Contents...

• Qualifying Games
  • Games Played Within the Croquet England Domain
  • Games Played Against Overseas Players
• Handicap Limits
• Doubles Games
• Different Length Games
• Games Where No Jumping is Allowed
• Small Courts

The Automatic Handicapping System provides a handicap for every player when they play Golf Croquet under Rule 20 on Extra Stroke handicap play or Rule 21 on Advantage handicap play. The player's handicap is used to determine the number of extra strokes that the more able player has to give to the less able player in Extra Stroke handicap play, and the starting scores in Advantage handicap play, so that the competition between the two is approximately evenly balanced. The system requires that players record accurately on their Handicap Card the result of every qualifying game.

Qualifying Games

Games Played Within the Croquet England Domain

All singles games in Croquet England Calendar Fixtures, Federation leagues, inter-club contests and designated club competitions qualify for the system.

Designated Club Competitions are competitions for which all the following apply:

1. Run by Croquet England Affiliate Clubs
2. Hoops set to Croquet England Tournament standard
3. Clearly publicised prior to the start of the tournament as consisting of qualifying games.

Doubles, friendly games within a club, ad-hoc games and abandoned games are specifically excluded from the system.

Friendly matches between clubs are included in the system unless both clubs agree prior to the start of the match that the games will not be included.

The Tournament Handicapper must assign a handicap to each player who is not a Croquet England associate prior to the start of the player's first event in the Domain.

Games Played Against Overseas Players

1. Games against players from countries with an equivalent automatic handicap system are included as normal.
2. Games against players from countries without an equivalent automatic handicap system (usually with a scale from 0 to 12):
   1. All handicap singles games are included as normal.
   2. Level games are included where the non-associate has a record on the GC Grading System.
      1. The non-associate's handicap should be converted from their Dynamic Grade as described in the Overseas Players section of the Maintaining a GC Handicap page.
      2. The associate's handicap should be converted to the foreign scale using the below conversion to enable the non-associate to complete their handicap card.

Handicap Limits

It is entirely reasonable for Clubs and Federations to set upper or lower handicap limits for players in their leagues, matches and events, such as an upper limit of 12 in league matches, for example. But a complete beginner generally won't be playing in such matches, and may benefit from a first season playing within their clubs off 14 or 16, for example.

Doubles Games

For Advantage GC handicap play, GC Rule 21.5 Doubles states: "In doubles, the advantage handicap of each side is the average of the advantage handicaps of its players and, if it is not an integer, it is to be rounded upwards". Tournament Regulation L5 clarifies what to do when the average is greater than 12.

For Extra Strokes GC handicap play, GC Rule 20.3 covers handicap doubles play and stipulates that Extra Strokes are awarded to a particular player rather than a side, and to the two players with the highest handicap in the game, whether they are on the same or different sides. The number of Extra Strokes given by the lower handicap player on one side, to the highest handicap player on the other side, is given in Table 3. The same procedure applies to the other two players. If the two highest handicap players in the game have the same handicap, and are on the same side, they must announce before the start of the game which of them is to receive Extra Strokes from the lowest handicap player.

The number of Extra Strokes is calculated by halving the difference in handicaps of the two players being compared. Where this calculation leaves a fraction, this is rounded to the nearest whole number (the fraction 0.5 being rounded up), except note Rule 20.3.6 limits this to one player of a side.

For example, if, in a 13-point game, A (Handicap 2) and B (Handicap 7) play C (Handicap 5) and D (Handicap 10), then D receives (10 - 2)/2 = 4 Extra Strokes from A and B receives (7 - 5)/2 = 1 Extra Stroke from C.

NOTE: The comparison of the lowest handicap with the higher handicap of the other side is different from the system that Croquet England operated before 2019, which compared the lowest handicap with the lower handicap of the other side. This brings Croquet England into line with other WCF-member associations.

Different Length Games

For all games, the number of index points exchanged on handicap cards is the same, regardless of the length of the game. The arrangements for playing different-length games are covered below.

For Advantage GC handicap play, GC Rule 21.4 Starting Scores states: "The starting scores that apply to combinations of advantage handicaps for each target score are set out in the relevant starting score table at worldcroquet.org/advantagegc

For Extra Strokes GC handicap play, the number of Extra Strokes awarded in both singles and doubles varies according to the length of the game:

Games Where No Jumping is Allowed