Court Barrier Solutions

quick google got this, nice product, they do an 'external' version, radial corners, looks demountable and easy to store. may be worth a call?

http://www.plasloc.com/en-GB/products/standard.aspx

When i spoke to Ian at the track, there were picnic tables on the court. The picnic tables are only a little shorter in height than the boards would be. I really dont think that we will have to take the boards down too often, ian agreed. that said, we still want something that comes apart with ease.

It's about time we stopped wasting money on boards for every tournament and found a solution that benefited everyone!

For temporary events (under license) you will need to have "safety approved" wood, boroughs often prefer to ok a supplier (and your designs in full) rather than just allow you to turn up with a 'here's one I made earlier' approach.

HDPE and aluminium (as John suggested) would be best, but the initial investment cost will be high. All soft wood will only last one season, hard wood will be crazy heavy / expensive.

For the record we never wasted any of our wood (or money), the wood was always re-used (or re-purposed into something else) and we always sourced the most cost-effective way of creating tournament courts (including looking into more permanent solutions).

The transport and storage costs of a more permanent (modular?) solution will most likely negate the imagined savings in finance / waste unfortunately.

Pique's idea of selling panels has also been hashed out in the past and there are many problems: having ownership of ad hoardings at HH is most likely a non-starter (they already sell advertising at the track and they would own the income as it'd be on their property). For tournaments/events you would essentially be selling the same ad space twice (we would no longer be able to source sponsors for events as they'd be no visibility available for sale), which is a no-go unless there are no other tournament fees to contend with (not the case: although courts do seem to make up ~30% of the total budget).

Your best bet here is to find a (super cheap) storage facility first and a (super cheap) source of materials (that will stand the test of time), you then need to fundraise the cost and sort out some sort of "safety approved" rating (easier than it sounds) and transport as-and-when you need it.

HH are happy for us to leave the courts set up permanently, the only dissenting voice came from the guy that puts on the Good Friday Meet... He seemed to think it would screw up sightlines for judges, which is total bullshit...

HH are raring to go, they're 100% behind us... We need to sell this to a coupla big companies and convince them it'd be a great thing for their brand's visibility... I really think we can make this happen!

Thanks to Chris Citron for the tip-off... Plastic board...

Stokbord Black 9mm thick 8ft x 4ft
*Online price: (Each)
Including Delivery (Mainland UK)
£36.40 (exc. VAT)
£43.68 (inc. VAT)
*
Solway Products Stokbord is made from recycled agricultural waste produce collected from farms in Great Britain. It has many varied uses including storage building lining, animal shelters, calf pens and as a replacement to tin sheeting.
Other Stokbord benefits are

Hygienic : Stokbord is suitable to be pressure washed if there is any build up of dirt in your pens or buildings. Mild detergent should be strong enough to clean even tough build up.
Long Lasting : Will not require any treatment for weather if used outside robust should doesn’t rot unlike wooden animal pens.
Strength : will withstand chewing, biting, or even butting from your beasts

STOKBORD DIMENSIONS – 2440mm x 1220mm x 12mm (8 x 4 ft.)
A full pallet of 12mm thick (8x 4 ft.) is 40 sheets which will be delivered FREE of charge

Thanks to Chris Citron for the tip-off... Plastic board...

OH MY GOD THATS AMAZING!!!!!!!! resists butting haha

12mm thick, is that going to be enough? The boards for last years LO were 15mm and wobbled quite a bit. Granted, that was wood but still. I've got a supplier at work that does recycled plastic sheets of same dimensions (8ft x 4ft) and 18mm thick. £55 per sheet though and it's a funny bluey specked colour.

They've got thicker stuff too...

**Stokbord Black 18mm Thick 8ft by 4ft
**Including Delivery (Mainland UK)
£89.73 (exc. VAT)
£107.68 (inc. VAT)

**Stokbord Black 12mm thick 8ft x 4ft
**Including Delivery (Mainland UK)
£48.20 (exc. VAT)
£57.84 (inc. VAT)

Looking at pictures it is flexible, so will need some structural backing.

An alu frame work would be awesome, I still think the only way we can really do it is piecemeal. Say 1/4 of a court each time we do a tourny, with the rest of the court being wood...

#longterm

12mm thick, is that going to be enough? The boards for last years LO were 15mm and wobbled quite a bit. Granted, that was wood but still. I've got a supplier at work that does recycled plastic sheets of same dimensions (8ft x 4ft) and 18mm thick. £55 per sheet though and it's a funny bluey specked colour.

I have this stuff from the supplier that keeps the stockboard it is extremely solid stuff.

In an ideal world I guess the boards would slot into a frame of some sort...

In an ideal world I guess the boards would slot into a frame of some sort...

Or each board has an aluminium casing and these casings slot together. I think we need someone who knows how to use MS paint.

Jess, send an email to stephen [at] icetechuk.com with the dimensions of what we want and he'll give you a quote for making the whole thing with the dasher boards that are used for pro inline hockey. They're light-weight, removable, etc. Web site is here. IMO the Inline XL series boards would be best for our purpose, but they may be able to suggest something else, e.g. they also do clear plastic seamless boards for 5 a side, they can do screens, nets for behind goal-end, etc.

Great find Ian, have some rep.

Done.

Jess, send an email to stephen [at] icetechuk.com with the dimensions of what we want and he'll give you a quote for making the whole thing with the dasher boards that are used for pro inline hockey. They're light-weight, removable, etc. Web site is here. IMO the Inline XL series boards would be best for our purpose, but they may be able to suggest something else, e.g. they also do clear plastic seamless boards for 5 a side, they can do screens, nets for behind goal-end, etc.

Can we get gold?

max (matt.sporting-opportunities.com) just got back to me,

"Gameplex board system
120 foot long, 60 foot wide, 20 foot radius, 4 foot high

£16,250.00 plus vat including delivery
£2000.00 plus vat for further netting behind the goals at each end

I believe this system meets your requirements in terms of durability and
mobility. It does not have to be fixed to the ground."

not sure why there is a radius, but this is a the rough price

for the curved corners. Looks like a good price. It's a bit thin, 70 ft would be better, but I guess whatever fits HH best.

Wow, we better get saving!

Looks really good:

http://www.sportsystemscorp.com/product.php?cat=product25&act=p7menu2

Hopefully we could just leave it up at HH, most of the time, and just take it down when we need it, or they want us to.

Thanks John. Nice video.

Time to petition Southwark for some cash, I reckon... they're pouring huge amounts of cash into the BMX track at Burgess Park, money for these courts is nothing in comparison.

Looks really good:

http://www.sportsystemscorp.com/product.php?cat=product25&act=p7menu2

Hopefully we could just leave it up at HH, most of the time, and just take it down when we need it, or they want us to.

Is that beagle I spot in the pictures from Waterloo 2011?

(In the gallery, I've not watched a video)

That's Waterloo, Ontario. I miss Shoppers. Life brand 4 lyf!

This might be a really daft idea, but has anyone thought of speaking to RedBull and / or GoPro about this? I know a lot of people are against commercializing their beloved hobbies, but these companies love to stick their logo on anything that can be labeled as extreme sport and they are good at promoting and sponsoring these activities. I think HCBP is in the position where it could grab their attention; point them in the direction of vimeo and youtube channels, invite them to Krakow and you may just get a healthy backing for selling your souls. Not sure what their demands would be in terms of events being ran regularly, training sessions etc, but it doesn't hurt to ask, right? After all court barriers are surfaces perfectly suitable for advertising purposes and the companies involved would get their logos in every video on said channels.
Sorry if this has been thrown in and discussed already, i cba to utfs. :P

Yup, I reckon that's the general idea... Would be great if we could get two sponsors, one for each court...