The match consists of one long set, which is won by the first player/pair to get 8 games but
you must also win by 2 clear games. Eg 8-6 or 9-7, but not 8-7. There are no tie breaks and
no sudden death deuces.

The handicapping committee (Chrissie Eastmond, Richard Bothwell, Jon Warren) has allocated a
handicap to each player/pair, based on our knowledge of relative playing standards. The idea
is to even things up, but it is not a perfect system (grumbling about the harshness of your
handicap is all part of the fun!). Recording your scores for each match will help us in future
years. If we don't know much about you we will tend to err on the side of not making it too
difficult. Paper copies of the draw will be in the clubhouse, so please record your scores there
as soon as you have played and then contact your next opponents.

Please try to play your matches by the dates shown. Walkovers can be given if absolutely
necessary but the whole point is to play if you can. If you need to go beyond the play-by date,
please check that this can be accommodated by the person/people waiting to play the winner.
If in doubt, contact me/us and the committee will make a decision.

The first 3 or 4 players in each category may be seeded so that they don't play each other in
the early rounds. If you lose in the first (or possibly second) round you get a second chance;
follow the red arrow to your next match. If you win, always follow the green arrow.

Handicaps work like this:

The more negative the number, the heavier the handicap. You have to win some points before
getting back to zero and then scoring in the normal way.

If you have a split handicap, like -15/0, the heavier (ie more negative) handicap applies in the
games when you are serving, but see below. The split handicaps are only ever one point
different, so when we write -30/-15 we mean -30 when serving and -15 when receiving. A
handicap of -30 means you have to win two points just to get back to zero; -15 means you
have to win one point to get back to zero etc.

The lightest handicap available is +30 or +15. We have not always written the + sign, but that
is what it means if there is no – (minus) sign at the beginning.

If both players/pairs have negative handicaps then you need to cancel them down as much as
possible until at least one of the handicaps is zero. There has always been some uncertainty
around what to do when both sides have split handicaps; this year please just cancel the
handicaps down and play as follows:

Example 1: -40/-30 plays -30/-15; first the -15 cancels to zero which is just one point.
Therefore one point needs to be cancelled off all the other handicaps as well, so you end up
with -30/-15 playing -15/0. This should then be treated as one point difference between you
for every game, so that player 1 starts serving at -15 Love and player 2 starts serving at Love
-15; in this case all games start in the Advantage court (ie on the left).

Example 2: -40/-30 plays -40/-30: in this example both players are deemed to be the same
standard, so just cancel everything out and play every game from Love All.

Example 3: +15 plays -30/-15: in this example player 1 is already above zero so no cancelling
can be done. Player 1 serves starting at +15 to -15 in the deuce court. Player 2 serves starting
at -30 to +15 in the advantage court (ie every time they serve, the game starts on the left hand
side).
 

We are having two divisions of men's singles, as follows:

Elite group: handicaps will be limited to the range +15 to -15. As the name suggests, this
group is recommended for the club's best players. You should only enter this group if you are
prepared to play the top players with at most 2 points separating you.

Standard group: handicaps will be awarded in the usual way and will typically vary from +15
to -50. The 'elite' players can also enter this division but may receive handicaps as heavy as
-60 or -70 as a result.

This is being done because the range of standards leads to prohibitively large handicaps for
the top players otherwise.

If you are not sure how to enter or score your matches, ask us or another member.

It is extremely easy to forget the score (or that a game needs to start on the left hand side), so
do call it out after every point.