By Royal approval

So today The Queen is visiting AELTC for the first time since 1977.

The route that she was to take on arriving was neatly lined with security long before the gates were open, so the eager fans who queued extra-early to get into the grounds were all perfectly positioned. The pathways were swept extra clean, without even a single flower petal to be seen to blemish her route.

Soon enough, she arrived and began her regal walk down past the crowds to meet some of the players, before her lunch and on to watch Murray play on Centre Court.

In 1986, The Queen went to Chichester on the day before Good Friday to distribute Maundy money (stick with me...there is a point to this...). The crowds on that day were ten-deep, if not more. I was stood at the back of the crowd, a friend standing on my shoulders to afford at least one of us a decent view. There was palpable excitement rippling through the crowd as the allotted hour approached - a ripple, which turned into a cheer as she arrived. I remember thinking "She must be right in front of me!" so loud was the crowd's jubilant cheering, but no - she was still some way off. The noise grew and grew, cheering and applause in equal measures. As she passed in front of my section of the crowd, the crescendo peaked until the noise-baton was picked up by the next section and so on, down the entire route.

It was, indeed, a jubilant - and noisily-cheering - gathering.

How strange it was, then, to witness her procession through the fans at Wimbledon this morning to a mere comparative murmur of appreciative applause; but instead of clapping, there was a forest of arms held aloft as cameras snapped and whirred to get a myriad of individual photos. So intent on getting 'their' shot of The Queen, that the crowd were unable to clap. It was a little eery in fact, exacerbated by the close proximity of the fans, their cameras just a few feet from Her Majesty.

Still, she looked happy enough.

But in this modern age where cameras are so ubiquitous - be they state-of-the-art pocket masterpieces, or smartphones with the ability to instantly update Twitter and Facebook accounts - have we forgotten to cheer and clap? Maybe we need media devices that have recordings of applause that can play while shutter buttons are pressed.

Is there an app for that?