Inside the life of Wimbledon groundsman who has four hours sleep and 32 assistants

When you are responsible for keeping the Wimbledon courts so lush, green, firm and ready for play there is no rest at all for the man in charge. Neil, 56, is one Wimbledon's hard-working unsung heroes. His official title is head of courts and horticulture.

He is an agronomist, an expert in the science of soil management and crop production, and has been tending the hallowed turf here for 30 years, the last 17 as boss.

This is a man who very much likes an early start to prepare for his Wimbledon challenge during the three weeks of qualifying and the tournament itself. He's up at 5am, out for a quick walk around the park with his dog and into SW19 for 6.45am.

"I'm up to kind of reflect on what happened the day before, think about what's going to happen today, look at 17 weather apps, pick the best one - the one that isn't saying it's going to rain and then just think about the day ahead," says Neil. "During the day, it is more a case of what will be, will be.

"The assumption is we will play to 11pm, because we do. And then we have about an hour's worth of prep after play. So, the worst case scenario is I get home at a quarter to one. Straight to bed. Groundhog Day. But I think because you are just so focused and the adrenaline it just takes you through.

"I always say to people the week after the championships, it's like when you get off a plane and you've just reached Australia and that following day you've got that jetlag feeling."

Neil's 20-strong team of ground experts (plus 12 more over the summer) has put in the hard yards all year round to produce the grassy splendour that will be witnessed by fans attending the tournament and the millions watching on TV.

So, how is he feeling about his prize turf after the hot weather of recent weeks and a most unusual 32C scorcher predicted for day one?

He is in a confident mood after some decent spring rain, then warm June days and perhaps more crucially, warmer than usual 10C nights that have allowed the grass to grow nicely.

"Because we've had such a good spring, part of me says actually that is probably as tough as I have ever seen that grass," he says.

"It has been absolutely perfect. We've had that spring flush, everything's kind of thickened up and matured and kind of come together as we wanted.

"It now doesn't matter about the hot weather, we will just keep putting more water on. We just have to keep on top of it to prevent that hardness to the court caused by the heat."

The team's tennis court science is extraordinary and exhaustive. During the practice week and two-week championships, they take about 40,000 hardness readings across all 38 grass courts.

"Every afternoon the agronomy team gives me streams of paper with loads of data on telling me the hardness of centre court north, south, east and west, where the hot spots are - whether it's a bit too firm there or a bit too soft there," he explains. "And then we will sit with the irrigation engineers and we will put a programme through for every single court through both weeks to make sure each court is consistently the same firmness within reason.

"Each court has its own little microclimate. We just need to understand those and make sure that when day one comes, everything plays the same.

"We will watch every single match, how the ball moves, how the court wears, we will be collecting the data."

Everything is clearly now in perfect order and ready, so surely it's time for Neil to sit back in his seat by the centre court turf and enjoy the tennis?

Err no. "I can't comfortably sit here and watch a game because I'm just worried that the next shot or the next run across that court, someone's gonna fall over and look across to me and go 'what's going on?

"It's your job, and there's too much pressure, and you are half expecting something to fail even though it doesn't."

At one of his first Wimbledon's in charge he was sat courtside for Andy Murray's first win in 2013...and managed to miss the big moment.

"I sat in my seat for the end of it because it had become such a thing, and it was like Oh my God I think he is going to win this. And when somebody said do you remember that winning shot? All I can remember was sitting there thinking it was getting a bit dusty behind the baseline.

"So I was looking at his feet and then all of a sudden I looked up and he's looking back at the BBC commentary box having won and I've gone 'ooh I've missed it!' So I watched it on TV later but it was quite ironic really that I was kind of more concerned about the grass than the winning point!"

I ask him if he has any concerns over a particular player wearing out his prize courts.

"Not really. Novak (Djokovic) historically likes to slide along the baseline and stuff but I guess the beauty of tennis is that players move either end so they kind of shed that wear.

"The only thing that really changes whether a court wears slightly more than in previous years will be the weather. The hotter is the more stressed the plants are and the plant will naturally start to shed its leaves more because of that. So it could be an issue this year."

So while the weather, the conditions and how the courts are playing are his priority, he tries to keep a low profile with the star tennis players around him.

"I'm hoping that they don't recognise me but unfortunately they probably do! The beauty of grass court tennis is that a player is not only battling an opponent they are having to adapt to the surface.

"And even if you get to play on centre court from round one to the final you will have seven different matches with seven different surfaces because the court is drying out and its wearing out. The people who get to the final have earned the right as they have adapted best to the conditions.

"The players accept that it's a natural surface and most of the time leave me alone."

So for Neil the championships are all about his courts and for a while his wife, two kids and dog are well aware they have to take a bit of a back seat.

"I would say I have got 40 children. Two of them are human and 38 have got green hair," he admits.

This is a man that really, really loves his Wimbledon tennis courts and the world's best players and millions of tennis fans around the world truly benefit from that.