrimental to the area's environment and infrastructure. When asked about the project's progress on Monday, Sally Bolton, chief executive of the AELTC, said: 'We remain confident.' She reasserted that the judicial review was of the GLA's decision, rather than the club's, which she described as a 'very interested party'. 'It seems like it's grown a lot,' said Lauren Homer, 34, who works in fashion, as she was queuing for Court 18. 'We queued six and a half hours [to get in], then we're going to queue for maybe another hour today.' The grounds' official capacity is listed as 42,000, from which point the club operates a one-in-one-out system, which means daily attendance often exceeds this figure. There are significantly fewer seats than this — about 38,000 — but spectators often move between sets or matches, allowing others queuing outside to replace them. Big screens around the venue, including on Henman Hill, are surrounded by large open places to sit down and watch tennis. The AELTC said it needed a minimum of 18 match courts to run the championships, which is the exact number they have, and at least three matches are usually scheduled on each. Ground passes allow spectators to view matches on the majority of the courts from 11am. The three main show courts are ticketed and start play after lunch. Those with tickets for the big matches, however, often enter the grounds in the morning, joining the crowds on the outside courts for a few hours. Callum Farmer, 23, an IT worker originally from New Zealand who now lives in London, left the Court 12 queue to go to a bar that had a slightly less 'massive' queue. 'I've been to the Aussie Open and Roland Garros and by far Wimbledon has the smallest grounds and least activities,' Farmer said. 'It's probably at max, you would not want any more, even now they could do with a few less people.' The proposed 8,000-seat stadium will bring the club's maximum capacity to 50,000 and there is no plan to sell additional ground passes. The extra space across the road is intended to spread out spectators, although the club intends to keep all of the championship matches on the original site if possible. All week, spectators have been queuing to watch the biggest names warming up on the practice courts before they step on to the show courts. Debbie Ryder, who has been to Wimbledon several times, said it had felt increasingly busy over the years. 'When the rain stopped and the covers came off, Alcaraz was practising and we couldn't move,' she said. 'It was just absolutely hell. Everybody was holding up their phones, it was ten deep. I've never seen it like that before for somebody on the practice courts.' The AELTC hopes more practice areas will spread out the crowd who want a chance to see star players up close. • Foreign grass and 'wetter water' may future-proof Wimbledon As well as the fans, the extra courts will allow more breathing space for players to warm up, rather than sharing the 22 Aorangi Park courts, tucked at one end of the grounds. Jamie Baker, the Wimbledon tournament director and former British No 2, said the practice courts are overused from the weekend before the main draw takes place until the pool of players starts to shrink at the end of the first week. 'During that period, players, they're a bit edgy,' he said, adding that the space was 'not optimal'. 'They can't really get quite enough court time that they want. It's very busy. Sometimes singles players are sharing with two other players on the court,' he said. Perhaps the biggest difference will be felt the week before the championships during the qualifying competition, which takes place at Roehampton. With the expansion, the AELTC plans for the qualifiers to take place on site, like at all three other grand slams, and that will bring in an expected 8,000 to 10,000 visitors a day, with 1,000 free tickets for schools. Residents have said the plans are excessive and risk turning a valued piece of land into an 'industrial tennis complex'. The golf course is considered Metropolitan Open Land and has the same protected status as green belt, although it is not open to the public. The AELTC plans to open 27 acres of the new site as parkland, clean the lake, plant 1,500 trees and protect existing habitats. Yet residents argue that the construction process, which will be spread over eight years to mitigate the environmental impact, will produce more pollution and bring even more pressure to the area's infrastructure once complete. • Wimbledon queue tips and secrets: how to get tickets At least 14,000 people a day get the District Line to Southfields and thousands more use Wimbledon station to attend the tournament. On Thursday, thousands of spectators struggled to reach the club because part of the District Line, which serves both stations, was closed all day, and the remainder suffered severe delays. Save Wimbledon Park posted on X: 'We love the tennis — we do but there is a real cost to being taken over, even for just two weeks a year. Streets are closed, bus routes diverted, parking a nightmare, tube travel ridiculous and traffic at gridlock.' 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Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
Village bans cricket after ball hits man in car park
The thwack of leather on willow has been a fixture in the village of Danbury for centuries, but devotees in Essex now fear the sound of silence after a member of the public reported he was hit by a cricket ball while standing by his car at a leisure centre. Three clubs have been banned from using Dawson Fields for matches after the alleged incident before a fixture on May 17. The developments have spread panic among Danbury, Oaklands and Tuskers cricket clubs, which are unable to play home matches and face uncertain futures. Almost 3,000 residents have signed a petition urging Danbury parish council to overturn its suspension of cricket. Rory Carlton, club secretary of Danbury Cricket Club, said the clubs faced the option of having to pay tens of thousands of pounds to install a protective net around the ground or relocate. 'I think the council acted from a good place initially, they are trying to act in the interest of their residents, but I think they're just scared of the legal impact were something to happen,' Carlton said. 'We've been playing in Danbury since 1798. Our team have been playing at that specific location for well over 50 years, and in that time probably well over a million balls have been bowled, if not more, and there has not been a single recorded incident of a member of the public actually being injured. 'The proposals on the table at the moment are either to essentially put up nets, which would be, as it stands, 20 metres high at a cost of around £100,000, which is just completely prohibitive for the council and us. 'The other option is to relocate; the costs for that are also of a similar magnitude, so it's kind of left us in a spot where they're saying, 'You know, we want to support cricket, but you just can't play here', which is really disappointing.' • 25 of the prettiest village mini breaks in the UK Danbury has managed to arrange to play their remaining home games for the season at Rayne Cricket Club, which is more than an hour away in Braintree, a journey which Carlton fears could lead to members leaving the team. Carlton, 36, a financial adviser from Haybridge in Essex, believes the council's ruling could become a precedent that could leave grassroots clubs at risk of closure. 'I think if we start going down this road of, you know, members of the public have to be completely protected at all times, it becomes very difficult to actually engage in any kind of amateur sport, unless you've got a facility that is completely segregated from the general public who aren't participating,' Carlton said. 'There are countless cricket clubs, some really lovely grounds I've played at that are right next to a road or a pub.' Danbury parish council was approached for comment. A spokeswoman for the council previously said that it had hoped the suspension would be temporary and that the council had taken professional advice on how to minimise the risk to members of the public in areas surrounding the ground. 'The fact that there were at least two car windows, within the last year, smashed by cricket balls being hit into the adjacent car park, across a public footway, indicates that there is a risk to people accessing the facilities,' she told The Telegraph. 'As such, it would potentially invalidate its insurance cover and risk litigation if it were to totally ignore the advice that has been received. 'We are waiting for the ball trajectory report that the Essex Cricket Board have recommended to both the cricket clubs and the parish council in order to determine the correct mitigation.'
