Office League

Hi, I have started an office league at work. We have a table and a good size room to play. We have about 24 players that are of all different skill levels. To equalize play I have implemented a handicapping system that I sort of ripped off of another web site and then tailored to our league. Basically, each player has a rating (that I assigned) and that rating goes up one point for each win and down one point for each loss. Before each match the players take the difference of their ratings and use a chart that we have hanging next to the table to find how many points the lower rated player will start each game with. I think that the ratings are still leveling out, but it has been working pretty well.

Is there a standard way to do handicapping?

Also, most players want to use the old score (21) and service (change after 5) rules. Is there any issue with this?

Hi Alex,

 Great to hear you have started a league at work. A handicap system is a good way to keep the competition interesting. There are a number of methods for calculating the starting score in order to handicap the better player. If you are happy with the current method you are using then I would stick with that. The idea behind all systems is to determine a starting score that would result in the players being level towards the end of the match. Another important aspect of most systems is that as players win more matches, their rating must improve in order to keep things even.

For handicap leagues, it is not important to play up to 11 and a lot of handicap tournaments play a single game up to 31. Generally as each match in a handicap tournament is only one set long, the score is usually higher than 11 to ensure the match lasts a decent length of time and allows more room to spread the handicaps.

Good luck with your league and please let us know how you get on. Why don't you send us a picture of your next handicap winner (especially if it's you) and we'll feature them in our blog.