The objectives and principles of the competition are as follows:
The ball which will be used for all rounds of the SEPL will be Franklin X26 indoor ball. The venue surface is rubber.
All rounds will be played at New Line Learning Academy: Boughton Lane, Loose, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9QL
For the 2024/25 KESPL season, there will be 24 teams competing across 6 divisions. There will be 4 teams per division. The top division will be the Premier Division, then the remaining divisions will be named as Division 1 through to Division 5.
TThere will be a pilot round on 30 June 2024 which will be used to iron out issues and to position teams for round 1 of the fixtures. There will then be 9 rounds for the 2024/25 season, commencing in October 2024. There will be a finals play off day in June 2025 when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be decided in each of the Premier Division and 3rd Division. The dates for each round are shown on the Home tab.
Each team will consist of 2 women and 2 men.
Teams will compete with each other within divisions over the course of the day.
The order of matches will be as follows:
Both teams are allowed 5 minutes to warm up on court before match start.
As mentioned, the order of play will be as follows:
At the start of the gender doubles, there will be a coin toss (or similar random selection) to decide who serves/receives/chooses ends. The winner of the coin toss decides whether they wish to serve or choose end. If they choose to serve, the other team can choose end. If they choose end, they will receive, and the other team will serve first. Both teams will play their gender doubles and scores logged.
After both matches have been completed, the teams will need to take part in a coin toss to determine who declares their team for each mixed match. The loser of the coin toss must declare their mixed pairings first and order of play. The opposition can then declare their pairings.
Before the start of every match, a coin toss must be carried out. The winner of the coin toss decides whether they wish to serve or choose end. If they choose to serve, the other team can choose end. If they choose end, they will receive, and the other team will serve first.
The team who won the coin toss must start serving from the right-hand side of the court. Both pairings must decide which side each player will start. They will stay on the same side of the court for the duration of the match. However, each pairing can decide to change their side of the court (i.e., left-hand to right-hand side of the court and vice versa) when they change ends (see 11) at 11 points. They must verbally declare this to the opposition during the changeover.
With the score starting at 0-0, the team who won the serve will start serving from the right. If the server’s score is an even number, then the player serves from the right. If the score is an odd number for the serving team, then the player on the left will serve. If the point is won by the serving team, the score will now be 1-0. This means the player on the left-hand side of the current serving team will now serve as the servers score is an odd number. If the serving team keep scoring, they will alternate serve between each other in line with their score being an odd (left-hand side) or even (right-hand side) number.
If the serving team are leading 1-0, then the player on the left-hand side of the serving team will serve. If they lose that point, the score will now be 1-1, and it is the turn of the opposing team to serve from the left-hand side.
Once a team’s score reaches 11 points, both teams will swap ends. If a team would like their players to swap sides (i.e., left-hand side to right-hand side and vice versa), they must declare this to the other team during the changeover.
The first team who reaches 20 points, their scores will freeze. This means that the team can only win points on their serve. For example, if the score for the serving team reaches 20-15, then the serving team who has 20 must win the point on their serve to make it 21 points and win the match. If they fail to score a point, it will now be the opposition’s serve.
In this scenario, if the serving team who has 20 points loses the point, the score will be 20-16. The opposing team will now serve from the right-hand side.
The score will go through a 2nd freeze if the other team reach 18 points. Now both teams must score on their serve. For example, if the score is 18-20, the serving team with 18 must win the point on their serve to make it 19-20. If this is the case, then the left-hand side player will now serve. The winner is the team who reach 21 points first and winning by 1 point.
The team which has won the most matches in the fixture will be awarded 2 points. The losing team will be awarded 0 points. There will be no draws as these will be decided by Dreambreakers (see 17).
When the score reaches 11, the teams must change ends. If any of the pairings intend to change sides (i.e., left-hand or right-hand side of the court, and vice versa) they must declare this to the opposite pairings during the changeover.
If a team fails to complete a match for any reason, a walkover will be given to the opposition. In instances where a walkover cannot be agreed between teams, the league directors will make the decision based on the best information and facts. The league director's decision is final. In the event a fixture is not played which is outside of the control of both teams, a score of 0-0 will be recorded.
NOTE: Players can only play in 1 of the mixed doubles matches.
If you do not submit at least 4 players for your squad 24 hours before each round, you will automatically be relegated to the next lower division.
From round 2 onwards, the order of play for each round will be sent to the teams at least 48 hours before the start of each round. It will be based upon the results from the previous round’s results as follows. In each division:
Round robin 1: 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd
Round robin 2: 1st v 3rd and 2nd v 4th
Round robin 3: 1st v 2nd and 3rd v 4th.
Note: In any division, a team who has been promoted up to that division from the previous round is “4th” for the purpose of determining play order and a team who has been demoted to that division from the previous round is “1st”.
Teams are limited to bringing a squad of 4 to 8 players per team per round.
Clubs have the freedom to share their players between teams in their clubs, however, the rule still applies that teams must name their 4 players before the start of each match which are then added to the supplied scored sheets.
NOTE: players must be at least 16 years of age.
For rounds 1, 2 and 3, a player is allowed to play for any team within their club. From round 4 onwards, players will have to nominate their team for the remainder of the season through their captain submitting team squads before each round. From round 4, a player cannot play down to a team which is positioned in a lower division. If, during the season, the lower division club team progresses upwards and is no longer below the player’s highest-played-for division team, then that player is eligible to ‘play up’ to the team now positioned in a higher division.
NOTE: A player is only eligible to play in round 5 onwards if they have played at least once in rounds 1 to 4.
Clubs, teams and their players can only play for one Pickleball England team league, that is, either the South East Pickleball League or the Kent and East Sussex Pickleball League.
If a player plays in one of the morning sessions of a round, they are not eligible to play in the afternoon session. If they do play, their team will record a walkover (21-0) against them.
NOTE: Dreambreaker points scored will not be used to determine (b) or (c) above. (This is because not all teams will have played Dreambreakers in determining (a))
If the fixture is a draw at the end of the ladies' doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles matches, there will be a ‘Dreambreaker’ tie break scenario.
There will be a coin toss to decide which team declares their pairings first. The losing team must declare their pairings and order of play. The opposition can now declare their teams. They must do this in 1 minute. The pairings will be mixed only.
Teams must declare their pairings BEFORE the start of each round independently of knowing the oppositions pairing order.
Each pairing plays 4 points and hands over to the next pairing. The winner is the first team who reach 21 points win by 1. Pairings must not change during the Dreambreaker tie break.
See below for some examples of the order of players which are permitted.
Details will be provided to the teams towards the end of the Season.
Time outs will only be permitted if a player is injured. In this scenario, you can carry out an immediate substitution from your squad which must occur within 15 minutes of the injury. If a team is unable to field a replacement within that time, then that fixture is forfeited. The injured player is not eligible to take any further part in the days’ play.
Each player is allowed to transfer once to another club from round 1 to 4 only. Players are free to play for other clubs in the Pilot on 30 June 2024 without using their club transfer option.
The cost for registration for each team will be £15. This is a one-off cost. The cost for each team per round will be £48. Teams will be invoiced the cost of each round by Pickleball England prior to each round. Each team must pay the cost for each round no later than 72 hours before the start of the round.
There will undoubtedly be issues that arise during the season and which these rules do not currently cover. The tournament directors reserve the right to determine those issues as and when they arise. Their decision will be final, and the rules will be adjusted accordingly.
Powered by ERS