How well do you know the rules of the game? What would your decision be in the following if you were the referee?

• 1. Player A plays a boast and the ball hits his opponent on its way from the side wall to the front wall.
  
  
• 2. Player A plays the ball and on his follow through strikes his opponent with his racket. The opponent asks for a let.
  
  
• 3. Player A serves the ball and you (the ref.) think that it might have touched the line. At the end of the rally which the server won the opponent asks for a let on the service.
  
  
• 4. A player breaks her racket during a rally and asks for a let. What is your decision and how long has the player to replace her racket?
  
  
• 5. A player serves from the incorrect side of the court but you did not stop the serve. At the end of the rally the receiver - who lost the rally - asks for a let on the serve as it was from the wrong side.
  
  
• 6. A player returns the ball down the centre of the court and takes up a position on the 'T'. The opponent allows the ball to come off the back wall and then asks for a let as there is every chance that the ball, if played, would strike the other player.
  
  
• 7. A player turns on the ball (that is, allows the ball to pass on one side of the body, strike the back wall and travel back by the other side of the body) plays the shot and strikes the opponent with the ball on its way to the front wall.
  
  
• 8. A player is injured and requests time to recover. How long has the player?
  
  
• 9. What is the marker's call in each of the following?
  
  (a) A player fails to play the ball before its second bounce.
  (b) A player strikes the tin with the ball.
  (c) The ball touches the out of court line.
  
  
• 10. A Junior player requests to play using his or her own glasses instead of the required eye-guards.
  
  
  

Don't look at the following answers until you have read and tried the questions!

 

 

 

• 1. This is probably the easiest one because most squash players will know that if the ball would have made a good return but has touched or will touch a side wall before reaching the front wall a LET is allowed.
  
  
• 2. Not so easy! As long as it is a reasonable follow through the opponent is entitled to nothing and NO LET is the correct decision.
  
  
• 3. As referee you were correct not to stop the rally if you were unsure of the service. You should now allow a LET as you were in doubt. The winnning or losing of the rally makes no difference to this decision.
  
  
• 4. NO LET for the broken racket and 90 seconds for the change of equipment.
  
  
• 5. As referee you should have made sure that the serve was taken fron the correct side. However, once the receiver accepts the serve then the result of the rally should stand and your decision is NO LET. The same would apply if the server had lost the rally.
  
  
• 6. This is a STROKE as he would have struck his opponent with the ball if he had played his shot. The fact that it has come off the back wall does not change the decision. Some players wrongly think that because a ball has come off the back wall the decision should be a let only.
  
  
• 7. The rule on 'turning' has been changed and the correct decision now is to penalise the player who played the ball by awarding a STROKE TO THE OPPONENT who was struck by the ball. Only where the opponent ran in front of the turning player will the striker be awarded a stroke.
  
  
• 8. In the case of injury the referee must decide if the injury is self-inflicted, an injury contributed to by both players or an opponent inflicted injury.
  In the case of 'self-inflicted' injury the referee should allow 3 minutes to the injured player to recover. The player must then play on or concede the game in progress and use the 90 second interval between games.
  In the case of 'contributed to' injury the player has 1 hour.
  If the injury is caused by the opponent, the player is awarded the match if recovery time is needed..
  
  
• 9. The calls should be "not up", "down"and "out" respectively.
  
  
• 10. Junior players playing in all junior competitions are required by the rules of the game to wear protective eye-guards. Junior players are not allowed to wear their own glasses (spectacles) but can wear prescription lenses in their eye-guards. World Squash recommends all players to wear protective eye guards.