Outdoor squash court featured on BBC South Today
Excited that BBC South Today came to Bounty Squash and Racketball club on Tuesday 24th October to film a feature about the outdoor court which was broadcast that evening on BBC1.
Watch the recording below
Watch the recording below
We did it - Olympics here we come !Inclusion of squash in the 2028 Olympics is a great boost to the sport and is certainly going to helpraise the profile of squash.
The outdoor court is another great example of innovation in the sport and a great way to help increase awareness and participation in the sport. Please spread the word ! Build a low cost outdoor squash court.This web site charts the progress of building the UKs first outdoor squash court at Bounty Squash club, located at Basingstoke Sports and Social in Basinstoke., Hampshire.
The objective was to see how cheaply we could build a "good enough" low-cost outdoor squash court to raise awareness of squash to new people, young and old, in the local community. The design of the court is being made available for free so that anyone can take this approach to build their own court. This was a "trial and error" project and we have iterated through our design over the last 2 years. This web site shares the lessons learnt and recommendations from our experience so you can benefit from our experience and can avoid making the mistakes we made first time round. We used Crowdfunding to raise just under £12K for the project. We were supported by generous donations from members of the club. other squash enthusiasts, Rackets Cubed, PSA Foundation, the National Lottery and Sport England. Click here to visit our page on Crowdfunder. |
Book to use our court for free
We have now launched an on-line booking system which shows when the court is available to use
Click the image above to book your slot
Click the image above to book your slot
A view from above the court
Here is a birds eye view of out outdoor court. Watch the video below to see our juniors playing on the outdoor court
Step by Step "Build it yourself plans"
Coming soon - full step by step plans on how to build your own court
Public launch of Version 2
- We went live to the public on 19th August and we are seeing a steady stream of interest and people playing on the court.
- The court is for free use by the public and all equipment is provided for free.
- We have had some great publicity - click here to read an article which was published in the Basingstoke Gazette
The building of Version 2
The sections below document the steps we took to rebuild and improve the court during June, July and August 2023
Erecting a fully enclosed safety net
Pictures to come !
- We put an enclosed safety net over the whoel court.
- We used 22mm golf safety netting
- The net had multiple benefits:
- Stop balls going out of the court
- Stopped leaves and brids entering the court
- Safety net to ensure any panels do not blow ou of the court if they ever become loose in high winds
Pictures to come !
Building a proper court surface
- We improved the court surface and built a proper court surface with an outdor carpet on top of the car park tarmac
- We built a 75mm deep wooden frame around the edge of the court.
- The wooden frame provided the edges to secure the outdoor carpet.
- Another advantage of the wooden frame was that it gave additional support and strength to the Heras fences.
- A water permeable geotech membrame was placed inside the wooden frame to hold the gravel and sand
- A 50mm layer of compacted 20mm gravel.
- A 25mm layer of compacted sharp sand.
- A weed proof membrane
- A 5mm carpet underlay
- Outdoor carpet
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Strengthening the Heras fences
- We replaced all the old, broken and rusted Heras fences with brand new fences.
- We chopped up the old Heras fence panels and used the steel sections to create strenghtening bars with we used to bolt all the Heras fence panels together.
- We used strong metal corner brackets and bolted these to the four corners of the structure.
- We secured every Heras fence panel to the supporting scaffold structure uing strong ratchet straps
Improved Drainage
- We dug out all the undergrowth
- We dug a drainage/soak away channel all along the back wall of the court.
- We used soak away crates were wrapped in geo-textile membrane.
- The drainage channel was filled with 20mm gravel.
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Version 2 - learning from previous experience
- Our prototype v1 court was built between May and August 2022.
- It was "soft launched" and used by members of junior squash during September 2022
- The court was opened to the public on 15th October 2022 for World Squash Day.
- The court was shut down in November 2022 as the winter weather, wind and rain came along.
- Would the structure stand up to the strong winds, frost and rain ???
What did we learn ?
This was a "trial and error" project as we had never built a court like this before. We tried things out aong the way and learnt a lot of vital lessons.
The table below shows the key challenges we faced and what we have done to improve the Verison 2 court.
The table below shows the key challenges we faced and what we have done to improve the Verison 2 court.
Problems with the Version 1 court
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Improvements made for the Version 2 court
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Design Challenges
The biggest engineering design challenge is how to build a a court that can withstand high winds of 60 miles per hour (mph) and above.
Designed to fail
The images below shows one of the panels with two holes drilled in the outer skin.
The other images show instance where the polycarbone tore, leaving the cable tie in place, and then showing how the cable tie is replaced.
Designed to fail
- Rather than building court walls that are able to withstand high winds, our approach was to build the walls with a "design to fail" aproach,
- The twin wall polycarbone walls are very light and strong and the panels are attached to the Heras fences using cable ties.
- The wall panels are 3m * 2m, and they are held in place by over 00 cable ties per panel, spaced at 30cm intervals.
- Two holes are drilled in the outer facing side of the twin-wall polycarbonate, drilled at the top and bottom of the Hera fence wire grid.
- The "designed to fail" principle is that the cable ties are the weakest link and in hgh winds the cable ties should break first without damaging the polycarbone walls. The cable ties can be easily replaced.
The images below shows one of the panels with two holes drilled in the outer skin.
The other images show instance where the polycarbone tore, leaving the cable tie in place, and then showing how the cable tie is replaced.
Damage to v1 court in high winds
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What actually happened
- Our "designed to fail" principle was put to the test as we had lots of high winds during the autumn and winter of 2022.
- Our experience was that in most cases, the cable ties broke as planned.
- In some cases, the cable ties did not break and the polycarbonate tore between the two holes.
- In all cases, the panels remained strong and the front playing surface was undamanged.
- In cases where the rear polycarbonate skin tore between the cable ties, it was a simple job to drill two more holes in an undamanged area of the panel.
- We found that all the cable ties had become brittle with the frost, sun and constantly changing temperature.
- Some of the Heras fence panels blew down with the panels attached.
- This only happened for those Heras fence panels that were attached to each other using cable ties and where the fences had not been securred to teh scaffold frame.
- We replaced all the second hand Heras fence panels with new panels and then bolted all the Heras fence panels together.
- We also attached every Heras fence panel to the scaffodl support structure using strong ratchet straps.
Yearly maintenance
- All the cable ties were replaced and we advise this is done on a yearly basis as part of court maintenance
Public Launch of v1 court on World Squash Day 2022
October 2022: The court was opened to members of the public on 15th October 2022 as part of the clubs World Squash Day activities
"Soft Launch" - The first few hits on the court.
September 2022 - We are now in the "Soft Launch" phase of the project
We are trying out the court with a few select people before we open the court up to the public
We are trying out the court with a few select people before we open the court up to the public
- Bounty Junior Squash
- Andy May - Bounty club coach and Hampshire Squash County Development Officer (CDO)
- Brian Ward - our previous Bounty club coach - active coach at Winchester Rackets & Fitness and many other places
Latest build progress - as at 15th September
Lots has happened over the last month and the court is now ready to be used
- The floor has been painted
- Lines are on the court
- Net has been erected
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Build progress up to end of August
Photos and timelapse videos of latest build status
- Scaffold support frame erected - big shout out to Joe and all his team at "Stellar Scaffolding"
- 14 out of 14 panels erected
Time lapse videos
If you are a Health and Safety Inspector - please don't fret - I didn't fall off my ladder !
NOTE to anyone trying this at home - make sure you wear all the right safety equipment, eye goggles, face and breathign mask, ear defenders when cutting perspex panels
NOTE to anyone trying this at home - make sure you wear all the right safety equipment, eye goggles, face and breathign mask, ear defenders when cutting perspex panels
Listen to our "Build A Squash Court" montage
Listen to our "Bob The Buider" song - help it go viral !
21st July - We smashed our CrowdFund target
Delighted to announce we smashed ur CrowdFund target and nearly hit our stretch target of £12K !
13th July 2022 -
PSA Foundation and RacketsCubed visit
PSA Foundation (Adriana Olaya) and RacketsCubed (CEO Michael Hill) came for a site visit on 13th July to see how things are progressing. It was a gorgeous day for playing outdoor squash !
The Very First Hit
Tom Tippler and Simon Ward having the very first hit against the front wall
History of the protoype build
What we have done so far - the concept
The initial concept
- We started off in true "Blue Peter" style with a concept mock up using a few pieces of cardboard and drinking straws !
Experimenting on the drive during lockdown
- The next stage was to take the concept and try out some construction techniques using readily available building materials.
- Heras fencing and Twinwall Polycarbonate worked well !
Experimenting with different hitting surfaces
- We experimented with various surfaces for cladding the fence panels to make the walls.
- We tried solid perspex, hardboard, plywood, eventually deciding on 10mm twinwall polycarbonate sheeting as the best solution.
Building our first prototype
- After experimenting, the next step was to start building our first prototype court for real.
- We decided to locate it on the car park by the cricket nets.
- This has an existing hard surface, with not too many bumps and dips
- It is also location with lots of footfall and very visible to lots of people
Building the prototype
- Having decided on location, the next step was to start erecting the frame.
- Picture below show stages in construction
Starting to take shape
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The frame has been completed
- What a lovely night for a game of squash under the moonlight !
What the court looks like today
- This is current state - as at 12th June - we will continually update this picture as building progresses
What are we going to put on the walls ?
- Any squash court needs flat walls, so we now need something to clad the fence panels with.
- A big shout out to the Polycarbonate store who promptly delivered 14 sheets of twinwall perspex (3.5M * 2M).
- We have 92 square metres of wall to cover on our prototype court !
- The lorry couldn't drive into the club, so we had to unload at the front of the club
- Thanks to club members who helped move the sheets down to the car park
- Many hands make light work !!
Everyone is helping and lending a hand
Refining our design as we go
- Building a court like this has never been done before so there is a bit of trial and error and experimenting as we build this first court.
- Watch the time lapse video to get some idea of how it is going
Timelapse 2
Timelapse 1
Get In Touch.
Want to know more- contact Simon Ward - 07932 673579
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