SquashLevels News

Latest news for SquashLevels

These are the most recent news items for the site. They are also posted to our Facebook page so please like us (from the banner at the top) and you'll get regular updates sent to your news feed.

21/Dec/2019: Fixed result editing permission. It was possible for a club admin to enter a result between two players from different clubs but then not be able to edit it. Fixed now.
20/Aug/2019: Begun major re-write of main pages for the new site. We're doing a major update of the site, launching end of January 2020. Watch out for news and announcements.
23/Mar/2019: Level increase limit in a tournament. Added a limit of a 25% level increase in a single event to reduce some of the wild swings that tournaments can create. Drop limit is already in place but it was decided to limit the amount a player can increase as well. It's unlikely anyone will actually improve that much in a single event!
23/Mar/2019: SquashSkills dashnboard. Added a dashboard to allow players to measure speficic technical skills using the SquashSkills technical tests. Partnering with SquashSkills for access to contect, video etc. Players must be logged to access.
19/Feb/2019: Comparing players in history page. Added the ability to look up an opponent from the player history page making the head to head and expected results information very easy to access.
17/Feb/2019: More dynamic page scaling. Second pass at working with phones to the extent that it's fully dynamic and allows for a little page expansion on PCs.
11/Feb/2019: Search button. There is now a search button at the top of every page making it much easier to look up players at any time. The suggestions from the search are also now presented in level order.
30/Jan/2019: Dynamic filtering on search. Much easier to select club/county/country now as they are updated dynamically from user selection.
20/Jan/2019: More phone friendly. Significant changes to fit better on phone screens. Focused on rankings and player history pages first. Other pages will follow on later.
15/Jan/2019: Added feed from SquashLeagues. Welcoming the many clubs and players who use SquashLeagues and their 25,000 results.
30/May/2018: Consent needed to show box contact details. GDPR requires us to not publish contact details unless permission is given. This is now implemented on the site so users or admins can give or rescind permission.
20/May/2018: Consent check boxes added for GDPR. With GDPR compliance coming soon, we have added the check boxes for your consent to hold and process your personal data. Please see our strict policy on how we do that under 'Home'.
5/May/2018: Club Locker results update. We have a results update from the Club Locker team for the last three events run on that system; Junior Champs, Wimbledon and the Nationals. Do please look out for and report any duplicates.
20/Apr/2018: GDPR compliance. No change in functionality but we have added a page under 'Home' explaining how we are GDPR compliant.
19/Feb/2018: Now able to lock player details. To protect against wrong name spellings from source systems, you can now get your name right on SquashLevels and then lock it. Same for other details too like Club, County and even ES number.
2/Jan/2018: Show player of the month on the yellow banner. Now auto-showing the respective club and county players of the month at the start of each month in the yellow banner.
21/Dec/2017: Added player of the month. Effectively two competitions - player of this month and player of last month. The last month shows the most improved players of the previous month which is therefore locked and you can declare a winner. The listing for this month continues to change as results come in but shows you who the contenders are for the actual winner at the end of the month. Offered for both your county and your club.
11/Dec/2017: Improved look and feel. Slightly updated the look and feel. Please let us know if you have suggestions or something isn't quite lined up right. This allows for us to go a little more mobile friendly next step.
6/Dec/2017: Additional limits to dropping levels. New limits are applied to the amount that a player's level can drop in a single match based on how long ago they last played. If their last match was within the last week then their level can't drop by more than 5% or if within two months then it can't drop by more than 10%.
15/Nov/2017: Added feed from Worcestershire. Welcome to Worcestershire! Their live feed is from their own system WSRAOnline with all their historic results imported too.
18/Oct/2017: Better, site-specific filters. For those specific sites such as Wales and ES, the player search filters are now tuned to those sites. I.e. the Welsh site only gives you Welsh clubs and counties and the ES site does the same for English clubs and counties.
15/Oct/2017: Created new ES site. In support of the extended partnership with England Squash, we now have a special site for ES members at es.squashlevels.com.
13/Oct/2017: Activated ES members get free SquashLevels membership. Also in support of the extended partnership with England Squash, those ES members who have activated their accounts get automatic, free membership of SquashLevels. They just have to enter their ES membership number into their details on SquashLevels and the rest is automatic!
12/Oct/2017: Added feed from Cornwall. Welcome to Cornwall! Their live feed is from Leaguemaster but we've also imported all their historic data into SquashLevels.
8/Aug/2017: European Junior levels are too low. After the large scale Junior Open import, it looks like those levels have ended up too low. This will be impacting all juniors who have played in those events. Sorry about that. We are currently investigating how best to calibrate and will get it fixed. Thanks for your patience!
19/Jul/2017: European junior results imported. Most of the large scale European Junior Open tournaments are now being read in. Hopefully the calibration will work it's magic and all will be well. We may need a little manual assistance though. Please be aware the junior levels may go a bit strange as a result. If so, we'll get on to it and sort it out.
2/Jul/2017: Added feed from Playwaze. We now have an automatic feed from Playwaze covering Redhill initially but expanding fast. Welcome aboard!
30/Jun/2017: Added feed from MyCourts. Welcome aboard! We now have an automatic feed from MyCourts covering quite a few clubs across the UK. You do need to opt in (on MyCourts) if you want your results sent across.
18/Jun/2017: Rankings for match types are more current The links from a player's history to a match type ranking will now limit the ranking to recent players if it's a current match type - otherwise it will show all the players for that match type.
17/Jun/2017: More information shown when hovering over the level chart If you hover over a point on a player's level chart it now shows information such as the opponent, the scores and the change in level.
12/Jun/2017: Better metrics charts. Continuing to develop the charts showing metrics such as participation, league level, results volume. Available from home pull-down.
11/Jun/2017: Made Wales ID visible and editable for Wales system. If you are an admin on the Wales system you can now see the Wales ID for your players and edit them if need be.
9/Jun/2017: Added doubles to mixed league configuration. If your league matches are mixed singles and doubles then they are now supported. Doubles teams also have a level based on the average of the levels of the players in the team plus a bit.
19/May/2017: Added 'Back to boxes' button in wall mode. Users can get lost in the system especially in wall mode. This just gives them an easy way to get back to the boxes. The button is always bottom right and always available. Button is generic and can be used for other purposes.
23/April/2017: Easy access to team captain contact details. This is for the league systems only. It's now possible from the Admin pull-down to access all the team captain contact details for a league.
15/April/2017: All pages now encrypted. Paswords have always been encrypted by your browser before being sent over the internet but with https, all pages are encrypted as well as the passwords. The other benefit is that the browsers won't give you a nasty sounding warning when you're entering a password!
14/April/2017: Ben Harrison won the most improved competition! Congratulations to Ben, who's only 13, for improving more than anyone else since the start of the year with an amazing 89% improvement. Congratulations also to the runners up, Ian Quarterman and Luke Howells who improved an also equally impressive 84%. See website to see what fabulous prizes they won.
13/March/2017: Merging clubs. There are quite a few clubs that play in more than one county and that causes them to appear multiple times on the system. They still need to appear under their respective counties but now, when you look at the ranking for a club, the ranking list includes all the players who play for that club. Note, this has to be configured in the system so please let us know if you would like your club merged.
02/March/2017: Tweaks to levels for new players. To allow for new players (especially juniors) to be improving all the time - effectively every time they go on court - the algorithm has been changed for players < 100 to be biased towards going up and it limits how far they can come done. This hopefully better reflects what actually happens and adds to the motivation for these players.
22/February/2017: Player members can now add any result. Members can now add any result within reason. The previous constraints had been that both players needed to be from the same club but that was overly restrictive. Now the constraint is that the relative levels between the two players must be reasonable. You still can't enter a shock result against Ramy Ashour!
6/January/2017: New favourites list. You can now create your own list of favourite players that you are most interested in and show them as their own ranking list. Just add the players you want using the button at the top of their history pages.
2/January/2017: Junior recalibration in progress. We have enough junior results now to separate them out into their own respective player pools and start the calibration process for them. In general, all juniors look like their level will go up slightly.
27/December/2016: Most improved competition back! The most improved competition is back by popular demand. See link above in the yellow banner for more details.
5/November/2016: Password reset now available. If you forget your password you can now send a link to your email address that will allow you to open your membership details page and reset your own password.
23/October/2016: Head to head available from expected result. Now you can compare any two players in a head to head straight from the expected result page. Just enter the two players you're interested - such as you and Ramy Assour - and click on the head to head button.
15/October/2016: Player trend now shown. By comparing the average level with the level played at for the last four matches we can see a trend! This is now shown with the player stats. Green is good!
13/October/2016: Bar chart for the rankings. There's now a bar chart on the right hand side of the rankings to compare player levels graphically.
9/October/2016: DoB can now be entered. You can now enter your date of birth so you can always be listed in the right age group rankings. This is a write-only field so no-one else can see it. It's even stored encrypted so not even a hacker would ever know...
30/September/2016: Level played at charts. There is now a button available to show you the level a player was playing at for each match. The standard level charts are damped but this gives you the estimated playing level for each game assuming the opponent was playing at their expected level. You can see just how consistent (or otherwise) some players are!
25/September/2016: Recording injured players. It is now possible to record that a player was injured in a match. Just click on the injured player icon, enter the score at the point of injury and the rest will be done auto-magically.
14/August/2016: Membership launch. Membership finally launched. Still only £5 per year and everyone gets another one month trial. 50 free places up for grabs for the early birds!
30/July/2016: Box size override. You can now manually override the size of a box. Just unlock the boxes and the selections will appear. These overrides are carried over to the new boxes after processing.
26/July/2016: Full sort algorithm implemented in boxes. As per the Finchley Manor algorithm, players are sorted by; box points, then who won between two equal players, then games difference and finally games won. If the players are still equal after that then they stay in the order they started!
7/July/2016: Added results pop-up in boxes. If you hover over the result in a box it will give you the detailed scores.
5/July/2016: Configurable penalities for the league system. Individual penalties can be turned on and off now.
3/July/2016: Import of results from Wales NGB. Based on files received from the Welsh NGB, we have imported all the available Welsh results in readiness for the start of their next season connected through Leaguemaster.
21/June/2016: Import of results from SortMySquash. This is the Gloucestershire league system and we now have the ability to read all the results off their site and recreate a full league structure on this one. Big change to allow for games results only throughout.
16/June/2016: Extended result ratio for 3-0 games scores. Data analysis has found that the average player level ratio for a 3-0 win is 1.75:1 so this is now used when there are games scores only to ensure that a league that records only games scores can be calibrated with a league that also records points scores.
21/May/2016: Added results history search. For admins. There is now a button at the top of the player history that allows you to find the results read in for that player. This helps identify when attributes such as age group were applied.
26/April/2016: Automated detection of player pools. The system now automatically works out what the pools of players are across the system for a calibration. Some pools overlap considerably (such as Surrey Cup and Surrey League) and these are combined as needed. Reduces the complexity and increases the accuracy of the calibration.
20/April/2016: Calibration improvements. Significant improvements made to the inter-league calibration to make it more accurate and able to cope with fewer player transitions. If you find your level changing it is probably some calibration adjustments going on... Sorry about that but it's just changing to what it should have been all along. This should only apply to leagues that have less common players with others. E.g. Leinster.
6/February/2016: Show club in boxes. There is now an option in the boxes to show the player's club. Useful for boxes that have players from more than one club.
30/January/2016: Automated update of most improved leader. Just to add a bit of spice, the current leader of the most improved is shown on the update bar.
5/January/2016: Access to ES news page. Link to ES news page is now available under About but also shown in the yellow update bar if there's new news. This bar is controlled by cookies and if you click on it to view the news page, it goes away.
17/December/2015: Easier rankings selection on 'Find' page. Using larger fonts and a nice big player search field, it should be easier to find players and select rankings - even on your phone.
8/December/2015: Added links back to LMS. Links are now available back to LMS from the player detail pages of Hants and Sussex players. The link has also been improved for leaguemaster.
28/November/2015: Added ES membership number tracking. Admins can now choose to see the ES membership numbers of players in their club or county (depending on their level of admin). Just select the ES number check box at the top of the rankings.
26/November/2015: Make use of source system match ID. This really helps when knowing if a new result is an update or a new one. Adopted for Leaguemaster and SportyHQ so far.
22/November/2015: Launched 'Most improved'' competition. Working with ES and Kentbridge Sports.
21/November/2015: Added home page for France. For the French clubs now using SquashLevels.
18/November/2015: Switched over to the new ES logo. To support the re-brand.
14/November/2015: Added home page for Malta. In preparation for being used as the Malta ranking system.
12/November/2015: Auto-smoothing of merged players. We used to have to wait for the nightly processing to smooth out the level histories of merged players but it's done at the time of the merge now. Better for the players to not see a somewhat random history appear for a few hours.
21/October/2015: Server move. You shouldn't notice any difference but we have moved server from a real machine to the cloud. This gives us more flexiblity should we need to scale up.
12/October/2015: Added sub-site for Russia. Same functionality with a few specials for the Russian players. Visit russia.squashlevels.com
24/August/2015: Added Wall mode. Allows the use of a touchsceen PC or tablet to be stuck on the wall of your club so players can enter their results as soon as they come off court. Special mode to prevent leaving the website and will auto-return back to the boxes page after a short timeout.
19/August/2015: Added date picker for results date entry. Much easier for phone and tablet users for entering dates and times.
14/August/2015: Prevented generic players from editing their details. A lot of players can use the same generic player log-on so it needs to be protected from change.
11/August/2015: SquashNet joins the community! Welcome to all of the leagues who have joined the SquashLevels community via SquashNet.
22/July/2015: Cambridgeshire join the community! Welcome to the Cambridgeshire leagues who join the SquashLevels community via SquashNet.
1/July/2015: Imported ESR membershp numbers from ESR. We've worked with ESR to import all the ESR membership numbers that we can from their system and reckon to have about a third of the players on SquashLevels lined up with their number. Please see the FAQ for details.
16/June/2015: Added 'damped levels' option to the rankings. By selecting the damped levels option in the ranking list, you will get a less volatile set of rankings which you can use for seedings. The damping is calculated by averaging the levels from the last four matches.
12/June/2015: Connected with SportyHQ. SportyHQ results are now automatically read into the system.
26/May/2015: Made first pass Android app available. We have an app! Android only for now. See Home->Android app for details.
26/May/2015: Added player rankings to player stats table. In the player history page we now work out current club, county, country and overall system ranking and have added it as a row to the player stats table.
20/May/2015: Auto-remove 'ghost' matches. A ghost match is one that's left over after a corrected result has come in and now we've got both of them. We check for same date, same player, same score, different opponent and for same date, same player, different score, same opponent. These are the two valid cases for removing the previous, ghost match.
9/May/2015: Self demo mode. Added a slide show under Home->Demo mode to show what SquashLevels is all about on any laptop!
5/May/2015: Match type boxes. We currently support club boxes - i.e. boxes that players from the same club play in - but now we've added match type boxes that allow you to set up any boxes (e.g. your company's lunchtime league) and tie them to a specific match type. Generic match type player log-ons are also available so players can enter their own scores.
3/May/2015: Improved junior v junior level calculations. Some of the juniors have very low levels and this caused some boundary cases in the level calculations. These cases are much improved now with the aim to reward them for playing as well as playing well. Cuts in under 50.
27/Apr/2015: Registration improvements. Fixed some usability issues and the ability to register with incomplete information.
26/Apr/2015: Using Google charts. Making use of Google charts in the player history page. Very similar to what we had before but adds a little interactivity! Try hovering over the points.
25/Apr/2015: Added result entry for club admins. Now club admins can enter the results of club tournaments and have a live update of levels!
22/Apr/2015: 'This season' option available in time period selection. As well as the last xx months and last 10 matches, you can now choose to view your history since the beginning of the season.
20/Apr/2015: Auto-focus into player name search field. Now you can just type from any of the ranking listings and your search name will go straight into the search field.
9/Apr/2015: App support for photo upload. This enables the apps to upload profile photos.
7/Apr/2015: App support for results entry. This enables the apps to add results straight in to the system.
27/Mar/2015: More accurate level processing for best of three matches. Previously focused on best of five with an approximation for best of three. Now best of three is handled accurately.
24/Mar/2015: Moving average and current level average added to stats. Now you can see your level average and, interestingly, your likely future level if you keep playing as you have been!.
20/Mar/2015: Added different scoring systems to the boxes. There are a few popular ways of translating box scores to points so we've added the flexibility of being able to choose which one you want. They are listed on the boxes help page. If the one you use isn't supported we can probably add it.
19/Mar/2015: Added option for box players to move by more than one box. For Finchley Manor but usable by any of the boxes.
18/Mar/2015: Added time to the manual results entry page. Handy for more than one game per day and useful when manually entering tournament results.
17/Mar/2015: Added button to hide the results entry help. The help is useful but a bit cumbersome for the experienced user. Now you can hide it for a month at a time.
11/Mar/2015: Added more stats to player history page. Added the average, min and max levels along with dates and even the level you're actually playing at!
10/Mar/2015: Automatic removal of duplicate/ghost matches. While the nightly processing is going on, the system also looks out for duplicate matches (same date, same players, same scores) and 'ghost' matches (same date, one player the same, same scores). These can occur from corrections and updates on the source system which don't make their way through to SquashLevels. Now we can detect and remove them automatically.
5/Mar/2015: Added 'tour' page. New page available under 'Home' showing a few of the features of the site. A handy way to find out what it can do and answer some interesting questions along the way.
4/Mar/2015: Auto-sort the box players. As results are entered into the boxes, they are auto-sorted based on the latest points scores giving a dynamic update on who's going up or down.
3/Mar/2015: Added more parameters for JSON output player listings. You can now restrict the output to only those players from a specific source system. Also matchtype searches are much faster.
2/Mar/2015: Box games now recorded by box name. Box matches used to be recorded as generic 'Box' matches but they are now recorded using the full box name. Good for clarity and also needed when the same player is playing in more than one set of boxes.
27/Feb/2015: Launched Kentbridge-SquashLevels competition. You'll see the banner at the top giving you a link to a competition we just launched with Kentbridge Sports for the most improved player over the last 6 months to win a Harrow racket. Follow the links to find out more.
16/Feb/2015: Added community pages. Just look under the new Community menu pull-down and you'll be able to find out more about our community of inter-connected systems that's growing all the time.
18/Feb/2015: Added join-up page. Under the new Community menu pull-down is also a join-up page that tells you exactly how to connect your system to SquashLevels so that you can be part of the community, get your players some levels and get some visibility and dynamic links back to your own system. Please do get in touch if you need any more information, we'd love to connect with you.
12/Feb/2015: Added JSON output to key pages. The players ranking lists and a number of other key pages are now available in JSON format. This allows source systems to request the raw data fromm SquashLevels and include it in their own websites thus delivering a fully integrated community system. See the 'Join-up' page for details and examples.
6/Feb/2015: Partnership with ES&R England Squash and Racketball have announced their partnerhip with SquashLevels. This means that we are working together to connect will all the clubs, counties and tournaments across the country. See the announcement here. If you'd like to be connected please get in touch. We'd love to work with you.
4/Feb/2015: Extra options for boxes. We have added a couple of options for player movement between boxes; players can now move two boxes each period and this can be limited to the lower boxes. Thanks to Finchley Manor Club for that one.
2/Jan/2015: Added club generic player. We now support a club generic player log on which allows club players to enter box matches without having to register as an individual player. Otherwise, every box player would have to be registered.
2/Dec/2014: Added boxes. We now have boxes (or internal leagues) available directly on the website (see pull-down link above). These are leveraged from our league systems so are not new - just newly available. You can run your club boxes from here and all the results will go straight into SquashLevels which allows non-league players to get involved and have their own levels too.
16/Nov/2014: Developing SquashLevels app - get involved. We're working with a Bristol University computer science team who are developing an Android app for a really nice user interface to squashlevels. We�re targeting a much improved process rather than just a nice interface and this is the sort of thing we have in mind. Please contact richard@microserveltd.co.uk if you'd like to be involved with input, testing and feedback.

Help with finding a local club with players of about the right standard
Hold times for the player when they can play such as Tuesday lunchtimes, Monday evenings etc. Perhaps even specific dates.
Show the user who is available for a game and when and what standard they are. Suggest players of about the same standard who are available.
Allow the user to select potential opponents and then send out a request to them
Allow those players to accept a request and therefore agree to play on a particular date/time
Allow the players to enter the results of the match afterwards
Similar functionality around playing box matches. I.e. arranging a game with their opponents and entering the results afterwards.
Personalised access to the box pages
Personalised profile page with access to the various ranking lists for the player

15/Nov/2014: New accelerated level adjustment. We now have a special check for players who seem to be playing much better than expected and have done so for the the last 4 matches in a row. If this is the case - such as a super junior or someone who has been away and come back much better - then their level gets an extra boost to get them where they should be that much more quickly. It has less impact on their opponents too.
2/Nov/2014: Improved results entry. We've added a new type of admin - the results admin - so that cross-county event results can entered. Club and county admins can also enter results but only between players in their club or county. This admin can also create new match types or events from the results entry page which should allow any matches to be entered now.
20/Oct/2014: Registration just one page now. The registration process used to take four steps requiring four separate pages so it was a bit cumbersome and also left some users in a half-registered state if they didn't complete the process. This new page uses dynamic auto-complete and once ready, all the info we need is sent in one go. This page is also now used to update your details. Once logged on, find it under Me->My membership.
29/Sep/2014: Links for your own league systems available. You can now add links to your own league systems that go straight to personalised rankings and history on SquashLevels.

Player history. Use www.squashlevels.com/player_detail.php?player=<league playerID>&source=<league name>. Click here for example.
Club rankings with player highlighted. Use www.squashlevels.com/players.php?all&player=<league playerID>&source=<league name>&list=club. Click here for example.
County rankings with player highlighted. Use www.squashlevels.com/players.php?all&player=<league playerID>&source=<league name>&list=county. Click here for example.

19/Sep/2014: Added league level comparison page. Added Home->League levels to compare the average levels of the matches being played in each league. Uses the data from the last 12 months so it's always up-to-date. Very interesting to see which are the strongest leagues - what about your league?
17/Sep/2014: Added Middlesex leagues. We now have all the Middlesex league data from 2012. Since they use Leaguemaster that also means that their latest results will be read in every night keeping them nicely up-to-date. The inter-league calibration has also made a start on their levels and will have settled in the next week or so.
4/Sep/2014: Re-added player participation page. Re-added Home->Participation to show how many players are participating in leagues and events for each club. User can select county to compare clubs in that county. Uses Google charts so it's the user browser that does all the number crunching.
30/Aug/2014: Added Most improved. Added Players->Most improved to list players (same selection as your last ranking list) in order of most improved over the last 12 months. Adds another level of competition to the system!
10/Aug/2014: Added resultszone leagues. We now have all 22 of the resultszone leagues added to the system. Please look out for duplicates and let us know.
1/Aug/2014: Show expected results for better players taking it easy. The nightly processing assumes that significantly better players take it easy against lesser players and so drops their level by a certain amount. The expected results page now offers results for players playing their best and also when they're taking it easy. This allows you to see what score line you can get away with before it starts to affect your level!
1/Aug/2014: Reading in more of the results from the resultszone leagues. Resultszone is a league system used by a lot of the northern counties and we are now able to access their results. You'll notice the match count and player counts going up as we work our way through them. In some cases these leagues go back nearly 10 years and there are around 25 leagues so that's a lot of matches! Do please look out for duplicates and let us know if you see any.
15/July/2014: Extended expected results page. You can now select specific player names to see what the expected result is likely to be between them. The result also includes the expected games score too.
13/July/2014: One click player history page. Clicking a player's name in the auto-complete player list now takes you straight to the player's history page.
12/July/2014: Easier merging for admins. If there are 5 or less players listed in the auto-complete player list then admins can add them all to the merge request list in one go. The system puts them in the right order and they can then be merged from the merge request page. Much easier when you have 50 or more players to merge!
5/July/2014: League system team page summary. For the league system only, the team summary page now contains a lot more information; team results, fixtures, level chart, player appearances this season and position in the table. Very handy all-in-one-place summary.
28/June/2014: Easier date entry for fixture generation. For the league system only, the date entry page for fixture generation is now much easier. Rather than entering a ton of dates manually, just select a start date, end date, the priority for the day of the week and then any dates to add or exclude. Dates are generated automatically from there.
9/June/2014: Improved keypad for results entry. Added a key to go above 15 and rearranged things a bit for ease of use.
2/June/2014: Inter-league level calibration complete. It took a month to complete but the leagues we have on the system are now calibrated. a 1000 level player in Surrey should be the same ability as a 1000 level player in Yorkshire. This is based on received data so if you see any anomolies, please let us know.
29/May/2014: Auto-name completion. As you enter a player name on the find or player listing pages, you'll notice the system now gives suggestions for who you may be looking for. It's much easier to find a player now - and it opens up the future for some fun functionality like comparing players as player selection is quick and easy now. Watch this space.
21/May/2014: Consolidated list of events/leagues. The long list of events/leagues in the selection pull-down is now a lot shorter. Dates, seasons and the same classes of events (e.g. all the PSA) are merged and a few have been removed. Not perfect but a much more managable list now.
21/May/2014: Player listing rows use alternating backgrounds. Now using light and dark backgrounds to make it easier to follow all the information on the rows.
5/May/2014: Simplified player selections. Replaced the slightly odd combination of pre-set selections, pull-down selections and default settings with a full set of selection pull-downs allowing any selection to be made in one go. The default is set to whatever the last selection was and the pre-sets or player searches don't affect that. Should be more intuitive.
3/May/2014: Started the inter-league level calibration. League levels will be adjusted slowly over time to the point at which they are calibrated - i.e. a 1000 level player is the same standard whichever league they play in.
2/Apr/2014: Added tournament entry page. Resurrected the old tournament entry pages we had for Avon tournaments. Allows entrants to look themselves up on the system and enter a tournament with all their details added automatically. Even links to PayPal. If you'd like to use this page for your up-coming tournament then please let us know.
17/Mar/2014: Auto-score correction. If results come in with both points scores and games scores, the system now checks that they are consistent and switches round the points scores if not. This should overcome the issue of having the scores the wrong way around for both leaguemaster and resultszone.
11/Mar/2014: Now recording admin tasks (for admins). All the admin tasks are now recorded so we can see who has been changing player names and other admin activities.
9/Mar/2014: Added future functionality list. The functionality we have planned is now listed in sort-of priority order at the bottom of this page. Please get in touch if you have something you'd like us to add.
6/Mar/2014: Enhanced duplicate player management (for admins). Proposed duplicates are now checked with automatic analysis and a page is made available to admins to manage and merge the requests.
10/Feb/2014: Added an FAQ. If you have a question about the site, there's a good chance it will be answered in the FAQ. If not, then please get in touch and we'll add your question. We may even answer it... If you have a question, there are probably a lot of other people who have the same question so don't be shy.
30/Jan/2014: Score entry much easier. The page for entering your own scores now offers buttons to press rather than having to click and type in tiny boxes. This is particularly useful for phones and tablets where you needed tiny fingers and excellent eyesight to get the scores in.
25/Jan/2014: Level calibration between counties. The system auto-adjusts player levels within counties so they are self-consistent but it's also possible to have inconsistencies between counties. This has become noticable for North West Counties who appear to be a bit low. To overcome this, the system watches out for players who change county, whether as a one-off or regularly. By monitoring what happens to their level as they change county, the system can learn whether counties are too high or too low and auto-adjust. Darned clever. Adjustments are very small and still going on each night and the consistency is improving across all the counties now. This also means that your level is probably changing a little at the moment too... so please be aware of that.
4/Mar/2014: Tightened up the merge requesting. Now you can't perform an invalid merge request which could loose player data and corrupt the DB. Also the messaging is improved and notification under the Admin pull-down is added so that admins can quickly see when there are user requested merges pending. Each merge also shows the requestor and when it was requested. Also, requested merges can be cancelled.
30/Jan/2014: Score entry much easier. The page for entering your own scores now offers buttons to press rather than having to click and type in tiny boxes. This is particularly useful for phones and tablets where you needed tiny fingers and excellent eyesight to get the scores in.
7/Jan/2014: Separate 'Find' player menu. Makes it more obvious and easier to find a player on the system. Functionality is the same as before.
27/Dec/2013: New 'Me' pull-down. All the functionality specific to the user is now together under the new 'Me' pull-down at the top. Most of these functions require the user to be registered and logged in.
27/Dec/2013: Added 'Find a player' feature. Just added a focused page for finding players that offers all clubs, counties etc and all time. Find this under the Players pull-down.
27/Dec/2013: Adding personal match results. A user can now add their own match results as long as they are logged-on and playing someone from their own club. They can add their opponent if not listed and they will be added as a member of the same club. This also allows a little editing flexibility for existing matches but you must be registered and logged on and it must be your match.
20/Dec/2013: Links to source systems. There are now links in the player history screens that take you back to the source system for that player. This is usually the league system for the player's county but can also include club systems or Squash Info for the professional results. This doesn't currently work for leaguemaster but that's being fixed soon (in leaguemaster).
19/Dec/2013: Level calibration between counties. The system auto-adjusts player levels within counties so they are self-consistent but it's possible to have inconsistencies between counties. This has become noticable for North West Counties who appear to be a bit low. To overcome this, I've got the system watching out for players who change county, whether as a one-off or reglarly. By monitoring what happens to their level as they change county, the system can learn whether counties are too high or too low and auto-adjust. This will be happening over the next week or so as the adjustments are small but the end-effect will be much better consistency between counties. This also means that your level may change over that time too... please be aware of that.
4/Dec/2013: More damping for league matches than events/tournaments and even more damping for box matches. This means that:

The level based player lists at the end of each event/tournament will be much more reflective of how they played in the tournament rather than the league/box matches in the run-up to that tournament. Note that if you click on a tournament name in the listings, you will get that list - at the time of the last match of that tournament.
Player's level history will be a little less volatile.
Fast moving players in the rankings will move a little less fast.
The actual level values are still the same - it's only the volatiliy that is changing.

4/Dec/2013: Added pop-up help to player list fields. Much easier to find out where all the links go.
3/Dec/2013: Added home page content. If you enter the Squash Levels site via the home page you will now see a short summary of what the site is all about.
30/Nov/2013: Player history pages much faster. As the system has tens of thousands of players and hundreds of thousdands of matches, there are some pages that are taking a bit longer to pull than they should so I'm working on speeding up those pages when needed. Player history is now much faster so it's much easier to flick from player to player now. Enjoy...
20/Nov/2013: Re-use existing players. To reduce the number of manually entered duplicates, the system will now re-use a player from the club if they have the same name as the one being entered manually.
19/Nov/2013: Easy feedback on duplicate players. Possible duplicate players are now listed at the top of the player detail page and anyone can tell the admin if they are duplicates or not. The user doesn't change anything directly as that is left to the system admin to follow up on.
17/Nov/2013: Overide period for event listings. If you select an event that was more than 12 months ago the viewing period is extended automatically to cover that period rather than leaving it at 12 months - which would leave you with an empty list. Also, the level confidence reduction due to time is not carried out for these listings as you want to see the level confidence at the time of the event, not what it is now.
16/Nov/2013: Icon for new news. If there is new news available, then a news icon appears on the about pull-down making it obvious that there is something new to read. The icon is cleared when the news has been read. Uses cookies.
13/Nov/2013: New page for explaining levels. If you click on the percentage change, you now get a page explaining how that change was calculated.
12/Nov/2013: Use level range for better players. When there's a big difference between the players, the level algorithm now applies a range of possible levels for the better player (from friendly to nasty) as it's not possible to know where in that range they are playing. The level only changes if the better player has been playing outside of that range.
10/Nov/2013: Better log-in session. Simplified the log-in session check so that it doesn't break so easily. This should allow you to stay logged in permanently now instead of getting kicked off frequently.
31/Oct/2013: Added rule checks for order changes between clubs. The automatic player order checks have been extended to check for player movement between teams as well as within teams. Team order is based on division order so there's a problem if there are two teams from the same club in the same division - so, for now, the rule checks output inter-team order infringements but don't add the penalty.
30/Oct/2013: Added county admin support. Registered users can now be assigned as county admins and they are able to check for duplicate players in their county and merge them.
26/Oct/2013: Improved multi-county listing. For those players who play regularly in more than one county, the county listing will now include them if they have played in that county during the time period requested - instead of just the last county they played for.
24/Oct/2013: Show club in player history. Added the club name to the results shown in the player history. Set the link to show all the club players for that club and highlight the player if they're still in that club.
23/Oct/2013: Added hover-over help. Started to add help to specific fields.
22/Oct/2013: Added Kent league. Now auto-pulling match results from Kent league ito Squash Levels.
20/Oct/2013: Multi-county player lists. To allow for players who play regularly in more than one county, the player lists now show players who have played at all in the county being viewed during the time period asked.
17/Oct/2013: Club admins can move players. A club admin can now change the club of any player thus allowing them to bring a player into their club rather than having to wait for the other club admin to move them across - which never happens.
16/Oct/2013: Added site usage. Added the site usage chart to the Squash Levels system. Also added a link to send a feedback email.
16/Oct/2013: Auto-received matches auto-updated. When matches are received from other league systems they are compared with the matches already on the system and only changes are updated. This removes the need for continuous deletion and re-insertion which is consuming and changing IDs.
15/Oct/2013: Match update tracking. Added first entry date and update date and who updated it. Handy for finding out who and when made a suspicious change to the match results.
13/Oct/2013: More complete registration. Added for Squash Levels system, allows users to register, assign a specific player to their account and update their club, county etc.
10/Oct/2013: Added forum. Forum from badsquash league site is re-used. Need to be logged in to use it.
8/Oct/2013: Added Surrey league. Now auto-pulling match results from Surrey league ito Squash Levels.
6/Oct/2013: Added user mode. Allows the user to have a 'county focused' view of the system which is useful when it's got the results from so many counties on it. For Squash Levels.
5/Oct/2013: System to system result transfer. To support the automated pulling in of match results from other league systems.
11/Sep/2013: Now show result entry details. Shows date and tie the results were first entered and who did the last update.
5/Sep/2013: Added mailto link for boxes. Allows user to open email to everyone in their box.
30/May/2013: Added page to show player participation by month for all clubs. Doesn't show singles matches yet.
28/May/2013: Added option to exclude all league matches from the rankings. Uses a radio button in the league properties so this can be controlled by league.
30/Apr/2013: Added 'Mail all' button to the boxes. Allows the club admin to send a mail out to everyone in the boxes. Just includes the link to the boxes for now.
30/Apr/2013: Added a 'play by' title to the top of each printed boxes screen. I noticed this was being done by hand at some clubs so I've automated that now.
27/Apr/2013: Added player analysis to edit player screen. Allows the club/county admin to analyse the results of the player and override the automatic setting of the initial level if desired.
26/Apr/2013: Added player editing from the payer history screen. Easy access to player details rather than having to go via edit player.
25/Apr/2013: Added automatic setting of initial level. Gives more accurate levels right from the first match.
20/Feb/2013: Added style controls to news items. One advantage of the update - we can do more in the text entry formatting of the news items.
19/Feb/2013: Re-added document upload. We lost the ability to upload documents for news items when we updated the code a couple of months ago. This has been re-added now with instructions.
5/Feb/2013: Added SPA site. We now have a parllel site for the professional results.
2/Feb/2013: Added pull-down for setting player positions in boxes. Easier than using numbers.
10/Jan/2013: Fixed 'about' pull-down issues for non-BAD clubs. The about pull-down list was showing only BAD squash information but this is now fixed to show the correct information for the site.
8/Jan/2013: Highlight of divisions and matches played in for logged on players. If you are logged in and have set your player name up correctly in your preferences then you will now see any divisions you have played in on the left hand side shown in bold and any matches you have played in in the division matrix shown as larger text. This just makes it easy to find matches you have played in.
29/Dec/2012: Show only active clubs. The clubs pull-down now offers two options; active clubs or all clubs. The active clubs are those that have played in the league in the last 12 months.
27/Dec/2012: Added division option to fixture generator. Allows the fixtures to be regenerated for a single division as well as the entire league. Handy for rearrangements.
14/Nov/2012: Increased the player level damping for pros. At the very top level the pros really can't be improving or otherwise at the same rate the rest of us 'down here' are. Some odd results were distorting the pro levels so the damping has been significanly increased for these guys. Damping is actually increased the further up the levels you go.
14/Nov/2012: Added site description. A handy place to list the principles and features of the site. Refer any interested parties to this page for a good overview.
9/Nov/2012: Only send penality emails once. If the same message with the same subject has already been sent to the same address then it will not be sent again. This is to stop the constant 'every night' messages that go out. Don't lose the message now!
9/Nov/2012: Added this update list.
7/Nov/2012: Ignore some results for ranking. If a match is recorded in the DB as 'exclude' then don't include it in the ranking processing. Still need a means by which captains can select the match but the capabilty is there now.
17/Oct/2012: Multiple sites use the same code. The same code can now be used for all supported squash league sites. Much easier for consistent support and all sites get the latest code. Can use cookies to override the site being viewed.
Earlier features will be added to this list eventually and as we remember them...

Todo list

This is the list of functionality we have planned so you can see what's coming. Do please send us suggestions and requests if you think of them. The following are in approximate priority order - next to work on at the top:

Reduce level drop for those who've played within the last week.
Auto-adjust content for phone use.
Improve look with tidier style sheets.
Tidy up match management for users. E.g. Easier edit/deletion.
Be able to override a player's club when entering results manually.
Prevent auto-uploaded matches from being edited by non-admins.
Fix the Junior Open circuit level inconsistencies.
Add doubles to the boxes.
Add league support to the rblevels site for Avon.
Show URL history breadcrumbs at the top of each page for members
Add option to show player's history with damped levels.
Add 'players' parameter to the rankings pages to view a specific set of players.
Work out the player's damped level when a new result goes in.
Be able to add a player's starting level when you add the player
Record home URL for members
Add 'Premier' option for the top boxes
Be able to lock a player's club
Be able to lock a player's name
More dynamic, informative home page
Add sub-query base ranking pages.
Add a more generic approach to NGB membership numbers
Add sub-categories for match type such as for age groups
Add tournament entry along with Monrad ordered output.
Add a tournament view for knock-out or Mondrad tournaments.
Be able to view a player's history for the duration of a league/match type.
Box emails. A weekly email reminder for box players.
County statistics page.
Add tournament management for knock-out tournaments.
Add a court planner for tournaments.
Allow matchtype weighting to be manually overridden.
Enter box player contact details at time of adding.
Easier arrangement of play-offs. This will be a modification to the fixture generator.
Switch to SH256 passwords.
Reveal merge link without refreshing page (for admins).
Add list of admins under 'About' for easy contact.
Add list of league secretaries under 'About' for easy contact.
Add 'Highest level' page.
Team page showing summary of everyone in the team.
Modernise the look and feel a bit.