In 2001, when we started using CHUMP at the US Open, the USTA had 15 custom umpire chairs manufactured, with swing-arms to hold the CHUMP cradle and the court microphone.
This year, USTA had three additional chairs made with custom, articulating bases on rails so that the chairs, which are extremely heavy, can be easily moved forward or back a few feet when the netposts are changed between singles and doubles.
Unfortunately, the guys who built the chairs tilted the trays down about 30 degrees, not realizing that umpires no longer write on paper scorecards. Due to the awkward angle, umpires could no longer see their CHUMP palms.
USTA Ops came to the rescue, using a chop saw to cut small "cheese wedges" out of a 2 x 6 and spray-painting them blue.
Richard Kaufmann and I went out to Ashe, Armstrong, and Grandstand and re-mounted the CHUMP cradles on top of the cheese wedges, which are now secured to the trays.
A low-tech but effective solution to a high-tech problem.
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