It was the greatest adventure of them all — a human drama, played out with fragile technology against a backcloth of infinity. Join us, as we relive that incredible mission and mark five days since man first set foot under the Wimbledon roof.

Colonel Roland “Deke” Overbury “When the chief executive made his ‘We choose to build a roof’ speech, he caught us on the hop. Hell, this was the Centre Court we were talking about — a place where no man had ever built a roof before. Plus the technology was in its infancy at that stage. We also realised that we were going to have to pull our fingers out if we were going to get there before Roland Garros. The ignominy of being beaten to the roof by the French didn’t bear thinking about.”

Major Gene E. Blaxill “The decision was taken to establish a training facility at Kingston, and to assemble an elite force of the finest roof-related technicians of our generation. It was a crazy, intense time.”

Captain Jim “Gus” Gusset “I guess the possibility that there would be casualties was always with us. What happened to Binky Simpson, though, in those early days at Kingston, still came as a terrible shock. He was attempting a perfectly routine reverse thrust on the simulator, but unfortunately he slipped and got his head caught in the canvas folds.

“That’s why we had his name stitched into the mission patch we wore on Monday — to send the message that he was a part of this, that he didn’t get his head trapped in vain. And it was great to see him smiling and waving from the Royal Box on the day. Mind you, he does a lot of smiling and waving since the incident. Smiling and waving is pretty much all he does.”

Major Peter “Pongo” Chessington “What you have to understand is how little we really knew.

“Obviously, we had sent up probes and had amassed an enormous amount of data on such things as air density and the consequences of roofing a space of this size. But even so, we were working with unknowns a lot of the time. In particular, there was a major fear that, when the roof finally sealed over the Centre Court, it would create a zero-gravity environment in which everyone would float.

“That would have made tennis difficult. It might also have meant that we would never be able to get the roof open again. And we weren’t sending in chimps or dogs on those tests, remember. On the contrary, we did our trial run with Tim Henman and Andre Agassi. If we hadn’t been able to bring both of them back safely, it would have been a PR disaster that probably would have spelt the end for the whole roof effort.”

Colonel Charles “Buzzer” Aldringham “I don’t deny that I lobbied hard to be the first man to close the roof. When the mission sheet was posted and I was down to be second — yeah, it was a bit of a kick in the teeth. But the disappointment didn’t last. This was a team effort, in any case.

“It wasn’t about any of us individually. I’m certainly not going to let it ruin the rest of my life. I have grown a big beard, though, and am currently in therapy for alcohol addiction.”

Neil Armshaw “I remember getting suited up and walking on to the gantry at dawn on the Monday, and then looking out at the thousands of people who had turned out to see this event. And I turned to Buzzer and said, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re actually going to close this thing.’ But he wasn’t talking to me, for some reason. Later, I pressed the button and, with the world watching on television, the roof shut over a competitive match for the first time in the history of the championships — an amazing moment.

“What I had in front of me was this endless expanse of canvas with, off in the distance, the lights of Wandsworth. It was hard to find the words to express it. In the end, I settled for ‘magnificent roof’. That pretty much summed it up.”