This recently came through from England Squash. I havnt got the energy to edit it down to anything more readable as I have been struck down with some hideous virus. Anyway, please let me know what you think, emails to the usual address.

At its AGM in May, the European Squash Federation (ESF) voted to move to PAR to 11 scoring for all competitive squash under the Federations jurisdiction including the ESF Junior Circuit , for an experimental period of 12 months. The England Squash Performance Department is keen to move to PAR to ensure that young English players arent disadvantaged when playing competitive squash. Furthermore, PAR scoring was positively discussed at the recent Council meeting.

With this in mind the Board of Directors has agreed that all Junior sanctioned competitions under its jurisdiction will be PAR to 11 for the 2008,09 season.

Continuing the same theme we are also seeking your views on the adoption of PAR for the 2008,09 season in the Junior Inter County Championships and all Junior County Closed events. The reason for the change is self,evident in that it would provide a consistent approach to all junior competitive scoring. Counties play a central role in these events which is why we want to ask you for your thoughts. We would like your feedback by Friday 25th July. I appreciate that this doesnt allow much time to consult, but your assistance in helping us to effect change and integrate this new scoring system would be very much appreciated. I would be grateful if you could complete the table below and return to me , jim.lord@englandsquash.com , by Friday 25th July:

We will review the feedback from Counties and make a decision on the Junior Inter County Championships and recommendations for Junior County Closed prior to the start of this seasons competitions.

We also believe that the World Squash Federation is very likely to adopt PAR to 11 at its Annual General Meeting in October this year. This would probably affect all competition junior and senior from the 2009-10 season onwards. You may therefore wish to consider opportunities to anticipate the change by adopting PAR on an interim basis for other adult competitions county closed and county leagues in the 2008-09 season. We are making no specific recommendation with regards to senior Inter County competition at this stage although it is likely that in the future this would affect the senior mens and womens competitions and the Mens O35s initially. If you have a comment to make about this you might, for example, like to see PAR adopted in these events along with the juniors in the 2008-09 season please include it in your response.

England Squash believe that scoring systems at recreational and club level should be entirely discretionary, and have no plans to propose change in this area. PAR is likely, however, to evolve organically as it is introduced within the ES competitive structure.

We believe PAR is coming, indeed in many competitions at all levels, it is already here. Your views are valuable to us as we move forward. I appreciate that there is not long to respond, but I would be very grateful if you could do so at your earliest convenience.