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BADMINTON UMPIRE'S CHAIRS

Chair, CanberraChair, LauncestonChair, Sydney

All of the above umpire's chairs suffer a common design fault: the 'ladder-angle' is too steep!
This makes it awkward and even dangerous to climb into or out of the chair.

 Notice that the chair on the right has a sandbag draped over the rung at the back to help prevent the chair from toppling over when a person is climbing into it.  This particular chair design was used at the World Masters Games in Sydney in 2009.  During these games an accident occurred wherein an umpire had a nasty fall whilst attempting to climb into the chair.  The steep angle of the chair was the main factor contributing to this accident.

I personally witnessed this mishap and I vowed that I would post drawings for an umpire's chair in the hope that manufacturers might refer here before repeating the bad design of chairs such as those shown above.
The ladder-angle in my drawings is 77 degrees, but if I was doing the drawings again I would modify this to 75 degrees. (Incidentally the recommended angle for ladders is 1 in 4 which is 76 degrees).

Below are links to my drawings.
 
Umpire's Chair, Side ViewUmpires Chair, Side View Umpire's Chair, Front View.Umpires Chair, Front Umpire's Chair, Rear View.
Umpire's Chair-Rear View


This page last updated 21 April 2011.  Author: Alan Bottomley