“I’m in charge of all the grass courts, here, as well as of the teams that work on them,” he tells us. “We make sure that the players are happy and that the courts play consistently.”
Succeeding in these tasks requires hard work and unfaltering dedication. “We cut the grass every single day,” says Neil, “we then mark the lines back out so they’re nice and bright, every day.”
This all happens before the matches. But work continues after the players have left the courts, too – that’s when Neil and his team brush, water and finally cover the courts. “We put them to bed over night,” he says. “Then we’ll do the same process the following day.”
It’s a tough job, but the results are stunning. And Neil might have made another key contribution to Wimbledon, beyond his crucial work on the grass courts...