Continuing on with my break from discusing the boast.

Rules do not prevent violations; rules attempt to draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Drivers often violate speed limits. Squash players do not always make the best effort to get out of the way.

Police or referees are often burdened with the task of catching violators.

As with any laws or rules we wonder what happens when the rules are not obeyed. The penalty may range from a warning to significant consequences.

Traffic police watch for violations of a multitude of laws like parking, speeding, dangerous driving, and running a red light.

Squash referees also look for violations and may stop play and hand out the penalty. But squash is unusual because the referee stops play for only certain violations and allows play to continue despite other violations. The squash referee is expected to stop play for violations such as foot fault, double bounce, service fault, or the ball touching an unfair surface. When it comes to violations of rule 5, the referee takes a back seat. A player may stop play by requesting a let, which is a request for the referee to assess if there was interference.

The active policing by the players does indeed make squash an unusual sport. The final judgement however still rests with the officials.

Squash is also unusual compared to tennis, badminton, pickleball, and table tennis. Squash players share the same playing space whereas those mentioned sports have players separated by a net. Sharing the space leads to rules attempting to ensure that the space is fairly shared. The players police whether the opponents are sharing the space fairly. The referee assesses if there was interference, and then hands out a judgement: no let, let, or point.