Court mats!

[cooler]

a hardwood floor is also nice,

[Yogi]

A friend of mine has this at his Factory! he has a Black rubber mat that he imported and the total cost was below 1000Sg! I shall ask them where to get it!

[marshall]

During our vacation last year, before we went to the WC in Seville, we did some travelling in England and Ireland. I noticed several sites that could be converted into badminton venues by using the portable mats. The best ones:

1. British Museum, London - The Reading Room, where Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, has already had all its books moved out and now contains only some portable display cases which could be removed easily. The floor is hardwood parquet with a wood subfloor. A little quiet footwork went unnoticed by the guard and revealed the slight springiness needed. The room is too narrow for courts to fit across because of the overhanging galleries that would cover the last 4 feet of the baselines on either side. However, the ceiling is at least 30 ft high, the lighting is good and glare-free over the courts, and the galleries have plenty room for spectators if they don't mind looking down on the courts. The area under the galleries has enough space for umpire, service judge, and line judges. Best of all, the room is long enough for 6 to 8 courts with space for the line judges behind the baselines. The only remodelling necessary would be soundproof doors between the Reading Room and the rest of the museum, especially if Indonesia were competing and more than three fans showed up.

2. Trinity College, Dublin - The old Library, second floor. Another long room, this with a barrel-vaulted ceiling that provides the required height, and a hardwood floor with a slight spring. The lighting would need improving, but could be done easily. As in the Brit Museum Reading Room, large galleries (filled with bookcases) provide spectator space above. These galleries are reached via cast iron spiral staircases at either end of the floor. The court mats again would be laid out end to end as the room is narrow. One of the College librarians, who was familiar with our sport, assured me that the room was wide enough for courts running the length of the floor. We discussed the problem of setting up the net poles, and he suggested that the nets could be tied to the pedestals which occupied the sidelines. These pedestals support a series of marble busts of famous thinkers, such as Socrates, Voltaire, and Cicero. The busts are quite heavy, he said, and would bear the tension to keep the nets at regulation height.
Because of the wide staircase between the ground floor and the second floor, there is room for 5 courts at most.

3. St Alban's Cathedral, in rural area of central England - This site has a very high ceiling, plenty of floor space for 12 or more courts once the pews are moved, and room for bleachers on the sides. On the downside, lighting would need to be upgraded over the entire floor, and some sort of wooden subfloor laid over the existing flagstones, which are very uneven. Television cameras could be accommodated in the choir loft as well as on the sidelines. The grounds cover several acres of rolling lawn which would be the logical choice for temporary pavillions for food service, souvenirs, admissions, portable WC's, and the like. This site has the greatest space advantages and the greatest challenges in bringing the floors, lighting, and spectator space up to IBF standards. Obviously, a tournament committee would have to weigh the pros and cons very carefully, especially in view of the obvious advantages and ease of conversion provided by the British Museum site.