It’s early March and you are walking into the arena bowl in Birmingham for the first day’s play of the Yonex All England.
Spread out in front of you are the 4 grey courts, the scoring systems, the advertising boards and all the court equipment.
It may well be day one for you and thousands of other fans, but for all the volunteers in the Field of Play team (FOP) it is already day 4 of our tournament. For us it starts on the previous Saturday when we join the Badminton England team in Milton Keynes to start loading the equipment needed for the biggest and best tournament in the world, and we are not talking about a few boxes; a typical load means 2 Luton box vans, probably a private car and a 40ft articulated wagon, everything to help the tournament run effectively.
This doesn’t include the court mats themselves which will be delivered from London by Yonex.
On arriving in the arena our first task is to sweep the sprung wooden floors that have been laid beforehand (to ensure no stray items remain, often finding nails and screws). Then it’s a matter of positioning the 4 competition mats ensuring they are central to the lighting rig and the TV camera locations, then zipping them together (3 long zips per court).
This is followed by placing out all the rest of the equipment, nets, posts, umpire chairs etc. When that is completed, we move into the back of house area to position and lay the 2 final warm up courts and security fencing before moving into the practice hall to check on the 7 mats there.The afternoon before competition starts is put aside for player practice so not a great deal for us to do, however the following morning (day 1 of the event) we need to get into the arena early to ensure that the court equipment is still in its correct place, and that the nets and service height measures are correct.
So, it may be day one for you as a spectator but for us we have had 3 days of quite physical work even before the actual competition starts.
Before play each day we sweep the court mats to get rid of accumulated dust from the court surface. This generally means we must be in the arena about 90 minutes before play. Once play starts our role is to ensure that everything on the arena floor is in the correct position, basically ensuring that the court mats are safe to play on. We are also tasked with making sure that players are escorted on and off court and be on hand should a court mat need to be re-zipped. Another role is to keep the courts supplied with sufficient shuttles.
As you are aware we start the event with 4 competition courts, then go down to 2 for the semi-final rounds and then down to one for the finals. This means quite possibly a late finish at the end of play the courts are unzipped, rolled, then removed into storage, plus any other equipment from those courts. We are all pleased that due to the new scoring system the days of 1:30am finishes, which were quite common, have ended.
In recent years, off site events have also been arranged by BE and BWF. Last year a court had to be laid at the University of Birmingham, this and similar events need to have FOP presence.
Finals day brings more of the same plus we are tasked with escorting the finalists from court to the medal podium and the winners back down through the arena after the presentation (a real highlight of the event).
Then as you all head your way home we begin the de-rig, rolling up the finals court plus the 2 warm up courts, removing all the court equipment and assist with clearing the event offices and concourse areas, not an easy process when you consider the size of the arena building, then load it all back into the 2 vans and the 40ft artic.
Finally it’s back to the NBC at Milton Keynes arriving around midnight and then home, thankfully we no longer have to unload the vehicles on arrival so the days of leaving the NBC at 2:30am are long gone.
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the work that goes on behind the scenes at this wonderful event.
John Gurling, Field of Play Team Leader
