SA Schools Squash

Rules and Regs

for 2016

updated after 2015 convention

Contents

page 3 Guidelines for IPT Organizers

page 4 Rules pertaining to IPT’s – team orders in event of injury or illness

- expulsion from IPT

- withdrawal from IPT

page 5 Team Order in the event of injury or illness (U13 & U11)

Scoring System at IPT’s

Eligibility for a region or a province

page 6 National Rankings (U13 and U11)

Discipline

Procedure following alcohol or substance abuse at IPT’s

page 7-8 IPT Format

pages 8-11 Important points to note for IPT’s

page 11 Medals and Certificates at IPT’s

page 12 IPT report

First Aid Kits

Age Groups

U11 Format

Country Festival – procedure for direct access to IPT’s

page 13 Composite Teams

Accommodation at IPT’s


GUIDELINES FOR IPT ORGANIZERS

The following guidelines pertain to High Schools and Primary School IPT’s.

The organizers are requested to send out a circular/invitation to all major provinces and the SA Country Schools teams (via Margo Morgan initially) early in the year (before the end of March) giving as much information as possible at that time. This should include dates, venues, accommodation, costs and any other relevant information. A copy should be sent to all national executive committee members as well as to all regional chairpersons.

IPT ROSTER (if provinces are able to host)

ODD YEARS: Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Kempton Park, Pietermaritzburg and Pretoria.

EVEN YEARS: Port Elizabeth, Stellenbosch/Paarl, East London, Johannesburg and George.

FINANCE

IPT organizers should include R270 in their budget for sweatshirts (at high school level only), plus R120 per player (high schools AND primary schools) as a levy to SA SCHOOLS SQUASH, which will go towards supporting national teams and admin costs associated with running the organization. Please budget accordingly. The sweatshirts will be designed, made and delivered to the venues and the organizers will be expected to pay R270 per sweatshirt plus R120 per player to SA SCHOOLS SQUASH at the conclusion of the IPT.

Team levies of R150 per team (high school and primary school) should be incorporated into the IPT fees and then paid to the treasurer Margo Morgan after the tournament. So please budget for this.

A second (and, if necessary, third) circular should be sent out as soon as additional information becomes available. The cost should also be all-inclusive for the week. Full tournament fees and team lists are due two weeks prior to the tournament to guarantee entry. Please cooperate here otherwise we have IPT organizers having to use their personal money to secure venues and accommodation and this is just not fair. IPT organizers have the right to refuse entry to those regions, which do not pay on time. It is up to regional chairpersons to structure their payments accordingly.

Detailed finalized budgets to be submitted to the SA SCHOOLS SQUASH Treasurer before end November. These should include: court fees, accommodation costs, meal costs, team fees, balls, player levies, photographs, administration, sweatshirts, R150 for entertainment and whatever other unique costs apply for a particular IPT. These figures may not change by more than 5% of the total budgeted amount for the tournament. All “extra” costs are to be removed. IPT Organizers may only budget for the items mentioned above and may NOT include fees for prizes or transport in their budgets.

Financial Report forms together with cheques or direct deposits must be submitted to the treasurer of SA SCHOOLS SQUASH within TWO days of the completion of the tournament (see attached form). Detailed financial statements must be submitted to treasurer of SA SCHOOLS Squash within 30 days of completion of the tournament.

Any profit (and loss though this must be avoided) will be divided 50-50 between SA SCHOOLS SQUASH and the host province. Tournament organizers are entitled to budget R5000 for themselves. Should there be more than one organizer, then the R5000 may be divided between the organizers – but R5000 is the limit please.

RULES PERTAINING TO IPT’s

TEAM ORDER & PROCEDURE IN THE EVENT OF ILLNESS/INJURY AT HIGH SCHOOL IPT’s (U14/16/19)

Provinces/Regions MUST play their players in order of strength. Players cannot be played lower down an order because they are carrying an injury at the start of IPT. Anyone that is in such a position should not be selected to participate in IPT in the first place. The order must be announced before the start of the IPT and may not change during the IPT. In the event of either an injury or illness in the A section, a replacement player MUST be brought in from the B section and all the A team players MUST move up one position with the B section player playing at number 5 in the A team. The B team then plays without a reserve – hence the reason for a 6-man B team!! Provinces may NOT send for a replacement player – even if it is the host province. Once a player withdraws from a team, he/she may not return to the team for the rest of the IPT – unless the injury was inflicted and/or contributed to by an opponent in which case the injured player may return when he/she has recovered. If these rules are broken (whether through ignorance or not) then that region’s A and B teams in that gender will both be disqualified and will lose all the points for the match in which they defaulted AND all subsequent points in the IPT. Managers will be required to sign a document at the start of each IPT in which they acknowledge the rules pertaining to the IPT events to avoid any possible further misunderstandings.

The order of play will be (6); 3; 4; 5; 2; 1.

EXPULSION FROM IPT

In the event of a player being sent home from IPT for disciplinary reasons, that player MAY NOT be replaced at all – not even from the team below. His/her team will play short for the rest of the IPT. Players will move up the order within a team. There will be no movement from B team to A team. For example, if the numbers 3 and 4 get sent home, then that team will play two players short and will concede at no 4 and no 5

WITHDRAWAL FROM IPT DURING THE COURSE OF THE EVENT

Players making themselves available for participation in IPT teams must understand that they need to be available for the full duration of the event.

Should a player withdraw in the middle of an IPT for personal reasons (such as selection for a national cricket team or a provincial hockey team etc) then the same rules will apply as those pertaining to a player being sent home. In other words, all the players in that team will move up the order. There will be NO movement from B team to A team. For example, if the numbers 3 and 4 from an A team, get sent home, then that A team will play two players short and will concede at no 4 and no 5.

Should a player(s) withdraw from IPT, all results of that team (both completed and still scheduled) will be declared null and void. The team will complete their schedule without the missing player(s) but all individual results within the team event will stand for national selection.

In the event of a player having to withdraw from IPT due to a personal, unscheduled family crisis (or similar) the decision will rest with the SA Schools executive as to how that team will continue in the IPT.

TEAM ORDER & PROCEDURE IN THE EVENT OF ILLNESS OR INJURY OR WITHDRAWAL OR EXPULSION FROM U13 IPT AND U11 FESTIVAL

FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS A PLAYER MAY WITHDRAW FROM A TEAM AND RETURN LATER IN THE TOURNAMENT. IN SUCH A CASE THE TEAM CONCERNED SIMPLY FORFEITS THE MATCH IN THAT POSITION. PLAYERS DO NOT MOVE UP. THE SAME APPLIES SHOULD A PLAYER BE SUSPENDED AND/OR SENT HOME.

DATES (see calendar)

The dates of the IPT’s MAY NOT BE CHANGED once they have been decided at the convention. The region will forfeit the tournament in the event of a change in the dates. Failure to comply with these arrangements will disqualify the region from presenting a tournament in the following calendar year.

SCORING SYSTEM (see also IPT format below)

The Jarvis/Kaplan Cup scoring system will be used at all IPT Events. It works like this:

The province that wins every match WILL win the event REGARDLESS OF POINTS.

1 point awarded per game won

5 bonus points for a team win

Provinces tying on points - the province that beat the other will win

Three way tie - points will decide

NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS

See criteria specified annually.

ELIGIBILITY FOR A REGION/PROVINCE

If a player attends a squash-playing school, (e.g. Pretoria Boys High or Jeppe whether as a day boy, a weekly or a termly boarder), he/she must play for the region/province in which he/she attends school. A squash-playing school is defined as a school which offers squash as part of the organized extra-curricular programme and which plays squash fixtures and/or leagues as a school for their school against other schools.

However, if a player is day pupil or a weekly boarder (not termly) AND the school you attend does not offer squash (as explained above), he/she may elect to play either for the province in which he/she lives or for the province in which he/she attends school. In this case notification must be submitted in writing to the chairman of SA Schools Squash by 1 February 2014 indicating where such players will be playing for the current year. This applies on an annual basis. If you do not inform the chairman of the committee of a change, you will continue to play for the province/region that you played for in the previous year. A termly boarder is defined as a boarder that, for example, lives in Gauteng but goes to school at Michaelhouse in KZN and does not go home for weekends every weekend.)


ELIGIBILITY FOR A REGION/PROVINCE (continued)

Any Home-schooled players MUST play for the province/region in which they live.

If the province/region in which a top player attends school cannot field a full team to play in the A section of SA Country Festival, the player will be permitted to play for their home province/region. However, the moment the province/region has a team of the required standard, they will be obliged to again play for the province/region in which they attend school.

NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS

THERE ARE NO NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR U13 OR U11. A SQUAD OF U13 PLAYERS (TOP 3 U13’s FROM EACH PROVINCE WITH SOME DISCRETION ALLOWED BY SELECTORS) WILL BE INVITED TO ATTEND A TRAINING CAMP (PROBABLY IN SEPTEMBER).

AN U13 MUST HAVE PLAYED IN THE IPT TO BE INVITED TO THE TRAINING CAMP – unless there are exceptional circumstances like a cricket tour to the UK or a major injury (or similar). In such cases, provinces must approach the SA Schools Squash Executive for a ruling.

NO U11 or U12 players will be invited to this U13 SA SCHOOLS camp – even if they have played for their region/province at the U13 IPT and are better than the U13’s in your region. Their turn will come. This event is specifically for those moving up to the U14 age group the following year. Exceptions will always be considered but only if an U12 is clearly better than 99% of the U13 players. In such cases, provinces must approach the SA Schools executive for a ruling.

DISCIPLINE

Players are subject to Article14 of the Rules and Conditions of SA SCHOOLS SQUASH which states: "All players attending the tournament shall be subject to school discipline and shall be expected to follow high standards of dress and behaviour both on court and off it. If a school player, while on court, says or does anything that is not strictly within the rules (e.g. emotional outbursts or intentionally dropping of racket), the point shall be awarded against him or her and, for the second offence, the game in progress shall be awarded against him or her. Should this behaviour be repeated, the match shall be awarded to his or her opponent. Please note that this WILL be strictly enforced.

No hats, caps, bandanas or baggies will be allowed on court. Players may be asked to change should they be found on court wearing any of these items. NO JEWELLERY at any time during the IPT – either on or off the court.

PROCEDURE FOLLOWING THE ABUSE OF ALCOHOL OR SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Any player found to have been drinking or using/abusing substance(s) will immediately be sent home from the IPT and/or SACFS and suspended from ALL squash (schools, senior and schools’ league, Top Schools and Jarvis/Kaplan etc) pending a full disciplinary hearing to be conducted by one or more of a panel of three lawyers who serve Squash SA. The headmaster of the school which the player(s) attend (or his appointed representative) will also be asked to attend. The IPT organizers do not have the time or the legal knowledge to conduct these hearings and so we have decided to do it completely by the book. The player(s) will be asked to write a statement at the IPT before leaving for home and all further investigations will be conducted by lawyer(s).

IPT FORMAT

With 10 teams or fewer in a section (either gender), a full round robin will be played.

With 11 or 12 teams (either gender), the format will be as follows: Two pools of 5/6, which necessitates five rounds to complete the pool. Thereafter the top 3 teams from each pool progress to the “super sixes finals” and their points against the teams going through are carried into the final round. Each team then plays the three teams from the other pool to complete the “finals”. This “super sixes” system results in a maximum of 8 matches to get to a winner.