What's The Score?

By James Poole
**Video Added**

The PSA introduced the point-a-rally to 11, two clear scoring system in 2004 for the first time at the Hong Kong Open, and few would deny that it has been a resounding success.

Here we are, four years later in 2008, and WISPA are now looking at implementing the same system. The women currently play games to 9 points using standard scoring, which can produce long and sometimes arduous matches, but gives players a lot of opportunities to work their way back from the brink. In contrast, the PAR 11 system produces shorter but more exciting games with players attacking more to score points early in the match. The Gaultier Vs. Darwish British Open quarter final match started with a one shot rally with Gaultier getting a low right hand nick – Ok, maybe that’s not a brilliant example of exciting and enthralling play but the crowd loved it. It gets you straight into the match and sort of sets the pace. It’s easy to see similarities between PAR 11 scoring and the short form Twenty20 cricket, which is equally gripping in its presentation.

Although the original forms of each sport make up their respective heritages, with cricket test matches lasting several days, and the old 15-point squash games lasting hours; the new generation of sports fans are more demanding and look for entertainment in the sports they follow rather than for long fought out, strategic matches.

There has been a lot of discussion around scoring, particularly regarding the never-ending battle to get squash into the Olympics. Some people feel that if the men’s and the women’s tours used the same scoring then that would make it easier for TV viewers and audiences to understand the sport, thus strengthening the sports case for inclusion in the 2016 games. You have to ask yourself though, if making the sport easier to understand and more entertaining is the thinking behind adopting standardized scoring; why don’t the WSF, PSA and WISPA go the whole hog and adopt a standardized tin height as well? All of the British Open matches on the glass court are done in rotation – so you have one women’s match followed by one men’s match and then the cycle repeats itself. But in-between each match, two volunteers are needed to spend about 4 minutes lowering of raising the tin height to meet the court stipulations of the respective men’s and women’s world tours.

I have been watching professional squash matches for around 4 years now and I still find this a little weird. If I was watching a match for the first time, with different scoring and tin heights for each match then I think it’s safe to say I would be more than slightly confused. It will be interesting to see whether WISPA does adopt the PAR 11 scoring, as it would certainly be good for the general appeal of squash as a professional spectator sport, which is one of the main ambitions as we prepare to join the Olympic party.