What happens to Wimbledon's used balls? Ask Cumbria's mice

Wimbledon is gripping but inevitably a bit southern. But here's a northern angle which I bet you didn't know about. What happens to the used balls at the end of the day? I can't answer for all of them, but a couple of boxes have ended up as homes for mice in the Lake District. Yes, really. The Lakes Aquarium at the foot of Windermere had the notion after watching both the current championships and the fondness of their mice (in an aquarium? Yes it isn't just fish) for both cosy nests and hamster-type playthings. Bingo! Make a hole in a tennis ball and you have both. So they wrote off to the All-England Club and asked. Over to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum which dealt with the request and says: "The All England Lawn Tennis Club does all it can to re-use balls left on its hands at the end of Wimbledon fortnight with many being sold for charity. Most requests are related to much more mundane future uses than the one suggested by Lakes Aquarium. And we could hardly refuse to send some, once we heard that this was a re-housing project." Game, set and match to the Aquarium which houses the brown mice as part of a living display of local wildlife. One of the attraction's workers, Cathy Burrows, says the mice love the balls and are using them for 'zorbing and spinning' before kipping down for a rest. The balls were all used in this year's championships and Cathy says: "Visitors are intrigued by the story behind them and the display is certainly creating a talking point." There is no danger of the mice suffering a housing shortage btw. Slazenger supply 52,000 balls for the annual championship. They used to be made in Barnsley which always made me very happy, but production moved to the Philippines in 2003/4.