EXTRA STROKES I submitted an article to the August edition of the Croquet Gazette on Coaching GC Extra Strokes. I considered it to be an important topic because, although I know that not everyone will agree with me, I have come to the conclusion that Advantage GC is unlikely to last very long. There are various reasons for this opinion, but the main ones are that it is only appropriate when the players’ handicaps are reasonably similar, and unusable when they are not. This means that when AGC is appropriate, you may as well play level, otherwise stick to Extra Strokes GC. I think that the added tactical requirement of using your extra strokes efficiently or of learning to play against them adds a positive factor to the GC game. Those who argue against extra strokes often say that it makes the game too difficult for beginners to learn, but the same argument could be applied to handicap AC. Why not give the higher handicapper some hoops to start with because bisques are too complicated? Obviously this suggestion would be dismissed because the bisques are there to help the player create 4‐ball breaks. In Handicap GC the extra strokes are there to help the player to win hoops; just giving them the hoops is not the same. Another argument I have heard against Extra Strokes GC is that it’s biased towards the low handicappers so, when the question of converting to AGC was discussed in the South West Federation last year, I addressed the issue of bias with some analysis of the SWF league results. We have two GC Handicap leagues with different handicap limits. One has no minimum handicap and a maximum of 12, the other has a minimum of 8 and no maximum. I analysed the results for the years 2016 to 2022, (excluding 2020 when the leagues were not played). This gave me a total of 6,645 singles games, not including draws. LETTERS CONTINUED
Response to Extra Strokes: Following the SCF Advantage trial in 2021 a modified table of Starting Scores has been in use unchanged for three seasons. In addition to league play in most of the UK Federations Advantage has been adopted internationally and is now the preferred form of handicap play in England, Australia and New Zealand. The most convincing reason for this is its simplicity and immediate relevance to level play by changing only the starting score. Rule 20 (Extra strokes) requires three and a half pages to describe a very different game. Advantage tournament and league play worldwide is witness to a very usable game between players of different abilities. Should the need arise managers now have a simple, and above all, fair method of resolving timed handicap games. The latest 2024/25 version in response to feedback and experience has been agreed by GC Rules and forwarded to the WCF for approval and publication on its website. This new version has taken the opportunity to strengthen the algorithm by using two years’ of SCF Advantage results. Some 40% of such games (those with wider handicap differences) are affected by revised starting scores and, significantly, starting scores are now included for all games across the complete ‐6 to 20 handicap range. The latest documentation is always available on the WCF and CqE websites. The latter includes excellent additional teaching material developed by Ian Shore which should be essential reading for coaches and players unfamiliar with the game. Feedback is welcome via advantagegc@worldcroquet.org or by contacting me directly. Roy Tillcock
As these two graphs show, there is a fairly consistent bias of about 3% in favour of the low handicapper. If, therefore, coaching in the use of extra strokes was improved only slightly, it could be expected that this bias would be removed. Stephen Custance‐Baker
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