Meeting the Queen by Lila Simpson

On the 29 th March 2007 I went to the official opening of the new LTA National Tennis Centre.   The centre was opened by Her Majesty the Queen.  

All of the WJTI players and some of the other clubs waited first for the Duchess of Gloucester and then Her Majesty the Queen outside the centre.   The Duchess came in a green Jaguar with Police motor bikes behind and in front of the car.   About ten minutes later some more motor bikes came in and just behind them was another green Jaguar.   This time instead of being another Duchess it was the Queen!!   Everyone made so much noise you couldn't hear anything at all.  

Everyone had a Union Jack flag and we were waving them like mad!   We even did a few Mexican waves with them.   Once the Queen had got out of her smart green Jaguar she walked up the red carpet and disappeared into the centre.

After the Queen had gone everyone went off to their courts to play some tennis.   We were hoping that the Queen would come for a walk around and watch us play.   After a while it had started to rain much harder so we all went inside to play some games in a marquee as we were getting really wet.  

Lunch was at about twelve o clock in the marquee and afterwards we went back outside to play tennis as it had stopped raining.   It was pretty cold still despite the sun coming out.   For a while we played inside and watched some older players train.   We got to chat to them and ask them some questions about their tennis and their goals.  

At four o clock it was time to go home.   Everyone had a good day and it was especially good not being at school!

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