Okanagan Squash League - Rules

Code of Conduct: Squash BC has signed a declaration of commitment to erase bullying in sport.  Sport can provide British Columbians of all ages, abilities and backgrounds with life-long opportunities to enjoy physical, social and emotional health benefits.

A sport environment that is positive, respectful, engaging and accessible for all participants encourages individuals to join and stay in sport throughout their lives. Conversely, a sport environment in which participants are exposed to negative experiences, such as bullying, can be harmful and cause individuals to quit sport.

Bullying is unwelcoming or aggressive behaviour that involves a real or perceived power imbalance and can take many forms including physical, verbal, emotional or other types of intimidating or humiliating behaviours. The behaviour is often repeated and can occur on or away from the playing field, court or arena. Children, youth and adults can all be vulnerable to experiences of bullying.

OSL will not tolerate bullying or abuse of any kind: towards referees, other players, other registrants, or board members. All conduct incidents are to be reported to the OSL board immediately. In addition, a formal incident report should be submitted to the Squash BC disciplinary committee. Any OSL member involved in a formal complaint will be immediately suspended from play in the OSL until the Squash BC disciplinary committee issues ruling on further play.

Teams / Matches:

• Each team must have 6 full paid members.
• As OSL is a Squash BC sanctioned league, matches can only be played in Squash BC member clubs.  

Players:

• All players must be OSL and Squash BC members (billed separately).
• All full time players must be members of the club they represent (ie. Global, Vernon, Penticton).  Spares are encouraged to be members as well, as this increases the health and viability of squash for the long term.
• Players can only play at one position per team on any given night, unless all attempts to get a spare have failed (see spare rules for more).
• Players must play at their appropriate level or above. Any changes in the level of players within a team should be appropriate and justifiable (see challenge rule). This may be subject to review and final determination by the OSL Board.

Points system:

• Individual matches are best-of-five games, Squash Canada/World rules, (there is even an Idiot's Guide to the new rules); PAR 11 scoring. In the event a game ties at 10-10, the game must then be won by 2 points.
• Where there is a conflict with Squash Canada/World rules and these rules, these rules have priority
• Team series is best of 6 matches.
• 1 point for every game won in the individual matches, plus 3 bonus points for the team that wins the series of matches.
• There are no ties. If matches are tied (3-3), games are counted. If games are tied, points are counted. If points are tied, a racket spin will decide the winning team.
• Maximum points any team can get is 21 in a night.

Penalty points:

• No-Shows: A no-show is a player who does not show up for a match and has not told his opponent. This is considered unacceptable and the no-show's team will be penalised 50% of their match points and an automatic 3-0 match loss which will be recorded. There is a zero tolerance policy for this behaviour. If a player no-shows 3 times in the season, that player will be removed from the league. It is your individual responsibility to ensure that your opponent knows that you are not coming and your responsibility to find a spare. Leaving a message at 4:50pm on a Penticton or Vernon player's home answering machine on Wednesday afternoon is not considered letting the player know.

Referees:

• All matches must be refereed. OSL is a Squash BC ‘AA’ ranked event and all sanctioned matches must be refereed.
• Normal protocol is winning player/team refs the next match.
• The objective is to encourage team play, learning and development of less experienced players rather than to monitor potential poor behaviour.
• There will be a zero tolerance policy towards abuse of officials, either verbal or physical.
• It is the responsibility of all players to hold each other accountable to the rules of fair play and the Squash BC Code of conduct. It is also the responsibility of all players and especially team captains to document and report Code of Conduct violations to the Squash BC Executive director and OSL board within 7 days of an incident.

Recording results:

• After Wednesday's matches, the home team captain must post results on the website no later than Friday at midnight. Late posting of results can only be done by the website administrator, and will be subject to a penalty deduction of 50% of team match points (rounded up for uneven scores) for the offending team, 100% if not entered by the following Wednesday league matches.
• Use of the SportyHQ app “Score Squash” is encouraged for score keeping as match results are automatically entered into the website in real time.
• If score sheets are used, home team captains should collect them and ensure opponents' names are recorded, particularly when spares are used. This can facilitate entry into the online scoring system and to resolve disputes.

Spares:

Please make all attempts to find a spare from the same club as the person needing the spare.

• In the event that a player cannot play in a regularly scheduled match, he can (in order of preference):
• Find a registered spare from the spare list (no penalty).
• Find a spare from a full time player on the team with a bye (no penalty).
• Find a spare from another team that has already played their own team's match (1 point penalty)
• Have a team player play twice (the second match at a higher level) (1 point penalty)
• Contact his opponent to see if the match can be arranged at a time prior to the scheduled Wednesday. This is subject to the opponents availability and discretion. There will be a 1 point penalty administered to the team who’s player requests rescheduling. The home team captain should input the penalty point when recording scores, or email the OSL scheduler/stats member to administer.
• No spare is provided, but an opponent is provided with at least 24 hours notice of no-match (penalty: individual match defaulted (recorded for team points as 0-3), recorded as a default match on SportyHQ).
• No-show without notification (penalty: individual match defaulted (recorded for team points as 0-3), 50% deduction in no-show's total team points, individual match recorded as 0-3 on SportyHQ). Do this 3 times and the player is out of the league!
• Spares for regular season games:
• Must be registered OSL and Squash BC members in good standing prior to the start of the match. Online registration is available for spares at all times.
• Must play at their level or above (e.g. a level 3 player can spare at level 3, 2, or 1).
• Should be chosen from the OSL spares list.
• In addition to the rules for spares for regular season games, spares for playoffs:
• Must be chosen from the OSL spares list or from another OSL team that did not qualify for the playoffs.
• Must have been a Member of the OSL for at least 3 weeks prior to the play-offs.
• Must have ranking points lower than the person they are substituting for.

Challenges:

• In the event that a player feels they are improperly ranked on their team, they have the right to challenge the player ranked above them, typically no more than once in the first half of the season, and no more than once in the second half of the season.
• Challenged players must play the challenge match within 2 weeks of being challenged. Otherwise, the challenge match is awarded to the challenger.
• Winner of the challenge match plays at the higher level, loser plays at the lower level until a new successful challenge is made.
• Challenge match scores should be entered by the players on the SportyHQ website as a “friendly match”