Courts, conduct and cost

One tiebreak set is the safest choice. An eight-game pro set usually fits. Short sets to four and FAST4 both fit comfortably and suit a group that plays in the evening. A full best-of-three, the platform default, does not, unless the third set becomes a match tiebreak to ten, which the default allows when both players agree on court. Pick one format for the whole ladder, because two players negotiating a format at the net is a dispute waiting to happen. All six formats.

The standing convention, which is worth stating in your rules rather than assuming: you call your own side, you call it immediately, and you give the point when you are not sure. A ball you cannot confidently call out is in. If a caller keeps getting it wrong, play the point again rather than arguing about the last one. Nobody has ever won a ladder match by winning a line call.

Publish the penalty before it happens and apply it the same way to everybody. It takes two people to file a fake score when both sign off, so a falsified result is usually a lone player entering a match that did not happen. A published penalty that costs the rest of the season is a deterrent. A penalty decided case by case is a negotiation. The penalty.