Jigsaw market goes to pieces
Fancy a Wimbledon jigsaw? Well you’re out of luck, and it’s just another thing you can blame on those people insisting on drawing our attention to the slow broiling of the planet. Wimbledon had been selling 1,000-piece puzzles of Centre Court but after one was emptied on to the turf of Court 18 by Just Stop Oil protesters on Wednesday, jigsaws are available no more. Currently “sold out” online, when the Diary arrived at the on-site big shop there was some engaged shelf reordering going on and jigsaws were no longer anywhere to be seen.
Suits you, sir: Tan out of tan for Becks
Some proper celebrity wattage in the royal box on Wednesday with both Bear Grylls (listed as “Grylls, Mr and Mrs Bear” on the official schedule) and David Beckham in attendance. Beckham is a Wimbledon regular, of course, but so, too, is his tan suit which got another outing this year and begs the question as to whether Goldenballs not only wears the same items of clothing more than once but doesn’t care if people notice.
Aldi packs a punch
Long accustomed to disrupting the British grocery scene, supermarketeer Aldi has now set its eyes on Wimbledon too. The cut-price German brand has taken to pitching up at The Queue advertising a cheap alternative to Pimm’s and directing punters to their rival Swingball Championships down the road in the local Cannizaro Park. Unlike the measures taken to prevent Just Stop Oil from accessing SW19, there does not appear to be heightened security to deter people from trying to pickle the livers of sports fans with bargain basement booze as yet, but the Diary will update should that change.
Sinner has style guru award in the bag
Anyway back to luxury and the case of Jannik Sinner’s bag. The Italian No 8 seed got a lot of coverage after his first-round victory against the Argentinian Juan Manuel Cerundolo for walking on to court with a brown Gucci bag on the shoulder. Rumour went around that the rules on all-white apparel had been changed to accommodate it, though they hadn’t as the strictures apply only to clothes. Still it was definitely, er, “The first time a high-end luxury luggage piece has been brought on court”, according to Sinner, who spoke to the fashion bible Women’s Wear Daily about the holdall. He went on to confirm it was “quite the statement indeed”. Eat your heart out, Just Stop Oil.
