This post comes as a result of a number of complaints I have received this year and not from one single incident and is not directed towards any individual team or club, but at the league as a whole. Also, this is not relevant when league nights coincide with an incident regarding personal safety (e.g. inclement weather that is preventing travel).
I’m not sure how to more eloquently word this post, so I’ll be blunt. Open City League in the ODSA is scheduled every Wednesday night for 25 weeks between October and April. For years the status quo has been, provided enough notice is given, that make-up matches are acceptable. However, this should be the exception, not the norm. Our league rules state that make up matches should be made by by 9:00 PM Saturday following the Wednesday in play. I have not been strictly enforcing that, mainly because the website (which I wrote) does not enforce it. However because I wrote it, I also have the ability to change it and strictly enforce that deadline. It will be one of the options I consider next year to try to get more matches played on Wednesday night.
As a captain, it is your responsibility to make every effort to field a team of 4 players for Wed evening. If you know days or weeks in advance that someone on your team will not be available, you should make an effort to secure a spare to play in their place for that evening. Do not just defer this to the player to reschedule a make-up match. If you cannot field 4 players on a Wednesday night, expect that you may lose those matches 3-0 in the form of a walkover. A walkover is not the same as a default. A default is reserved for a no-show with no prior notice and you’ve essentially left your opponent on the court with no body to play. These come with a -15 point penalty, but are pretty rare (1-2 a year). If you ask a captain or player to reschedule, be aware that “Sorry, we cannot reschedule, we’ll take a walkover win” is an acceptable response. In my experience, people tend to be very accommodating because everyone likes to play squash, a lot of people are friends, and would rather play a match sometime then not at all. There are those that have flexible schedules that allow them to play any time during the week and there are those who do not and are limited to their one or two nights a week. Be mindful of your opponent, their time is just as valuable as yours.
A lot of people have been playing city league in Ottawa for so long that, as I mentioned, make-up matches seem to be accepted as just “part of the league”. However, put yourself in the shoes of a new player who is playing league for the first time, but have perhaps played in a league somewhere else, or maybe this is their first squash league they’ve every played in. They are told that city league is on Wednesday nights, so they make sure they are available every Wednesday night. Week 1 rolls around and they get an email from their opponent, asking to reschedule for some reason. Then it happens in week 3 and again in week 4. This in my opinion does not reflect well on the league or the ODSA. The other side effect is that the league standings are never current. Teams never really know where they stand and are at the mercy of other teams making up matches before they know their true standing.
So, here are some suggestions to try to make things better:
- If you are in charge of putting together teams, consider putting 5 or 6 players on a team instead of 4. It is highly unlikely that all 4 players will be available every week. When people are away, have a contingency plan. I would rather have 36 teams that play every Wed night then 40 teams with a bunch of rescheduling being done every week because the teams are stretched thin. Second to that, when people are signing up for league, make sure they know they are making a commitment to play almost every Wed night, and if they can’t make a regular commitment, then they should consider only sparing. See point #2.
- Consider having a “Spares” contact list of people who can be contacted if a team needs a player. Maybe these are players who want to play league, but can’t commit to being a regular player every Wednesday night.
- As a captain, find out when players are unavailable on what weeks and plan early.
- As a player, don’t leave it until the last minute to tell your captain that you’re injured, travelling for work or going on vacation. If you injure yourself at 5:00 pm on Wed before an 8:00 pm game, then you’re in a bind. Try to make sure your opponent knows that you won’t be able to make it, but be prepared to take a 3-0 loss or even a default at this point. Tough luck, but it happens. If you’re nursing an injury, don’t decide “I’ll wake up Wednesday morning and see how it feels and if I’m still injured I’ll reschedule”. Find someone to play in your place or be prepared to take a 3-0 loss.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I will be investigating avenues to make the league more structured in terms of having matches played on Wednesday nights. I welcome suggestions, but I have no interest in implementing anything complex to address this problem. I lean more towards the side of “no makeup matches at all, Wednesday or nothing” rather than a convoluted point system that includes penalty or bonus points depending on when matches are entered. I may provide a list of options sometime in the future and take a poll. I haven’t decided. But things need to improve going forward.
If you have any questions/comment or suggestions, please let me know as I am quite happy to discuss.
TL/DR; City league is on Wednesday nights, play city league matches on Wednesday nights or be prepared to accept a 3-0 for the missing match.
Steve Oakey – Open City League Coordinator