Squash scoring: how PAR-11 games are won

Squash scoring uses PAR: point-a-rally to 11, and every rally ends in a point no matter who served. Games are won by two clear points, so 10-10 simply keeps going until someone leads by two. Matches are best of five games.

How PAR-11 squash scoring works

PAR stands for point-a-rally. Whoever wins the rally wins the point, server or receiver — the distinction that mattered under the old system is gone. A game goes to 11, but the winner needs a two-point margin: 11-9 finishes a game, 11-10 does not.

Squash game points land a handful of ways: a clean winner, an error into the tin or above the out line, a ball that bounces twice before it's returned, or a stroke awarded for interference. The stroke is the one that swings games — it hands the point and the serve to the player who was blocked, so a bad tangle at 9-9 can decide a game with no shot played.

Two calls are worth separating, because club players mix them up constantly. A let replays the rally: no point, same server, same box. A stroke is a point. And if the referee says no let, the player who asked for it has lost the rally, which under PAR always costs a point — under English scoring, a server in the same spot lost only the serve.

Who serves next, and from which box

Serve possession follows the point. Win a rally, serve the next one. Lose it, receive.

• A racket spin decides who serves first in the match; after that, the winner of a game serves first in the next one.
• The server chooses the right or left box at the start of a game and every time they win the serve back.
• While a server keeps winning rallies, they alternate boxes — right, left, right, left.
• After a let, the same player serves again from the same box.

For the serve itself: at least part of one foot has to be inside the box without touching its lines, the ball must hit the front wall between the service line and the out line, and it must land in the opposite back quarter unless the receiver volleys it first.

Why there's no cap at 10-10

At 10-10 the marker calls "10-all: a player must win by two points." The squash scoring rules put no ceiling above that. 12-10, 13-11 and 16-14 are all legal finishes, so a tight third game can run well past the nominal target of 11.

That is where a hand count falls apart. You're breathing hard, the rallies are long, and both players are tracking a moving two-point gap instead of a fixed number. Squash Scoreboard is a squash scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, so the count past 10-10 and the two-point check aren't things you have to hold in your head between rallies.

A worked scoreline: how a game reaches 12-10

Say your opponent is serving at 10-9 — their score first, because the server's total is always called first — and you're one rally from losing the game.

1. You win the rally. 10-all. The point and the serve both come across on that single rally, and the two-point requirement kicks in.
2. You pick a box and serve. You win the rally. 11-10. One more point and the game is yours.
3. You serve from the other box and win again. 12-10. Game.

Now the branch that catches people. If your opponent had won that rally at 11-10, the score would be 11-all, the serve would pass back to them, and the two-point search would restart from level. Nobody wins a PAR game by a single point, at any score.

Match structure and league variations

A standard match is best of five games, so first to three. Players get 90 seconds between games, and five minutes on court together to warm up at the start, changing sides after two and a half minutes.

Club and team competitions vary. Best of three is common in time-limited box leagues, and some team formats play out all five games rather than stopping at three, because the game count feeds the team total. Check your league's squash rules and scoring before the first night — the match format changes far more often than the scoring inside a game does.

English scoring: hand-in, hand-out to 9

Plenty of longtime club players still quote the older English system, and when someone says "we play to 9," this is what they mean.

Only the server can score. Win a rally while serving and you get the point. Win a rally while receiving and you get nothing but the serve — that's the hand-out. Games go to 9, with no two-point requirement. At 8-8 the receiver chooses, before the next serve: "no set" plays the game out to 9, "set two" plays it to 10.

The men's professional game also ran point-a-rally to 15 for years before the tour cut the target to 11 in 2004, so an opponent quoting 15 isn't confused, just out of date.

	PAR to 11	English scoring to 9
Who can score	Either player	The server only
Receiver wins the rally	Point and serve	Serve only (hand-out)
Game target	11	9
Margin needed	Two points, no cap	One point
At the last tie	10-10 continues until someone leads by two	At 8-8 the receiver calls "no set" (to 9) or "set two" (to 10)
Where you'll meet it	The default at every level	Social and club play, by agreement

Where scoring in squash goes wrong

Scoring in squash is simpler than its vocabulary suggests, and almost every dispute traces back to the same short list.

• Calling the score in the wrong order. The server's score comes first, always. "10-11" and "11-10" describe the same board from opposite ends of the court.
• Inventing a cap. There is no 12, no 15, no sudden-death point once a PAR game goes long.
• Treating a stroke like a let. One is a point and a change of serve; the other is a replay with nothing on it.
• Forgetting you can score while receiving. A hangover from English scoring, and the most common error among players coming back after years away.
• Serving from the wrong box. When you win the serve back you choose a box; you don't resume the alternation where you left off.
• Counting silently. The practical part of how to keep score in squash is saying it out loud before every serve. Two people counting in their heads will disagree by the fourth rally.

Most real arguments aren't arithmetic anyway — they're about whether a rally ended in a let, a stroke, or nothing at all, which the broader squash rules cover in more depth than any scoreline can.

FAQ

What does PAR mean in squash scoring?

PAR is point-a-rally: every rally awards a point to whoever won it, regardless of who served. It replaced the older hand-in, hand-out system in which only the server could score, which is why a modern game runs to a more predictable length.

Do you have to be serving to score a point?

No. Under PAR you score on any rally you win, serving or receiving. If someone insists otherwise, they're describing English scoring to 9, which is still played socially but is no longer the standard.

What happens at 10-10 in a squash game?

Play continues until one player leads by two points, with no upper limit, so 12-10, 14-12 and longer are all valid. The marker announces "10-all" and states the two-point requirement so neither player assumes the next rally settles it.

How many games is a squash match?

Best of five — first to three games wins, and a match can end 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. Some club and league formats use best of three instead, so confirm the format before you walk on.

How do you score squash without a marker?

Call the score out loud before each serve, server's total first, and settle lets and strokes the moment they happen rather than at the end of the game. If you're teaching someone how to score squash in a casual match, that one habit does most of the work.