Ithaca Squash Ladder Rules

NOTE: The rules are meant to be guidelines only.  If you have constructive suggestions, please send then to mzabel1@twcny.rr.com.


1)      A player can only challenge someone who is up to three places above them on the ladder.  If no one within 3 ladder rungs plays at your venue, you are allowed to play the closest one above who does so.  The challengee selects the venue and court fees are split.

2)      If the LOWER ORDERED CHALLENGER WINS, they move to the place occupied by the higher ordered challengee who moves down one place. If the HIGHER ORDERED CHALLENGEE WINS, then the ladder order does not change.

3)      If a player is challenged, he/she must play the match within 3 weeks. If the challengee won't play in that time, then the match is defaulted to the challenger. Please only accept one challenge at a time, on a first come first served basis. [Note: Extenuating circumstances can be taken into account. Let’s not get too crazy here!]

4)      The default ball to be used is the Dunlop single yellow dot.  The players can agree to use a different ball if they wish.

5)      Standard match rules (brief summary): matches are best of 5 games and a game is won when a player reaches 9 points (or 10 points - see below):

¨      You score a point by winning a rally from your own serve.

¨      If the server loses the rally, then change servers (i.e. "hand-out"). No points are scored for this.

¨      A legal serve is made with at least one foot in the serving box, ball must hit the front wall first, it must hit above the middle red line, and the first floor bounce must be in the opposite rear quarter of the court. There are no 'second' serves.

¨      After a hand-out, a player may start serving from either side of the court, but then must alternate sides after each point scored, until the serve is lost.

¨      If the score reaches 8-8, the server asks the receiver if they want a 'long' or 'short' game. 'Long' means the first player to 10 points wins (i.e. 10-8 OR 10-9 are winning scores). 'Short' means first to 9 wins (i.e. 9-8 wins).

¨      Both players should agree on 'lets' and 'strokes'.

6)      The winner sends match results via e-mail to Mark Zabel at mzabel1@twcny.rr.com. mzabel1@twcny.rr.com (Subject = Squash Ladder Results). I will update the ladder as soon as I can.


Last updated 2/12/2007