The U.S. SQUASH Board of Directors recently approved the adoption of the new official World Squash Federation (WSF) scoring system, effective immediately. The decision was in response to the WSF vote during the Annual General Meeting held in Manchester, England in mid-October, to change the official rules of the game to make “Point-a-Rally” (or “PAR”) scoring to 11 points the primary scoring system of the softball singles game. The “hand-in/hand-out” (or “international”) scoring to 9 points will become a secondary scoring option for the sport.
While the WSF action is officially effective April 1, 2009, impacting all future World Championships for adults, junior, amateur and professional, many regional and national governing bodies acted in advance of the WSF vote, or have since acted to change to the system currently used by the professionals.
These bodies include the European Squash Federation for all 2008-2009 ESF Championships, senior and junior, all ESF Junior Circuit events including the Scottish Junior and British Junior Opens coming up in a few weeks, England Squash, Squash Canada and in the U.S., the New England Interscholastic Squash Association and now U.S. SQUASH.
Therefore, all U.S. SQUASH sanctioned play is by default scored PAR 11, which requires a player to win 11 points, or if tied at 10-all, to win by two. All U.S. Championships, junior and adult, beginning with the U.S. Junior Open (held last month), will use PAR-11 scoring.
