GB2152093A

GB2152093A - Collapsible squash racquets court

Info

Publication number: GB2152093A
Application number: GB08418350A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Tadashi Kishino; Tadashi Kawasaki; Katsuhiko Matsuda; Takeaki Hamada
Original assignee: Sanwa Shutter Corp
Current assignee: Sanwa Shutter Corp
Priority date: 1983-12-20
Filing date: 1984-07-18
Publication date: 1985-07-31
Also published as: DE3429274A1; GB8418350D0; AU3663084A; DE3429274C2; GB2152093B; JPS60102068U; JPH0228944Y2

Abstract

A collapsible squash racquets court (Fig. 2) can be collapsed into a compact form (Fig. 4) by folding both side walls (4) inwardly by means of hinges (9) and pivot hinges (6, 8). Casters (10) may be provided at the lower ends of both side walls (4) and the back wall (3). Jack type supports (11), each of which is pivotally supported at a central part of side wall (4), can be turned outwardly of said side wall to a position where they project out sidewise and fix said side wall at the desired position. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Collapsible squash raquets court SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a squash racquets court in which the front and back walls are provided in opposed relation to each other and both side ends of said front and back walls are joined to the corresponding side walls to form a court area enclosed with four walls. More particularly, the invention relates to a collapsible squash racquets court in which both side walls are arranged to be foldable inwardly of the court so that whole court, when not used, can be collapsed into a compact form.

It is relatively recently that squash racquets has become popular among people. Squash racquets is an all-weather type indoor sport which, in playing, involves a good deal of trickiness of a game for which the player is required to use his head. This sport is also a highly active type, causing a lot of physical energy in a short time. This sport is therefore considered to be very effective for wearing off the fat or for systemic beauty while the sport is being enjoyed. For this reason, this sport is now very popular among the people of both sexes and all ages.

In squash racquets, unlike in the ordinary games of tennis or badminton in which the competitors strike a ball to and fro over a net spread centrally across the court, the competitors in squash racquets are positioned sidewise to one another facing in the same direction, and one of the players called "handin" serves the ball toward the front wall and then another player called "handout" returns the ball which has bounced back from the front wall, both players repeating striking the ball in this way alternately until one of them fails. In such squash racquets, the players can use not only the front wall but also both side walls as well as the back wall as the area against which the ball is to be hit, so that the court for squash racquets is surrounded with four walls erected on the floor surface.The standard size of the squash racquets court is 32 feet (9.75 meters) long and 21 feet (6.40 meters) wide, so that a fairly wide space is required for forming the court with four walls.

It is therefore difficult to lay out such squash court in a gymnasium or other places with a limited space, and it is required to independently construct a court specific for squash racquets. This necessitates a large-scale construction work and a high construction cost, and further, once the court is built up at a place, it can not be easily moved to another place. There have thus been great difficulties in having access to a squash racquets court.

Therefore, the apparision of a court which can be easily set up in a gymnasium or other convenient places to give greater opportunity for people to enjoy squash racquets has been strongly desired.

In view of such situation, the present invention has been worked out based on a totally new idea for answering said requirement, and the invention has for its object to provide a squash racquets court which can be easily constructed by enclosing a play area with four walls in which the front and back walls are disposed in opposed relation to each other and both side ends of said front and back walls are joined to the corresponding side walls to form a desierd court area, said side walls being designed foldable inwardly of the court so that this squash racquets court, when not used, can be collapsed into a compact form, whereby it is unnecessitated to independently construct a full-sized court specific for squash racquets, and the desired court can be easily set up in a gymnasium or other convenient places where the available space is limited, and further, the built up court can be easily moved from one place to another, thus allowing people to enjoy squash racquets in an easier way.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS: Fig. 1 is a plane view of a squash racquets court in an embodiment of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a general perspective view of the court as it was deployed into its full length.

Fig. 3 is a plane view of the court as it was collapsed into a compact form.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the court which is being collapsed.

Fig. 5 is a plane view showing another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVEN TION: The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In Figs. 1 through 4, reference numeral 1 designates generally a squash court according to this invention comprising a front wall 2, a back wall 3 and two side walls 4, 4, said front and back walls being joined at their both side ends to the corresponding side walls to define a rectangular enclosure of a predetermined area. The front wall 2 is greater in height than the back wall 3, and the top edges of both side walls 4, 4 slant c',-wn- wardly from the front wall 2 toward th buck wall 3.

A wall 5 of a small length projects from one side end of said front wall 2 vertically thereto toward the back wall 3. The projecting end of said small-length wall 5 is joined to an end of one side wall 4 by pivot hinges 6, 6 provided at both upper and lower end faces of said side wall 4 and having their pivotal shaft disposed on the outside of the court. The other end of said side wall 4 is similarly joined to the corresponding end of the back wall 3. A small-length wall 7 similar to said wall 5 also pojects from one side end of the back wall 3 and the projecting end of said wall 7 is joined to an end of the other side wall 4 by pivot hinges 8 provided at both upper and lower end faces of said side wall 4 and having their pivotal shaft disposed on the outside of the court. The other end of said side wall 4 is likewise joined to the corresponding end of the front wall 2.

Each of said both side walls 4, 4 is composed of a wall member 4a and another wall member 4b which are of a same length and joined by the hinges 9, 9 provided on the outside of the court 1. This hinged joint, in conjunction with said pivot hinges 6, 8, allows each side wall 4 to be folded inwardly of the court 1.

Casters 10, 1 0 are provided at the lower ends of both side walls 4, 4 and the back wall 3. These casters 10, 10 . . permit the smooth movement of both side walls 4, 4 and the back wall 3 on the floor surface, facilitating the folding of both side walls 4, 4 inwardly of the court 1. There are also provided the jack type supports 11, 11 each of which is pivotally supported at a central part of the side wall 4. Each said jack type support 11 can be turned outwardly of the side wall 4 to a position where it projects out sidewise from the side wall 4 and fixes said side wall at its desired position. In the back wall 3 is fitted a reinforced glass 1 2 through which the inside of the court can be seen from the outside. An entrance and exit door 1 3 is provided in the side wall 4.Also, net fences 14 are provided along the top edge of the court 1. Numeral 1 5 denotes the grips provided toward both side ends of the back wall 3.

In the above-shown embodiment, each side wall 4 is designed to be foldable in two, but it may be so designed that it can be folded in four as shown in Fig. 5.

In use of the squash court 1 of the abovedescribed construction, which is in a folded state, first the front wall 2 is fixed to a wall or other suitable part of a gymnasium and then the court structure is pulled and extended out rearwardly by holding the grips 1 5. By this simple operation, there is provided a rectangular court 1 of a predetermined area enclosed with four walls. The small-length walls 5, 7 provided projecting vertically from a side end of the front wall 2 and from a side end of the back wall 3, respectively, in a diagonal relation to each other help to form a correctly rectangular court.Then the jack type supports 11, 11 are extended out sidewise from both side walls 4, 4, and by operating the jack, the side walls 4, 4 are fixed in position, whereby the court 1 can be securely fixed on the floor surface while maintaining the rectangular play area of the predetermined dimensions. Now the players can enter the court area from the door 3 and can play the game. The game can be watched from the outside of the court through the reinforced glass 12 fitted in the back wall 3.

Since the wall members 4a, 4b of each side wall 4 are joined by the hinges 9 provided on the outside of the court 1 and also both end faces of each side wall are joined to the front wall 2 and the back wall 3 by the pivot hinges 6, 8 provided at both upper and lower end faces of the side wall, there exists no protuberance on the interior side of the court and the inside surface of the court is perfectly flat and level, so that there is no possibility that the ball hit by a player against the inside surface of a side wall should bounce back irregularly.

When the court 1 is not used and collapsed into a compact form, the jack type supports 11 are unfixed and the court structure is pushed toward the front wall side by holding the grips 15, whereby both side walls 4, 4 are folded inwardly of the court and the small walls projecting from the front wall 2 and the back wall 3 covers the sides of the folded side walls 4, 4 as shown in Fig. 3 so that the whole structure is reduced into a compact form. Thus, the court assembly can be easily set in a gymnasium or other place with a limited space. Further, if desired, it can be easily moved from one place to another by simply releasing the front wall 2 from the wall or other part of the gymnasium to which said front wall 2 of the court structure has been fixed.

As described above, in the squash racquets court according to this invention, both side walls are joined endwise to the corresponding side ends of the front and back walls which are disposed in opposed relation to each other so as to form a squash court area enclosed with four walls, and said both side walls are designed to be foldable inwardly of the court, so that the squash court of this invention, when spread out, can provide a wide enough play area, and when not used, it can be collapsed into a compact form to allow an effective utilization of the space. It is thus unnecessitated according to this invention to construct a full-sized court to be used only for squash racquets and instead the court can be easily set up in a gymnasium or other place with a limited space, allowing the people to enjoy squash racquets more handily. Further, the court can be easily moved from one place to another when so desired. Thus, the present invention can produce many useful and practical effects such as s sizable reduction of the court construction cost.

Claims

1. A collapsible squash racquets court comprising a front wall, a back wall and both side walls in which said front and back walls are disposed in opposed relation to each other and both side ends of said front and back walls are joined to said side walls to form a rectangular space surrounded with four walls, characterized in that said both side walls are designed to be foldable inwardly of the court.

2. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 1, wherein the top edges of said both side walls slant downwardly from the front wall side toward the back wall.

3. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 1, wherein each of said side walls is so constructed that it can be folded centrally thereof through the medium of hinges provided on the outside of the court.

4. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 1, wherein a small-length wall is provided projecting from one side end of the front wall vertically thereto toward the corresponding side wall, and a similar smalllength wall is also provided projecting from the other side end of the back wall vertically thereto toward the corresponding side wall.

5. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 2, wherein one of said side walls is joined to the small-length wall provided at one side end of the front wall and to one side end of the back wall, and the other side wall is joined to the small-length wall provided at the other side end of the back wall and to the other side end of the front wall, all by means of pivot hinges.

6. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 1, wherein the erect net fences are provided aiong the top edges of said front, back and both side walls.

7. A collapsible squash racquets court according to Claim 1, wherein casters are provided on the outside of the lower parts of both side walls and the back wall, said casters facilitating the folding of the side walls toward the inside of the court.