Murray Madness hits the hatch!

The 2009 Wimbledon Championships will be remembered as the year in which Andy Murray came so close to winning his first grand slam title on home soil. His defeat at the hands of American Number one Andy Roddick broke the hearts of supporters. Despite his defeat his support continues in all shapes and sizes. Two tiny spiny-tailed lizards born at the Oceanarium in Bournemouth have been named Andy and Murray, in admiration of the player who had the nation holding its breath for the past couple of weeks at Wimbledon.

As part of a captive breeding programme at the Oceanarium, Andy and Murray are the first such species to be born at the attraction after nine rare spiny tailed lizards were handed to the aquarium six years ago after being illegally imported into the country.

Charlotte Brown, Marketing Manager at the Oceanarium Bournemouth, said, “Andy and Murray are a true testament to the breeding programme. Since the arrival of the creatures six years ago, we have been working on the breeding programme and even this year loaned one of our four female lizards to Sparsholt College in the hope that she would mate with a male lizard there.”

It certainly proves that here in Bournemouth there is faith that Andy will be back next year and with the extra support from his little reptilian friends, 2010 may well be the year that the ‘Flying Scotsman’ glides to victory.