squash-ladder.net

Ladders are a great way for players of sports such as squash, tennis, badminton (even computer games and billiards!!) to find similarly skilled opponents to play against. There are variations on the rules (see below) but essentially players are entitled to make a 'challenge' a certain number of places above them on the ladder. If the challenger wins the match, they take the place of the loser on the ladder and the loser drops a certain number of places. Very quickly players find themselves appropriately ranked on the ladder so matches become more and more competetive and more enjoyable.

The ladders are fully automated and every eight hours the ladder status is checked. Reminders are sent out for overdue games and if not recorded within a time period of your choice the challenge will be automatically forfeited. All activities are confirmed by email.

You can either choose to download the software to run on your own server or have your ladder hosted here - either way please consider supporting future developments by making a donation. If you would like your ladder hosted here for free that is no problem - just fill in this form . Your free ladder would have its own unique access URL in the format:

sports-ladder.net/your_ladder OR
squash-ladder.net/your_ladder OR
tennis-ladder.net/your_ladder OR
games-ladder.net/your_ladder

Alternatively, if you would like a customised URL to access your ladder I can provide this at cost price which is currently £10.58 (UK pounds sterling) per year. Ladders of the same sport may club together to split the costs.

The ladders run off the squash ladder PHP software (available at deepblue) and once assigned a ladder admin, you can customise many settings (see below). Users sign up with a password and can start challenging straight away. See the demo ladder here.

There is now an online form to complete for those wanting to set up a ladder. This makes it much quicker for me to set ladders up and consequently I will be able to devote more time to coding enhancements to the ladder.

One of the greatest successes of the ladder has been the way it has changed to meet the needs of its users. Some change requests can be made almost instantly whilst others are logged for future attention. If you find the ladder doesn't work quite right for your sport or club then just let me know. You can view the enhancement requests past and current here.

The following options are available to ladder admins:

Choose unique URL
Set ladder name, title and abbreviation
Set time zone (GMT offest)
Customise colour scheme for your ladder
Set challenge period, no. of challengable places and 'swap' or 'shuffle' on win, grace period for recording matches etc.
Choose how information and email addresses are revealed (or hidden) from other users and search engines
Send messages to all ladder members at once
Customise information pages e.g. rules, news, announcements etc.

Set different levels of member and challenge activity monitoring
Customise messages displayed at registration, news, announcements, ladder rules etc.

The following options are available for all users:

Password protected login
Change email address, password and request password if forgotten
Delete from database
Take a break from ladder and rejoin ladder
View player stats and history of previous matches
Make and record challenges online