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Box league rules
A full set of rules for a club box league. Everything in square brackets is a decision your club makes, and the rest is what works. Print it for the noticeboard, or copy the words into your own document.
The league
1. The boxes. The club runs [four] boxes of [six] players, graded by standard, with box 1 the strongest. Everyone in a box plays everyone else in that box once.
2. The season. A season runs [eight weeks], from [start date] to [end date]. Results after the closing date do not count.
3. Entering. Any member may enter, by telling [the league organiser] before [the entry deadline]. A new player's first box is the organiser's best guess, and the end of the season corrects it.
Playing the matches
4. Arranging. Both players are responsible for arranging the match, and either may make the first approach. If you have not heard from your opponent, contact them.
5. Courts and balls. [Book a court in the usual way. Bring a new tin of balls between you.]
6. The format. [Two sets, with a ten-point championship tiebreak instead of a third set.] Agree anything different before you start, not at one set all.
Points and the table
7. Points. [3] for a win, [2] for a loss having won a set, [1] for a loss without one, and [0] for a match that is not played. Every match counts the same, whoever it is against.
8. Ties. Players level on points are separated by the result between them, then by sets won and lost, then by games.
9. The score. Either player submits it [within 48 hours], and the other confirms it. The score is whatever the two of you agreed on court.
Matches that do not get played
10. Nobody played it. Neither player scores. Nobody is punished beyond that, and nobody is given a win they did not play for.
11. Walkover. A player who does not turn up, or who cancels without offering another time, concedes the match. Their opponent takes the win and they score nothing.
12. Retirement. A match that starts and stops, usually an injury, still counts. Record the score as it stood, and the player who could not continue loses the match. If they had already won a set, they keep the point for it.
Going up and going down
13. Promotion and relegation. At the end of the season the top [two] in each box go up and the bottom [two] go down. Box 1 only sends players down, and the bottom box only sends them up.
14. A season missed. A player who plays no matches [goes down a box] next season. A player who withdraws part way through keeps the results already played, and the rest of their matches count as not played.
15. Disputes. [The league organiser] decides, and that decision is final. Anyone may ask for a box to be regraded before a season starts, and nobody may after it has.
Adapted from clayside.app/rules-template · free to copy and change
Before you send it round
Questions clubs ask about box league rules
Can we change these rules?
That is what they are for. Copy the words into your own document, change anything in square brackets, and put your club's name at the top. Nothing here is ours to enforce.
The parts worth keeping are the ones clubs get wrong: say what happens to a match nobody plays, and say it before the season starts rather than in March when it matters to somebody.
How long should a season be?
Count it off your own roster. A box of six means five matches each, and two weeks a match is a comfortable pace for members who work, so ten weeks suits a box of six and eight weeks suits a box of five.
Shorter is better than longer. A season nobody can remember the start of is a season that ends with half the matches unplayed.
Should we penalise a player who does not turn up?
No. A no-show already loses the match and scores nothing for it, which is the whole of the penalty a volunteer can reasonably administer.
Fines and bans need somebody to enforce them, and that somebody is the person who was already chasing the scores. Put the effort into the fixtures being easy to arrange instead.
Do we need software to run these?
No. These rules work on paper, and the Sheet is a free round-robin grid that does the arithmetic on your own device, with nothing to sign up to.
What software changes is who does the typing. On Clayside the players enter their own scores from a link in the group chat and the table updates itself, which is the part a spreadsheet cannot do.
Once the rules are agreed
The rules are the easy part. The scores are the work
Clayside runs the season these rules describe. Players enter their own scores from a link in the group chat, their opponent confirms, and the table updates itself. One box is free for good, with no card.