In a surprise move, the Professional Squish Association
(PSA) has announced that, as of today, players will have a
maximum of five lets which can be awarded in each
game of a PSA-sanctioned event.
The move follows a similar announcement by the US Pro Squash
Tour, but while the US Tour is starting the system from May,
PSA have announced its immediate implementation.
In a bid to speed up play and eliminate spurious appeals,
once a player has used his five lets, further appeals can
only be rewarded by a "no let" or a "stroke".
"We've been aware of the detrimental effect that too many
lets have on both the live and TV audiences," explained PSA
COO Bee Leachill, "and when we saw what the US Pro
Tour was suggesting we decided it was worth investigating."
PSA CEO Alice Cough went on, "We always want to be in
the forefront of any new initiatives, so we immediately set
up a trial match at Pontefract, brought in some of the top
referees, explained the system to them and watched the match
with interest."
"The effect was immediate," said Leachill. "Once Wael [El
Hindi] had used up his five lets before a point had been
scored, the game and the scoreboard really started to flow,
and the crowd loved it. Davide [Bianchetti] got a bit
carried away towards the end once he'd used his allocation,
and it took a while to explain some of the decisions to him,
but we can put that down to teething problems. Overall it
was a great success."
Cough was bullish about the system. "It worked so well we
decided that no more testing was necessary, and that as from
today it would be implemented worldwide," he explained. "We
feel that this once again proves that PSA is
forward-thinking, responsive, and at the cutting edge of
every area of professional sport on this planet."
The announcement is expected to be followed shortly by more
changes, primarily aimed at making the game more
television-friendly.
Several ideas were discussed at a brainstorming session at
the recent British Nationals in Manchester [see diagram
opposite] and many of those ideas are expected to be
implemented in time for the next Super Series event.
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Five ... already ?
It's a stroke because he's run
out of lets ???
The Master Plan
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