Grampian Squash
· Main League Rules ·
Open Leagues and Ladies Leagues
1. Participation by Teams in the Grampian Squash Leagues is conditional upon the parent Club being affiliated to Scottish Squash.
2. Teams shall consist of five players (four in Ladies Leagues) who shall be fully paid up members of the Club which they represent (Male or female in the Open Leagues).
3. The Captains shall have Team lists available for exchange before the match begins. The order of play[A1] [A2] [A3] shall be in reverse order unless otherwise agreed. The Team should be named in order of current ability. No player may move more than one place up or down in playing order in successive matches. The exception would be where players of a higher standard were not available in the previous match. In the case of long term injury, exceptions to this rule may be allowed at the discretion of the committee following written application to Grampian Squash. Team Captains must ensure that all their players are available to play before the Match starts. In the event of a Team player(s) being known to be unavailable, the remaining players must play in top positions in the Team and concede the Ties in the lower position(s). In an event of a Team player failing to turn up or being unable to play after the Teams’ lists have been exchanged, the following rules apply:
· If the 5th string fails to turn up, he shall concede his Tie and the other Ties count.
· If the 4th string fails to turn up, he shall concede his Tie and the other Ties above will count.
· If the 3rd, 2nd or 1st strings fail to turn up, their Ties and those below will be conceded. Remaining Ties, where applicable will count.
· If a player comes to a match but becomes unable for any reason to play after the commencement of the knockup, then he shall concede his Tie, but it shall have no effect on the other Ties.
4. Teams must make every effort to honour their Match commitments. Any Team failing to honour a commitment, with a minimum of four (or three players in Ladies Division matches), will;
· Concede all match points to the opposing team
· Have 20 points (16 points for Ladies Division team) deducted from its league points total.
Any team failing to field a team on a second occasion will;
· concede all match points to the opposing team
· have 40 points (32 points for Ladies Division team) deducted from its league points total
Any team failing to field a team on a third occasion will be automatically relegated and all matches involving that team shall be voided.
Clubs who have one team or any pool team in the leagues, and the lowest order team of a club playing a ladder system, will be allowed to play a match with only 3 players (2 players in the ladies league). In the event of this happening the team captain must inform the opposing team of this situation, prior to the match.
5. Clubs who enter more than one team in the Grampian Squash Leagues may elect to play / select teams by a ladder system or a pool system.
· In a pool system teams may consist of any number of players as decided by their club, no player can play for more than one team.
· In a ladder system the first team must consist of the best four / five available players, the second team the next best five players and so on unless a player has prior Committee approval to play for a lower level Team than their ability warrants due to a regular conflict of commitments. Should their situation change they may not play for any other team during the season.
· The committee shall assume that clubs with more than one team will play in a ladder system unless they are notified otherwise.
· Any club wishing to change their system must notify the committee at the pre-season captains meeting or before the start of season.
6. Any Division 1 team which elects to play in a ladder system must register their top five players with the Grampian Squash Committee for approval before the start of the season. These players may not play for any other team. A Club which has more than one team in Division 1 and other team / teams in lower Divisions must nominate 5 players for each of the teams in Division 1 these may not play for a lower Division team. If a registered player fails to play in the first five matches he must be replaced but when available he may be reinstated. Should a new player or another player improve to a standard above a registered player the club may submit a request to amend their registered player list to Grampian Squash Committee this approval must be confirmed before the player plays for the team. The substituted player may now play for another club team.
7. In any fixture where a team is weakened by player availability, replacement players may be provided only by promotion from below. Replacement players may not be players of higher ability from above. Players who are “called up” to a higher Division (including Division 1) may immediately return to their lower Division within the same playing week. A player may only do this on a maximum of 3 (three) occasions in one season. A playing week is deemed to start on Thursday and finish on the following Wednesday. Any Team contravening this rule will shall result in the Team concerned being subject to forfeiture of points at the discretion of the Rules Sub Committee.
8. Having played for one club, a player is not eligible to play for any other Club in the Main Leagues during the remainder of that Season unless he obtains written permission from the Secretary. Permission would only be granted in special circumstances, at the sole discretion of the Committee. A player may however play for another Club/Team in a different League (i.e. Ladies, Veterans or Juniors).
9. Matches shall be played on a home and away basis throughout the Season.
10. Matches must be played on the evening published in the Fixtures List. Severe weather or court closure may allow the postponement of a match. However, the Match Secretary and/or President must be notified of the circumstances immediately.
11. Postponed matches must be played within 4 weeks of the original fixture date.
12. Results shall be co-ordinated by the Match Secretary. The home teams shall be responsible for entering and submitting the match results into the website within two working days of the match date (whether played or not). In addition, both captains should sign the unstamped result card and the home team captain should retain this in case of disputes regarding the match result. If the home team captain has no access to a computer then the result card must be stamped and sent to the match secretary as before. The completed result card should be sent within two working days of the match date (whether played or not). Matches where no results have been posted by either method within that time will be scored Home Team 0 Away Team 20. In the case of a subsequent website entry or late result card, the correct result will be applied and a late result penalty applied to the home teams score.
13. Ties shall be played according to “The Rules of Squash - The Singles Game”, according to W.S.F. Rules and Scottish Squash Code of Conduct. All Juniors (under 19) must wear approved eye protection.
14. All Ties shall be marked where ever possible.
15. A tournament ball recommended by Scottish Squash, of speed appropriate to the court conditions and ability of the players, shall be used. Should there be a dispute between players regarding the match ball the home team player will decide. Guidance on which ball is appropriate is given immediately following these rules.
16. Where a match is played between teams consisting of five players. One point shall be awarded for each game won and five additional points shall be awarded to the winning Team. The winning Team shall be the one with the majority of Ties in the Match. Where the winning team has fielded less than the full complement of 5 players, they shall NOT be awarded the five additional points.
Where a match is played between teams consisting of four players, one point shall be awarded for each game won. The team which wins the most ties will have a four point bonus added to their games total. In the event of the teams being tied on ties won, then the team which wins the most games will have a three point bonus added to their games total. In the event of the teams being tied on ties and games won, then the team which wins the most points will have a two point bonus added to their games total. In the event of the teams being tied on ties and games and points won, then each team will be awarded a points total equal to their games total.
17. For the purpose of League placings, in the event of two or more Teams having the same number of points at the end of the Season, placing shall be decided, in the first instance, by the difference between the number of matches won and lost and, if that fails to separate the Teams, the difference between the number of Ties won and lost shall be taken into account and, if that fails to separate the Teams, the difference between the number of games won and lost shall be taken into account.
· Promotion and relegation from Open Divisions 1 and 2 shall be on a one up, one down basis.
· Open Divisions 3, 4 and 5 shall be on a two up, two down basis. In the event of a team declining promotion the third team (will be offered promotion should that team refuse then only one team will be relegated from the higher division.
· League winners who refuse promotion forfeit the right to win that league the following year.
18. Any issue concerning a match/rule shall be settled by a Rules Committee of five members of the committee. Any subsequent appeal would be reviewed by the full committee.
19. A player must play for a given Division 1 team at least 3 times within the first half of the league fixtures, to be eligible in the second half of the league. Appeals based on extenuating circumstances (e.g. injury) will be considered by the Committee.
Team Knockout Competition.
1. In so far as is applicable, the Main League Rules shall apply to the Team Knockout Competition, unless otherwise notified.
2. A player may not take part in a Team Knockout Competition unless he/she has represented the team before the date of the first round of the Team Knockout Competition. Exceptions will be allowed for new players coming into the Region. No player may play for more than one Team in the same league (ie Open, Ladies, Veterans or Juniors)
3. A ladder system team shall essentially convert to a pool squad for the Knockout Competition. However, Teams playing in a ladder system within the Cup Competitions will be permitted to pull a player up from a lower team, even if that player has already played for the lower team in a cup match. The player being pulled up must have already played for the higher team to comply with rule 2.
4. Each match will consist of five ties (four in Ladies and three in Veterans). Team Knockout ties shall be played to either 30 points (British Scoring) or twenty minutes, which ever occurs first.
5. The result of the match shall be determined from the aggregate number of points across all ties. In the event of the aggregate number of points being equal the match shall be determined by the team winning the most ties. Should points and ties be equal the last match on court shall continue until one player wins a point. The player in hand at the end of the tie shall start serving in the play off.
6. Round Robin Knockout section winners will be decided by most matches won, should teams be tied on matches won, the team with the highest aggregate total of points scored over the section of matches will be the winner. Should points won be equal then the winner of the head to head match shall be declared winner.
7. Any team conceding a match in a Round Robin Knockout section will be disqualified and previous matches declared null and void. Any player who has played for a disqualified team may not play for another team in any Division of the same league in the Team Knockout Competition.
8. Seedings for Cup Competitions will be decided after week 10 of that season.
Individual Knockout Competition.
1. Players may only play in the division competition where they have represented a team. Where a player has played for several teams they should contact Grampian Squash to clarify which competition they qualify for.
2. Each tie to be the best of 5 games.
3. The top player in the draw selects the venue (Home or Away), for the match and is responsible for arranging the tie. Two dates should be offered to the opposing player, one of which must be at least 1 week before the deadline. If home courts are not available then the tie should be played at the opponent’s courts.
4. The winner of the tie must inform the tournament organiser of the result, by the date on the Draw sheet. Failure to notify the tournament organiser of the result will mean that the Bottom player in the Draw will automatically go through to the next round.
General Rules for all Competitions.
1. Ties to be marked & refereed by team members where possible.
2. Score cards for each KO Cup match must be completed by the home team and returned to the Match Secretary within 48 hours. E mail submission accepted.
3. The home team Captain will elect which ball is used.
Definitions
A Match is a contest between two Teams.
A Tie is a contest between two players and shall be the best of five games.
Squash Ball Selection
The recommendations are as follows:
Revelation Pro XX (double yellow dot) for tournament and league matches
Revelation Competition XT (yellow dot) for league matches where court temperature or playing standard demands then this ball may be used
Max progress (black no dot colour) for younger junior player (under 11)
Max (blue ball) for beginners only
Scoring Systems
Division 1
Point A Rally to 11, 2 clear points in the event of 10-10.
Divisions 2, 3, 4, 5, Ladies & Veterans
Point a Rally to 15, 2 clear points in the event of 14-14.
All Cup Competitions
Traditional British Scoring to a max of 30 or 20 minutes.