I've just received an email from Eastbourne Borough Council, highlighting the town being recently confirmed the official sunniest place on mainland Britain, and Virgin Money Travel Insurance naming the town the UK's most holiday-friendly resort. Not the sunniest day today, but probably more brightness, and certainly less rain, than at the French Open. The legendary wind, so often commented on by the tennis stars who've played at the tournament, has been cold, a major contrast to last weekend and the summer's first mini heatwave.
But despite the predictable unpredictability of the British weather, it feels like the summer season is in full swing. The Borough Council's newsletter publicised the Bandstand Concerts, the tourist attractions and, of course, the "hugely exciting" tennis tournament returning to Devonshire Park. The photograph they show of the sun-drenched tennis courts isn't hopelessly unrealistic, given the dry and mainly sunny weather the tournament's been blessed with for most of the last decade. During tennis week in 2007, when most of the country was rained on, Eastbourne remained protected by the micro-climate from the surrounding downland for the entire tournament. Here's hoping we're blessed with the same good fortune this year!
As the first UK coalition government since the Second World War beds down, I reflect on going to cast my vote at my local church hall in the General Election just a few weeks ago, and then taking a walk round to Devonshire Park. Each May, with the Centre Court South Stand not yet erected, it's hard to imagine that it's just a few weeks before this quiet park is filled with thousands of people, picnics on the grass, the strawberry's and cream atmosphere of a mini-Wimbledon and, of course, some top class tennis.
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