Competitive Croquet: Understanding Handicaps and the World Ranking System

[<<] [>>] by Alison Maugham
29th March (CqE Official News)

All competitive croquet games should be recorded; this is to enable fair assessment and monitoring of all players' standard of play.

There are two systems of establishing a player's standard of play, locally through the handicap system, and globally through the world ranking system.

Handicap System

When croquet is played to the rules of handicap play, the aim is to give each player a fair chance of winning. Any advantages they receive at the beginning of a handicap game should be aligned to their level of play, and if this level is set incorrectly then the game could be played unfairly.

All competitive croquet games, handicap and level, must be recorded on player handicap cards, unless stated otherwise by an event or tournament manager.

World Ranking System

Only level competitive games are recorded in the ranking database, which is operated by the World Croquet Federation. Handicap games are not eligible for this system. For players who are looking to play 'ranked' games, they must enter tournaments which are eligible for the ranking system according to the regulations published by the World Croquet Federation.

For an event to be included in the World Ranking System, it must be played to the internationally recognised laws or rules of croquet. In addition, the regulations require that for an event to be included in the ranking system:

it must be recognised by the Governing Body (i.e. published in the Croquet England Fixtures Calendar); or,
it appears in a tournament calendar published by a Federation; or,
it is endorsed in writing by the relevant Ranking Officer prior to the start of the event.

Event organisers should ensure that one of the above criteria is met if they wish the event to be eligible for inclusion in the ranking system. Any event not meeting one of these three criteria will not be included. Events are not eligible if more than 75% of the places are reserved for members of one club.

There are also criteria to be met regarding how a game is played, in terms of court size, time limits, and the number of points that need to be scored. Results must be submitted in the correct format or entered onto Croquet Scores. The full regulations can be found on the World Croquet Federation website under WCF Ranking Regulations here: https://worldcroquet.org/wcf-business/statutes-regulations/.

It is important that these regulations are understood and followed by tournament managers, to ensure that players who are entering competitions have clarity regarding which games will be recorded by which system, whether it be the local handicap system or the world ranking system.

If you have any questions, please contact the relevant committee for support:

Handicap enquiries
handicap#croquetengland.org.uk

Association Croquet Tournament enquiries
tournaments-ac#croquetengland.org.uk

Golf Croquet Tournament enquiries
tournaments-gc#croquetengland.org.uk

General enquiriescommunications#croquetengland.org.uk