A Squash court in the middle of a major train station. True or false?

Sounds like a trick question on the radio, but the answer is ‘yes’. Recently, a portable glass court was set up in Grand Central Station, New York where approx. 130,000 people per day pass through. Many stood by for a while watching the game, and could not really believe what they were watching.

Stored in crates, the portable squash court can be shipped in a truck or container and set up in only two days by 8 workers. One of the portable squash court components, if not the most important one, is the floor, and the requirements are very demanding. Besides performance, durability is vital. With constant use, including setting up, removal and shipping the floor needs to be able to withstand heavy use without any problems. With this in mind, McWil Courtwall, a company accredited with the World Squash Federation looked for a state-of-the-art floor for their portable glass court and found it at HARO Sports. The HARO Sports portable squash floor provides benefits to the athlete such as shock absorption, consistent ball bounce, great traction – thanks to the  SST® finish and a consistent performance over its entire life.

The HARO Sports portable squash court complies fully with the requirements of DIN 18032-2, April 2001 and many other leading standards for squash and racket sports.
The area elastic construction of the squash floor significantly reduces the risk of sports injuries particularly to the athlete’s legs, ankles and lower back. This is very important for squash - a sport where the athlete’s body suffers very heavy levels of impact on its whole structure.

The hardwood flooring is very durable due to its engineered construction, featuring a premium quality hardwood top layer supported by a high quality birch plywood core layer. This construction which is around 7 times more dimensionally stable when compared to conventional solid hardwood floors reduces the risk of swelling and shrinkage and its associated problems.

The set up, quick and easy!
A heavy base was brought into the location using an air cushion – like a hovercraft. This system allows the base to maneuver around any obstacles with ease. After the base is set up the portable squash floor is set up on it.

A precise fabrication of the portable floor is absolutely crucial!
The portable floor features a patented interlocking system, where no pins or screws are required to attach panels together. Every panel incorporates a pair of spring clips and connection discs to secure it to adjacent panel. This interlocking system does not only interlock the panels but also pulls them together.
As a result, the appearance of the portable floor is nearly seamless and appears to be a permanent floor.

A detailed installation plan and consecutively numbered panels guarantee that all the 33 portable floor panels are always installed in the correct place and fit precisely.

The hardwood floor features a SST finish, a rough depth impregnation especially developed for squash and racket applications. Slipping on a wet sweaty floor is therefore unlikely.
 
Picture: HARO SPORTS

A perfect game in the Portable Squash court: The ‘floating court’ allows the spectator to follow the game, the players, however, can not look outside and can completely concentrate on their game.

Picture: squash.pics

This court has already been used for the following tournaments:

• Bermuda Squash Open 2004
• US Open 2004 Boston Symphony Hall
• Canadian Classic 2004 Toronto
• Tournament of Champions 2005 – Grand Central Station NY
• Kuwait Open 2005 (Kuwait court)
• Canary Wharf Invitational 2005, London (Eventis court)
• PSA Squashmasters 2005, Bermudas
• Canadian Closed Championship 2005