Can we continue to play on the same court immediately after our session if the rightful owner from the next session never turns up? This is my 1st post since joining Badminton Central, usually I will prefer to browse and read up on the informative articles posted. So, please bear with me for this Long Story… We were rudely asked to leave the court when we continued to play, which was extended from our time slot, by another group from the other courts whom are not the rightful owners. The rightful owner - Aikido Club which always booked (7-9pm) on every Monday – never turn up! Worst still, one of the SAFRA club house Security guard approached 1 of my guys from the sideline to ask whether we book the court (normally, security or admin staff will never check those playing unless somebody complaint that their court are being occupied). My friend explained to the Security staff that we are playing our last game and will leave soon, which he agreed and were about to leave us. One guy from the next court (Court#2) was not happy, pointing to the clock saying that our session end at 7pm and gestures that they are very "KIND" to allowed us to play for 10mins (Time: 7.10pm). Insisting we should leave immediately when we were in the middle of a game set. NO choice, we leave the court and some of my friends were feeling Paiseh when we were Rudely chased off the court by this guy. We have been using this place long enough to know that all Monday (7-9pm) time slot are not for any other badminton group , definitely not theirs. To confirm my point, immediately, i went to the booking front desk to enquire and found out that it belongs to the Aikido lessons and nobody is supposed to play on this court. Then, i go back to look for this guy and ask him why and who give him the rights to chased us away when they also did not book this court. He still insist that they have booked this court , only when I tell him that I have checked with the booking staff that the court belong to Aikido lesson and if we cannot play , they also are not allows to play as well. Sensing that they are in the wrong he quickly acts Blurs and asks his friend whether they have book the court. His friend's replied "NO". Then he said that we can also "SHARE" the court with them later loh. But what is the point; my friends have already pack-ups. The purpose for this Long story was: 1) This group of players was regulars there; they have been increasing their group size to present 20+. Could it be the extra court# 3 that they always enjoy for FREE, when they saw that we still continue playing, they have 1 court less for their guys? If we leave, they have the whole Badminton Hall to themselves. 2) It is hard to believe that they do not know how many courts have been booked, if you have played in the same venue every week. 3) Maybe we were not the only one being chased away; there might be others before us? 4) The way they handle this is very unsportsmanlike, un-gentleman, no need to call the Security and chase us out rudely, when they also never book the court. If they were to ask, we will gladly Share this Free court with them. Anyway, some of are guys have played some games with them before. 5) Shouldn't it be the common practice for the present court players to continue playing when the next rightful owners never turn up??? Place: Mount Faber SAFRA (SG) Date: 24th Aug 2009 - Monday Time of our session: 5pm to 7pm Time of incident: 7.10pm Court number: 3 Total number of courts in the Badminton Hall: 3 Rightful owner: Aikido session (from 7pm - 9pm) - Court# 3 - (Never turn up.) The other group: Abt 22 guys - occupying court# 1 & court# 2 (Huge group for 2 courts and 2 hrs each). Thanks for reading. My apologies for the long post.
i dont know what your complaining about.....your booking had ended. regardless of whether the next group turned up or not, legally you are required to leave. Main reason being if you play outside the booking hours, your not covered by the owners of the court for liability insurance and your considered illegally using facilities etc etc. If you wanted to keep using the courts go to reception or the owners and extend your booking for the next 2 hours.
Sometimes your booking might finish when you are in the last stages of the game, eg 18 points and above. In that case, if the next group has turned up, you can ask them if they will allow you to finish the game. If the game hasnt finished 10 mins past your booking time, then you should leave the court. some ppl might feel shy to approach a bunch of guys who are in a middle of an exciting game to tell them that they are playing out of the timeslot that they booked. In this case, everyone seems to know that the Aikido group hasnt/will not turn up, so everyone is trying to take advantage of the free court. 22 guys on 2 courts for 2 hours....i can see why they are eyeing the free court.
Bradmyster is correct that legally neither groups are allowed to play on the court. That said, in Singapore, extending court hours happens a lot. I do allow games to run into my booked hours if the players are close to wrapping it up. I also tend to be quite friendly with folks playing on adjacent courts and adjacent time especially if they are regulars. I usually invite them for games and they do the same for us. I take that the other court users are a little aggressive in their wanting to chase you out. You can either do the same to them (and start a long term war), or you can work out a reasonable solution with them (e.g. use the extended hour as a mixed session). I personally prefer a win-win solution since afterall everyone is there to enjoy the game.
Do they legally actually have the court for free? Or were they just using it without permission? If the latter is the case, what the f@#$? Let this be a lesson for people to know the badminton centre's policies and abide by them. Sometimes there are exceptions that the staff give out, such as an extra 5 or so minutes to finish a game. A long with that, know the rules that you're playing by whether it be a drop-in or a court-booking. And seriously, know whether or not the court you're playing on is booked or not lol.........
For 1 reason or another this Aikido class never start for the pass few months but this court is always not open for booking at (7-9pm) time slot. We hv notices of this trend when we played there occasionally. This means that the regular group might have use this free court all along. Normally, we leave the court at 7pm sharp. Unfortunately, we are too absorb in the game and continue to play on thus forget about the time which brought abt tis incident.
Yes, we shld hv left the court when our session ended. But, its too much to be bullied by this group which intended to use the court for Free (getting the Security and Sarcastic remarks and all). Keep me wondering, how many times these tricks have been performed on other group like us which have crossed their territory.
