This
new rule (12.8.2) puts into writing what was common practice, and that is, to
award a stroke to the striker whose swing has been prevented – regardless of
the opponent’s clearing effort. The reason is the sensitivity of the swing
to the least of disturbances. Remember those times when you’ve clipped a
wall while swinging at the ball, and it goes nowhere. Well, that shows in a
nutshell what we’re talking about.
We
must acknowledge that any actual physical interference to the swing will
affect the outcome.
·
However, for this rule to apply, the swing has to be ‘prevented’-
basically a major interference. This results from either actual contact, or as
a result of the opponent being so close that had the striker attempted to
swing, physical contact or interference would have occurred.
·
When the interference is minor – a touch or brush of the racquet but
not sufficient to prevent the stroke -- or has the potential to be minor, then
consideration of the opponent’s clearing effort is crucial. In other words
if the opponent was making no effort to clear then even minor interference may
justify a ‘stroke’, whereas if the opponent is making every effort to
clear and only minor interference occurs then the call should be ‘let’.
We
all know that players commonly play around all sorts of interference; both
interference to view and interference to access. Interference to the swing,
although certain to cause an unintended return, has to be expected and a
balance has to be struck before penalizing all swing interferences in order to
make the game playable. The rules allow for this fair outcome of a ‘let’
when the swing is affected with a minor contact or the anticipation of minor
contact.
Of
course, if the striker refrains from swinging due to Reasonable Fear Of Injury
(RFOI) and the referee agrees that there was RFOI, then a ‘let’ is
allowed. There does not need to be the potential for any actual contact for
RFOI to exist – only that there was an obvious and justifiable concern about
injury with an opponent in close proximity.
However
referees should be on the lookout for players who refrain from swinging in the
hopes of being awarded strokes by lenient referees, even though it is clear
that the opponent has cleared sufficiently. In this situation the proper call
must always be ‘No Let’.
