Box league rules
Your club box league
Tennis · the values in gold are your club's to decide
The league
- The boxes. The club runs 4 boxes of up to 6 players, graded by standard, with box 1 the strongest. Everyone in a box plays everyone else in it once.
- The rounds. A round runs for 8 weeks. The closing date is published when the round starts, and a result after it does not count.
- Entering. Any member may enter by telling the league organiser before a round starts. A new player starts in the box that looks right, and the results put that right.
Playing the matches
- Arranging. Either player may make the first approach. Whoever is asked offers at least three dates, a few days apart, before the closing date.
- Courts and balls. The player who arranged the match books the court, and the other brings a new tube of balls.
- The format. Two sets, with a ten-point championship tiebreak instead of a third set. Agree anything different before you start, not halfway through.
- Lateness. A player more than 15 minutes late without warning loses the match by walkover, if their opponent wants it.
Scores
- Sending in the score. Either player sends in the score the day it is played, and the other confirms it. A score nobody questions within 3 days stands.
- Calls on court. Players make their own calls, and give their opponent the benefit of the doubt. The score is whatever the two of you agreed on court.
Points and the table
- Points. 3 for a win, 2 for a loss having won a set, 1 for a loss without one, and nothing for a match that is not played.
- Ties. Players level on points are separated by the result between them, then by sets won and lost, then by games won and lost.
Matches that are not played
- Nobody played it. Neither player scores. Nobody is punished beyond that, and nobody is given a win they did not play for.
- Walkover. A player who does not turn up, or cancels without offering another date before the closing date, concedes. Their opponent takes the win, and they score nothing.
- No answer. A player who offered three dates and heard nothing back may claim the match as a walkover from the league organiser at the closing date.
- Retirement. A match that starts and stops still counts. The score stands as it was, the player who could not go on loses, and keeps the point for a set already won.
- Stopped early. A match stopped by weather, light or the booking running out is finished from the same score before the closing date, or counts as not played.
Going up and going down
- Promotion and relegation. At the end of a round the top 2 in each box go up and the bottom 2 go down. Box 1 sends nobody up and the bottom box sends nobody down.
- Minimum matches. A player who has played fewer than 3 matches does not go up, and the next player down goes up instead.
- A round missed. A player who plays no matches goes down a box. A player who withdraws part way through keeps the results already played, and the rest count as not played.
Conduct and disputes
- Conduct. Matches are played in a friendly spirit. Abuse of an opponent, a member of staff or the facilities can cost a player their place in the league.
- Disputes. The league organiser decides, and that decision is final. A box can be regraded before a round starts, never during one.
From Clayside's free box league rules template. Run the league with players entering their own scores.clayside.app