Handicap Scale as Officially Used and Recommended.
The system of handicapping in the past has been a very difficult question and has been found in many respects unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the best player has never given sufficient points. The method in vogue at the Billiards Association and Control Club (which was inaugurated by the Billiards Control Club long prior to the amalgamation) is more akin to that obtaining at golf, and by it the art of handicapping is reduced to some semblance of scientific accuracy.
Under this system, in order to arrive at a player's handicap, cards have to be filled up for him by the marker, recording the result of each visit to the table made by him in scoring 100 points, or, in the case of a player with an average of 4 or over, the games must be 250 up. Not more than two of these cards must be returned on the same day, and each card must bear the signature of the player, and be countersigned by the marker, whilst the table must be specified as being standard, or not.
From the general appearance of these cards he is allotted a handicap number, an 8 man equalling scratch. A player with a handicap of 4, therefore, receives half the game from an 8 man, and anyone with a handicap above 8 owes points to the scratch player, proportionate to his handicap number. Thus, in a game of 100 up, a player, if correctly handicapped, should run out in his thirteenth innings, and, as an illustration of the accuracy of the system, it is interesting to note that when it was first inaugurated at the Billiards Control Club, one of the players in the club handicap went out in three of his heats, within one or two innings of what he was expected to do, according to his handicap.
The general application of this simple scientific method of handicapping is an ambition which I hope to see realized, and I earnestly commend it to all promoters of handicaps. It must be clearly understood that this system applies to amateurs only. With regard to professionals I may have something to say at a later date.
The annual club handicap, for which thirteen entries were received, resulted in a victory for Mr. S. C. L. Hatch (handicap 11), his opponent in the final, which was 500 points up, being Capt. G. F. de Tiessier (handicap 10).
The annual amateur handicap promoted by the Billiards Association and Control Council will be played at the club during March next. An entry of somewhere in the neighbourhood of thirty-two players is usually obtained for this event, the attractive prizes provided by the Council affording an active inducement for players to enter. The class of play in this handicap has, for many years past, been of a very high order, Messrs. S. H. Fry, J. Graham Symes, W. B. Marshall, and Major H. L. Fleming being amongst the regular competitors.