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@citygent
There was an awful lot of panic about the court and given how it looked, I can see why!
We mended the court today using the existing 2x4 that was either 'capping' the boards that move, or used to be uprights. We have tried to piece together new uprights from those that had fallen apart and got about two more out of doing that.
I think there's an argument to keep patching it up until either the LHBPA can agree on a more expensive rebuild, or we get funding (hahahahha, as if), eitherway, it's pointless spending money where a bodge can do when there is more winter and wind to come.
Things that are fairly urgent
Southeast corner/The door corner:
The last large support holding the nets, currently has NO UPRIGHTS. It is drilled into the corner structure where the door is. Furthermore, the corner structure itself (which is probably the worst condition corner due to traffic and material choice) has come away on one of the sides.
Next big wind and this is snapping/It'll probably destroy a big piece of chipboard when it does.
At the moment this is the piece that is the weak link holding the nets up. When it goes it'll domino effect every support we bodged back together today. If possible I will go down after work on Monday with my drill and replace the uprights with the two we made today, but it relies on HH being open and me managing to leave work on time.
Northeast corner:
On the north wall 2 boards from the corner there is a board coming away from its support at the bottom. Because the board has warped and the top is secured by a rail it's a corner that juts out as if TRYING to get a mallet caught in it. This needs to be sorted from a safety point of view and I only noticed it after my drill was out of juice.
South wall / Movable wall:
We need new uprights for at least 4 of the boards that move. hadly any of these boards now have a capping piece as we used those pieces to further brace the eastern net wall.
Also, we are running low on the sandbags. Again: We never actually paid for these sandbags they were liberated from Conway after they'd laid the tarmac.
Ongoing
We should look after the surface as much as the boards, uprights and nets. There are weeds encroaching on the northern side, there's sand/mould in the court itself (I will ask to borrow HH's jetwasher one weekend).
Regarding bodging the chipboard further: Louis is right that the chipboard in some places is no longer holding screws, and we're running out of new places to drill into. We could easily brace this via playside, by putting scaffolding wood/skirting board around the bottom and screwing through this to the twobyfours on the other side of the chipboard (think: Newingtons skirting boards being secured eitherside of the metal fencing).
The chipboard was essentially free and we should bare this in mind. Criticism of it is warranted but if we were to ever rebuild I think we know to spend the extra cash and get a more weatherproof ply!
Considering the amount we play on this, and how little it has cost us so far, I think it warrants a vote on spending bigger money come summer. For the time being I don't think organising a session at HH without taking drills and screws to patchup between throwins should be allowed :)
http://instagram.com/p/yAEEjiMe27/
Positivity: It didn't take us very long at all today to fix/bodge the nets up. We had fun doing it, too.
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