New for 2015!

What is it?

The 48-shot Rally Challenge consists of a player ‘ghosting’ a 48-shot rally on a squash court with an imaginary opponent (ie the rally will consist of 96 shots, but 48 will be played by the ‘ghost’ player, so the challenger only plays 48 shots).

The winner will be the player who, at the send of the season, plays their 48 shots in the shortest time.

The Rules

The challenge will be played on a Finsbury Leisure Centre squash court, with six ball positions, which will be marked, one in each of the four corners and at the left and right ends of the Short Line (T Line). The ball positions will each be marked with a floor marker as follows:

The four front and rear corner ball positions will each be marked 1.5 racket-length from the front wall (or rear wall respectively) and 1 racket length from the side wall. The left and right mid-court ball positions will each be marked a half-racket length from the side wall on each end of the mid-court or T line.

Each challenge to be witnessed by a marker, who will count the shots, calling out the count as each is played, and who will give the ‘Start’ call and time the challenge with a stopwatch, stopping the timer as the challenger steps onto the ‘T’ after the 48th shot, and a referee, who will judge each strike for correct order and position.

When the marker calls ‘Start’ the challenger starts from the T position and plays an imaginary ball in each of the six positions, returning to the T after each shot. The challenger may start with any of the six marked positions, but must then play strictly in order either clockwise or anti clockwise (without reversing during the challenge) each of the marked balls.

Each shot which the referee judges to be out of order or incorrectly ‘reached’ (ie the racket swing fails to extend to the correct ball position), or when the challenger does not correctly reach or pass through the T,  will result in a 1-second penalty, to be added to the total time called out by the marker after the 48th shot.

The resulting time for each challenger will be posted on the results page and at the Finsbury Leisure court side notice board.

There will be a separate challenge for men and ladies. Men or ladies may carry our their challenge during Friday club night, ladies only on Saturday mornings .

To Enter

To enter just come along to Club Night on Friday 6-8pm, or Saturday morning 10-12 (ladies only) and let one of the coaches know that you want to enter. There is no limit to the number of challenges any player can make.

The Prizes

At the end of the season (closing date to be announced) first, second and third positions for men and ladies will be announced, with a top-end racket for the winners and packs of squash balls for the second and third positions.