Let Please - Interference Of The Backswing

Total Squash - 01 Nov 2009

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Here's a great example of a common marginal 'let or stroke' decision.
Shelley (in blue) has stopped play on the grounds that Nicol is interfering with her backswing. Nicol is obliged to give her full room to swing.

This is a very tight call between LET and STROKE, and as we heard, the referee gave a LET ball. The referee's point of view is that she had enough room to play the ball and could have done so. However as it was difficult for Shelley to tell exactly where Nicol was behind her, and she stopped in case she might have hit her with the racket, the referee is happy to give a LET on the grounds of safety.

So long as the referee is being consistent, and is giving the same decisions for like situations throughout the match, then the players should be relatively accepting of them. As this decision is marginal it is feasible that this situation might be given as a stroke. So long as the referee is consistent in giving strokes throughout the match we could expect the players to accept them. So we can conclude that this was a fair decision, as long as it reflected the officiating in the entire match.

In this example there is more room between Laura (in the dark skirt) and Natalie. Similarly Laura stopped because she's not sure how close Natalie was when she wanted to play her shot. The referee rightly ruled that she had room to play, but again gave a LET on the grounds of safety.


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