Automated Handicap System

Background
For years, the league has battled hard to keep everyone happy regarding the setting of handicaps, using individual handicap secretaries to make manual handicap adjustments based upon various factors. It is impossible to keep everyone happy, and the handicap secretary and league are left open to criticism from those that think they have been treated unfairly. This new method establishes an automated system for moving handicaps up and down, based on results.

How it works
The uses 2 statistics for each player.

• An actual handicap
• A playing handicap (0, 7, 14, 21, 28, etc.)

The actual handicap is carried over from last year (some may have been adjusted if deemed to be incorrect). However, the actual handicaps map to a band to give a playing handicap. E.g. an actual handicap of 11 to 17 relates to a playing handicap of 14. A players playing handicap will only change if his actual handicap crosses into another band. E.g. if the player’s actual handicap dropped to 10, they would move to the “7” playing handicap band. If it increased to 18, they would move to the “21” Playing handicap band.

How does a handicap move?
A player’s actual handicap will be adjusted automatically based upon results as follows:
Handicapped tournament match or handicapped league frame

• Win  = minus 1 from actual handicap
• Loss = plus 1 to actual handicap

Scratch tournament match or scratch league frame

• Win against a lower handicap player = minus 1 to actual handicap
• Loss against a lower handicap player = no change
• Win against a higher handicap player = no change
• Loss against a higher handicap player = plus 1 to actual handicap

Doubles results are excluded from the system, as they do not always reflect both players’ performances. Byes and claimed matches are also exlcuded as no snooker has been played.
The committee may at their discretion alter player’s handicaps if the handicap is deemed to be incorrect.
It is up to you to know your handicap, and wise to know your opponents. The web site will update based upon the currently known results.
It is possible that player’s handicaps may change quicker than the web site/handicap is updated due to many reasons: you are playing multiple matches in a short period of time, your results haven’t been submitted, your results are sat in the result box’s, the web hasn’t been updated etc. It’s up to you to be aware if your handicap has changed – you know best what you have played recently. Always write down the handicap you use for your match on the result and the system will take care of the rest.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

League Suggested Handicap Difference

With all League data now being data based, the computer works out a suggested player handicap for each player. These will be used as a guide to setting and adjusting handicaps. The way the suggested handicap is worked out is as follows:

• For each frame where both players are handicapped: Frame Score Difference = -(((Your Frame Score+Your Handicap) - (Opponent Frame Score+Opponent Handicap))/2 Players)
• The Frame Score Differences for each frame are totaled, and then divided by the number of frames played. This produces the average difference in points between handicapped frame scores. The players existing handicap is then adjusted by this amount. So for example:

The more frames players participate in, the more accurate the handicap becomes. This seasons handicaps will be using last years results as a guide.

Tournament Suggested Handicap Difference

Tournament results are now built in to the suggested handicaps. You will now see that there are various details in the handicap section of the various statistics web pages:

• Actual Handicap: Your handicap, as before.
• League Difference: Your league suggested handicap difference - as explained above.
• Tournament Difference: Your tournament suggested handicap difference, calculated using your tournament results (see below).
• Suggested Handicap: Your actual handicap plus the average of the two League and Tournament Difference (please note this is suggested, it doesn't mean it will be your handicap. As before the handicap secretary has the final say on all handicaps, this simply arms them with more information!)

So the new bit is the tournament difference. I have tried many different formula's to try and come up with something meaningful for the tournament results. It actually proved to be much more difficult than first imagined.
In the end I came up with a theory: In an ideal world, if every player wins and loses 50% of their matches, then all the handicaps must be correct. This is the theory on which the tournament difference is based upon. The idea is that a player is not 'punished' for winning, and likewise not 'gifted' points for losing. Get your thinking cap on as I'm about to try and explain the formula below!:

• The following applies to singles handicapped matches only, unless otherwise specified:
  • You must of played 4 singles handicapped matches for this to apply:
    • Tournament Difference = -((Abs(Average Difference between your handicap and your opponents handicap) * ((Matches Won % - 50) / 100)) + Scratch matches difference)
  • So what the hell does that mean? Well:
    1. Take the average difference between yours and your opponents handicaps for all matches. E.g. 3 matches, your handicap is 30, and you played a 10, 20 and 30 handicapper respectively, so the average difference is 10 (30-((10+20+30)/3)).
    2. Take the % of matches won and come up with an 'adjuster'. E.g. You won 30% of your matches, so we need to adjust your handicap by +10% as you are not winning 50% of your matches. Its 10% and not 20% as the other player will also get adjusted accordingly - meeting in the middle if you like. If we adjusted by 20% we would just end up swinging the handicap too much on your handicap and your opponents, effectively reversing your fortunes, not making them more accurate!
    3. Take the 'adjuster' above and multiply that by the average handicap difference, in this case (hey my easy example!) you get 10*10%=1
    4. So your tournament handicap difference is now 1, all that for a point eh?
    5. After that we then look at scratch singles matches! (Just when you thought you had seen enough!). This is a simple adjuster. If you win a match against a LOWER handicap than yourself, then your handicap is docked by 1 point. If you LOSE a match against a HIGHER handicap than yourself, then your handicap gains 1 point. The thinking behind this is that if handicaps are correct, the lower handicap player should almost always win a scratch tournament. So in this example if you won 3 matches against LOWER handicaps, you would be docked 3 points, bringing you to -2. If you also lost 3 matches against HIGHER handicaps than yourself, you would gain 3 points so you would be back to 1 point.
  • So your tournament handicap difference is +1.
  • Your actual handicap (30) is then added to the average of your tournament handicap difference (1) and your league handicap difference (lets keep it as 0 in this example) making a suggested combined handicap of 31.
• And then, as previously, your combined suggested handicap is capped according to the highest break you have made in the current season as follows:
  • Break of 20+ = Maximum handicap of 50
  • Break of 30+ = Maximum handicap of 40
  • Break of 40+ = Maximum handicap of 35
  • Break of 50+ = Maximum handicap of 25
  • Break of 60+ = Maximum handicap of 15
  • Break of 70+ = Maximum handicap of 10
  • Break of 80+ = Maximum handicap of 5
  • Break of 90+ = Maximum handicap of 0

The proof is in the data, please do have a good look. Both myself and Alan have tired effortlessly over these numbers and formula, and we think they are pretty good. (You can never get them all correct, there are a few obvious discrepancies as always, which is why its only a suggested handicap!). Any feedback is most appreciated!

Please note that under rule 47 of the constitution the maximum handicap difference in any match can only be 70 points.