Handicap System applied by Bridgewebs 
for Perth Bridge Club pairs competitions

Running Parallel handicapped competitions is a means of allowing less experienced players to compete in competitions against more experienced players with a real chance of achievement. 

Rolling Handicap
For each month, an individual player's handicap is calculated which is the average of all uploaded percentage results for the previous 12 months. 
N.B. This will include ALL events i.e. Monday nights/Drumhar/LAC/No Fear Fridays as well as Club events held on a Tuesday or Thursday. Non standard pairs events such as Teams are ignored.
This average is taken away from 50 to give the handicap for that month. 
Handicaps are calculated for each player, not a pair. 
Good players would get a negative handicap, weaker players get a positive handicap. 
•    The handicap for April 2016 will be the average for all results from  April 2015 - March 2016
•    The handicap for May  2016 will be the average for all results from May 2015 - April 2016
•    etc.etc.

E.g. If a player has, in the most recent 12 full calendar months  played in 16 pairs competition where results have been uploaded to Perth Bridge Club website, and the percentage score averages 55.2 that player will have a 'handicap' for that period of (50-55.2) -5.2. 
His partner may have played in 22 pairs competitions in the same period and have an average percentage score of 48.1. This player will therefore have a 'handicap' of (50-48.1) +1.9  
This pair then play together so their 'pair' handicap is (-5.2+1.9)/2 = -1.65  for that event. 
If the pair then score 57.6% in an event that month their 'Scratch' score in the competition will be 57.6% but their score in the parallel handicap competition will be (57.6-1.65)= 55.95.

Less experienced players will tend to have positive handicaps, (unless they have been playing regularly against competitors who are also less experienced). 
What this means is that players who play better than their handicap should end up with adjusted handicap score greater than 50%.  

Where a competition is run over an extended time period (e.g. Simple systems, Jean Paton,) the handicap applied is the most recent at the time of the event, i.e. a pair may have a handicap of -3.3  applied to their May 2016 result but the same pair may have a handicap of -5.1 applied to their January 2017 result if their handicap has increased due to a run of good results in the intervening period.

To view your own handicap:
1.    Select and click on handicapped competition in which you have played from the list shown in the left hand menu of this website under the main heading 'Competitions'.

2.    Click on the 'Players' tab under the Competition title.

3.    Click on any pairing containing your name.
Details showing your (and your partner's) current handicap calculations are shown on the right hand side of the page.

New Players: Players without a handicap will be given a 0.01 handicap in the first three pair events in which they play, after 3 events their handicap will be based upon the average of all previous scores.