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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.

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