The Banbury League organises an annual handicap tournament (The Robin Aston Trophy), with teams across each division competing against each other.
In the First Round of the Cup, Fritwell “A” (our Division 2 team) played against Bodicote “F”, a team from Division 3. Although the handicaps were largely against Fritwell, some sterling Table Tennis from our lads saw them win the cup tie by 327 points to 268 points.
Fritwell “B” had a bye in the First Round of the competition and so are yet to play.
The Second Round is due to be drawn soon – lets hope our 2 teams don’t get drawn against each other!!!
How Does the Handicapping System Work?
Teams of 3 play against each other with 9 singles and a doubles game, similar to a League game (But over 3 sets to 11 rather than the standard 5 sets in a league match). Each set is scored to 11 points, with each player’s points accumulated to a total for the game. So a game between a very good Division 1 player and a less capable Division 3 player may have 3 sets which are scored 11-2, 11-3, 11-4. The Division 1 player therefore scores 33 points with the Division 3 player scoring 9, ostensibly a win for Division 1.
However, so that a team from Division 3 can compete equally against a Division 1 team, each player is also given a handicap. So a top Division 1 player might have to give their Division 3 opponent an additional 26 points as a “handicap”. That would mean, in the example given above, that though the Division 1 player won the 3 sets and accumulated 33 points, the Division 3 opponent would add 26 points to his game total of 9. The overall game score then becomes 33 to the Division 1 player and 35 to the Division 3 player – who therefore in effect wins that game. The points won by each player are then added together with all the points scored by their team mates to give each team a final total, which determines which team wins the match and progresses to the next round of the Trophy.
