Overview

The traditional method of recording results relied upon someone filling in a score sheet by hand and posting it to an administrator who collated all the league data.

Clearly we have moved on a long way since those days, as being able to enter results online has made the whole process much simpler for all concerned.

However, it does not tackle the issue of accuracy of result. Regardless of whether the results are initially recorded on a score sheet or not, by the time someone comes to enter the results online, actual points may be wrong or a player name wrongly written down.

One major step forward is for teams to add their players to a Player or Nomination list from which the players in a match can be selected. This has a number of other advantages which are discussed in the Players and Nominations guide but they include accurate identification of players.

The other important stage in ensuring accurate results, is to use the Full Score Entry System.

Full Score Entry

By using Full Score Entry you can provide a framework in which individual game scores can be entered in a structured way. Not only does this allow calculation of results and points, but it also ensures that the scores are accurately and clearly displayed.



Note that in the above example (from the league administrator screen, not the club screen), the individual game scores have been used to calculate the overall points, the individual player results are  calculated from the game scores, and the total overall points are calculated from the player scores and the preset bonus.

When saving the match, League Master will run a number of checks and if any errors are found, the Data Entry Error section will appear underneath the game entry box, and will show relevant comments:


Note that 13-5 is not a valid score if using PAR 11, as shown in the above.

If any errors are found, then the Points will not be added and the fixture will not be deemed ‘entered’.

Settings

Apart from the actual scoring system being used, and bonus points, there are two main options available:

Allow Blank

Under normal circumstances, a 5 player match, for instance, must have a result for all 5 players. However, in a social or relatively informal match, you might want to record scores accurately but allow less than the designated number of players.

In this case, you can set the system to ‘Allow Blank’ and you do not need to enter either player.

Even if using Allow Blank, and entering no players, you can still enter a result for the string by using the Games Only option below.

Blank To Walkover

This is only vailable if Allow Blank is disabled.

When a team enters a string result, and leaves one of the players blank, the system will automatically save this as a walkover.

This makes no difference to the overall score, but can be used by the League Monitoring System to automatically award a penalty for any walkovers. (Many leagues penalise teams if they do not turn up with the full number of players).

Missing Players

The assumption is that all players and results will be entered (unless using Allow Blank above). Quite apart from needing all the scores to calculate the overall points, there is a general concept of ‘completeness’ which most leagues will want to adhere to.

However, in the case of a walkover, this might not be possible.

If it was a player from the team that is entering the result that was given the walkover, then no problem because they can select one of their own players who would have played, and then select '(walkover)' for the opponent.

However, if it was one of their own team who did not play, then they may not know which player from the opposing team drop-down list to use. The only way round this is for the entering team to contact the opponents and ask which player would have played.

Of course, the team captains on the night should have sorted out this situation at the time, so that the above issue would not arise.

(While this might seem like a lack of flexibility, you can't have it both ways. You can't try and restrict teams to ensure accurate results but at the same time, allow them to put in phantom results.)

Another alternative is that the team contact an administrator who can either find out who the opponent was on their behalf, or who has other administrative options.

Player Walkovers

Under normal circumstances, a valid set of game scores must be entered. However, if a player has been given a walkover - there was no opponent – then this can be recorded too. The team should enter the player who was deemed to have won and then record their opponent as ‘(walkover)’. Any player game scores are ignored and the overall score is recorded as 3-0.

However, they can also enter a walkover in this way:

While they may seem equivalent ways of registering a walkover, they have different interpretations.

In the first case it is obvious that it was a match that was not actually played, whereas in the second case, Guy could genuinely have won 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; there is no way of knowing.

There is no way of League Master knowing if the second case was valid or not, and this is why the (walkover) option is available in the player selection. You should ensure that all teams are aware of what they should do in case of a walkover.

Note: In the first case, Squash Levels will know to ignore the match, whereas in the second case, it will treat it as a genuine result and their resulting change in level will be unmerited.

Administrative Override

For a club or team login, the above requires that "a player is given a walkover". You cannot give a walkover to nobody. So even if the walkover was given in advance, and there was no one to actually give the walkover to, the player that would have been given the walkover must be recorded. The team entering the result will usually realise that without a player no overall points are awarded, and add a player.

However, if no players are recorded and you want to this result to count, then login as administrator, and you then have the facility to tick an override box and enter the scores manually without needing players or specifically setting either was '(walkover)'.

Where one team forfeits the whole match and the match is not played, then the club entering the result simply puts in all the strings as walkover.

Note: Exactly the same issues arise here as with the individual walkover above, so by using the administrative login, you can set all strings to a win without needing to add any players.

Correcting Errors

Note: This is only available using the super login.

The ability to add a 'walkover' is the only ‘correction’ option available to the clubs.

However, there are a number of situations where errors need to be corrected or other situations allowed for.

Override

Where an ineligible player has played (obviously depending upon the rules of the specific league), the conventional method is for an administrator to set the relevant game score to 3-0 and adjust the overall points accordingly.

However, setting the score to 3-0 and the individual games to 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 might be correct in terms of the corrected overall match points, it does not reflect the actual result between the two players who in reality played what at the time was a genuine match.

Also, if the score is changed to 3-0 and there is a dispute, then the actual score has been lost and may need re-inputting once the dispute is resolved. However, a greater problem is that if using SquashLevels, resetting individual scores to 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 does not reflect what happened and the adjusted rankings will be wrong.

The solution is to override the points calculation. Next to each name is a tick box. Regardless of the entered game scores, if you tick a player then as far as calculating the overall points, the ticked player is deemed to have won 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

The corrected games are shown in red (0-3 above) while the actual scores are shown beside it.

In this way, Squash Levels will see the actual result and it will be saved in League Master, but the overall fixture result will be adjusted.

Games Only

There may be cases where the complete games scores have been lost or are otherwise not available but you know that a particular player won.

In this case you can tick the Games Only box and record the game scores:

You do not need to enter player names unless you know them. (This is the same situation as mentioned above for a single match).

Squash Levels Ignore

If you are linked to SquashLevels (which is the case by default), then you may wish to exclude a particular string from inclusion where someone retires injured, for instance.


In the above example, the home player retires injured after the second game and the scores for the last two games are recorded as 0-11.

While this may be correct, it does not represent a true or fair result in terms of the ability of each player. Ticking the ignore box shown in red will cause the individual string result to be excluded from SquashLevels, but otherwise the match is recorded as normal.

Adjustments or Penalties

Where individual players are penalised, you should use the above options to override the result.

However, if a team as a whole need to be penalised, rather than an individual, or you wish to make some other form of adjustment to the result, then you can add an ‘Adjustment’ if logged in as an administrator. Any value, which can be positive or negative, will be added to the overall score after the match result has been calculated.

In the example below of the resume shown on the Result page, an adjustment of 5 extra points was made for one twam and a penalty of 2 points was made for the other: