Comments on rules / refs I sent to NA Hardcourt

Yeah, but what about that game against Pipe Gang? Say they had been a little more skilled? Say they had actually won that game by playing dirty? Then what?

I have played games recently that were reminiscent of that game with PipeGang, but the players had skill. And we did lose. And I can tell you, it sucks.

It's an ideal, a pipe dream, that we all respect each other enough and self-enforce the Don't be a Dick "rule". But clearly a growing number of players are too self-motivated to be able to control themselves. Yes we play to win, I agree with you there for sure. But telling people to accept cheating as part of the path to success is total crap. People don't need to cheat, and then be proud of themselves. That is dishonest, self-interested crap. I wish I could say that the people who do it know who they are, but I really don't think some of them do, so that blows the ideal of self-reffing out of the water.

In my view, the idea of like on like is also taken too literally. To me it's not about body-to-body, bike-to-bike etc, it's more about matching the styles of play of other players. Like Bill said, he'll take so much shit from a player, then it's time to play them at their own game and see how they like it. I think that's fair game. The number of people (not just from London) who play rough/dirty etc, think it's fine for them to do it, and as soon as you return the favour to them they bitch and whine about it to the ref. Like-on-like should be seen more as Like-for-like, in my opinion. I know that's how lots of us play already.