Once the last school bell rings out for summer, Largs Academy head teacher Heather Burns and her friend Kate swiftly head down to London every year to the green green grass of SW19, and the land of strawberries and cream.

With sunscreen packed, Heather popped down to Wimbledon tennis championships, and experienced searing temperatures, the hottest ever recorded, and joined the famous Wimbledon queue. This week, Heather writes for the Largs ‘News’ about her experience, cheering on her namesake, and the annual Murraymania ...

“My friend Kate and I arrived on Tuesday at 6am and were issued with Q-cards 3,453 and 3,454! After a satisfying bacon roll and coffee, we obliged our American queue buddies (just flew in from San Fransisco) with an explanation of the famous Wimbledon queue etiquette.

“If anyone wants to learn anything about queuing, this is definitely the place to be. The atmosphere built up nicely and we already had a few ‘come on Andy’ shout outs from the livelier members of the queue before all the tents were packed up for the day.

It was hot and sunny so plenty of sunscreen needed, especially for that all important game later on (Murray was third on Centre). Although I’ve been coming here since 2007 I never tire of the atmosphere and excitement as we make our way to the ground. This year we queued on Tuesday and first up was Nadal warming up on court 8, supported by Uncle Toni, as usual.

“Next up was Seppi v Klein and the ‘Deliciano’ Lopez v Darcis. Murray did the business on Centre, but managed to give his fans the usual angst as he struggled to complete the match in soaring temperatures searching for his first serve, which seemed to have deserted him. The highlight of the evening session was James Ward against Luca Vanni. This was a battle, but Ward came through, encouraged by the crowd and playing with real confidence. Bedene, Britain’s latest hopeful, also came through against Stepanek, despite a shaky start. For us the best was yet to come as we had tickets for Court One on Wednesday. We saw Raonic put out Tommy Haas, witnessed Heather Watson succeed into round 3, where Serena awaits, and enjoyed ‘Stan the Man’ come through in straight sets.

We have been coming here for the last seven years, and will never forget the excitement in 2008 when we bought re-sale tickets for the Nadal Murray came on Centre. murray was blasted off the court back then, but that first experience of Centre Court remains a favourite memory. Last year we got into Centre Court to see Djokovic and Tsonga battle it out, again we were lucky with re-sale tickets. The fans are always great and we have many memories from Murray Mound, cheering Andy and seeing his fan base grow year on year.”