Stratford-upon-Avon Bridge Club
2015/16 HANDICAPS - Please click here to see your Individual Handicap
The objective of handicapping is to give everyone a chance of winning regardless of ability
or experience. To win, a pair or team must play better than it usually does. The pair or
team that outperforms its average by the greatest amount should win.
There are three handicapped competitions: Handicap Pairs (second Thursday of the
month from October to April), Handicap Teams (third Tuesday of the month from October
to April) and Chairman's Cup (a one-off pairs competition on Thursday 26 May).
The purpose of this document is to describe the handicapping system that is used for
This year handicaps are based on the EBU National Grading Scheme (NGS), which
provides a measure of the current performance of most players. For a detailed description
of the NGS see www.ebu.co.uk/documents/miscellaneous/ngs/full-guide.pdf. An average
player has a grade of 50, better than average players have grades greater than 50 and
worse than average players have grades less than 50. For our competitions, a member’s
handicap is his/her grade as of 2 October 2015 minus 50.
A pair’s handicap is the average of the two players’ individual handicaps.
For each of the 7 rounds of the Handicap Pairs and for the Chairman's Cup, a pair's
handicapped score is its actual percentage score minus its handicap.
A team’s handicap is the sum of the four players’ individual handicaps, divided by 2 and
rounded to the nearest whole number. If the members of a team change, its handicap is
The Club and Handicap Teams competitions are run as 7 Swiss teams events, each
comprising four six board matches. The result of each match is scored in IMPs and then
converted to Before Handicap Victory Points. The two teams’ net handicap is then
subtracted from the IMPs scored and the result converted to After Handicap Victory Points.
The winner of the Club Teams competition is the team with the highest aggregate Before
Handicap Victory Points. The winner of the Handicap Teams competition is the team with
highest aggregate After Handicap Victory Points. In both cases, the best 5 scores over the
Handicapping can never be “right”. All we can hope for is that the system will encourage
more people with a wider range of abilities and experience to play in these competitions
and to feel that they are at least in with a chance of winning.
If you any questions or any thoughts about how the system might be improved, please
05 Oct 2015
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