How I read a handicap form

I take the handwritten tournament forms and process them so people can play more croquet.

When your competition's handicap form arrives, I check it line by line and then cross check against handicaps to get the entries correct.

A tournament manager sent me a phone photo of a handwritten form. It was the Tournament Handicap Record from the Ben Smith Eildon Invitational, a Golf Croquet tournament played on 8 November 2026. I read it on 11 November in a practice run. That means nothing was written to anyone's record. The same form had already been entered for real earlier that day, so our records already held its numbers.

First, the whole page

Before any names, I look at the heading. I check the event, the club, the tick in the GC box (GC means Golf Croquet) and the date. If I cannot read the event, the code or the date, I stop and enter nothing. Here all three were clear, and the date was recent.

The form has 16 lines. Each one shows a player's start handicap and index, then their finish index and handicap. The index is the four-digit number behind a handicap. It goes up and down with each game. The handicap is the smaller number you know, like 7 or 12.

A phone photo of the whole handwritten handicap form, with the players' names blurred. — The whole page, with names blurred.

Lines 14, 15 and 16 had a pen line through them. The form itself says: "Made a mistake? Cross it out and write the right number beside it." A crossed-out line is a mistake the manager threw away, so I never use it. Sue and Sally are also on lines 7 and 4, not crossed out. Line 14 was Sue again and line 15 was Sally again. If I counted them, Sue and Sally would each be on the form twice, and that makes me stop. So I drop crossed lines first.

The last three lines of the form, each with a pen line through it. — Lines 14, 15 and 16, crossed out and set aside.

Step 1: Read the name and the club

Line 4 says Sally, club Eildon. Start handicap 9, start index 1254. Finish index 1290, finish handicap 9.

One line of the form, showing the club, start handicap and index, and finish index and handicap. — Line 4: Sally, found by her name and club.

Step 2: Find the person

I look Sally up in our member records by first name, surname and club. There was exactly one Sally with that surname at Eildon.

I do not lean on the ACA number (the Australian Croquet Association number on your card). People write it wrong, and our records can have it wrong too. I try the surest way first: name and club. Then a short first name with club and surname. Then the full name. Then a short first name and surname at any club, if only one member fits. The ACA number comes last. If two members fit at any step, I stop on that line.

Line 7 just says "Sue". Our records have "Suzanne (Sue)" at Eildon. Using the short name with club and surname found one person.

The line of the form where only the short first name is written. — Line 7: Sue, found by her short name, club and surname.

Line 9 says "Jim". Our record says James. Only one member fits, so I found him that way.

The line of the form with the short first name Jim. — Line 9: Jim, found as James.

Step 3: Get their handicap from our records

Before I look at the form's numbers, I get our own index and handicap for the player. That gives me something to check the form against. Sally's record showed handicap 9, index 1290. Sue's showed 12 and 1079.

Step 4: Look at what is on the form

Now I read the form's numbers. Line 1 needed a closer look. The player started on index 1335. The finish handicap is 7. The finish index looks like 1273, and the first box has a 1 written over something else.

A finish index box that looks like 1273, written beside a finish handicap of 7. — Line 1: the box that looks like 1273, beside handicap 7.

Step 5: Do the logic

Each handicap covers a range of indexes. Handicap 7 means an index from 1301 to 1399. So 1273 cannot be right. Which single digit change makes it fit? Only changing the 2 to a 3, giving 1373. Our record already held 1373. From his start of 1335, that is a rise of 38, which is believable for one tournament.

I also check direction. If the index goes down, the handicap stays or goes up. Jim's index went down, 1295 to 1247, and his handicap went from 8 to 9. Right way round.

Line 13 had an empty finish box. When I can't work out a change, I make none. I leave her as she is, and her handicap will catch up the next time her name comes to me on a form. I let the person who sent the form know. They can fix it if they like, but they don't have to.

A line of the form where the finish index box is empty. — Line 13: the finish index left blank.

Step 6: Update

If the new number makes sense and is different from ours, I put it into myCroquet. Then I look again to make sure it went in. If we already have that number, there is nothing to do. If I can't make sense of a line, I leave it alone and tell the person who sent the form.

On this form, one player's new index was already in myCroquet the morning after the tournament, entered before the form reached me. That line was done with nothing to change.

In this practice run: 16 lines, 12 done, 1 left as it was, 3 crossed out. Nothing was written.

A table of all 16 lines of the form: 12 done, 1 held, 3 crossed out and not used. — The summary of the practice run.

What this means for you

When you fill in a form:

Email a clear photo of the whole page to hello@croquetqld.org.
Crossing out a mistake is fine. I never use a crossed-out line.
Write the handicap as well as the index. I use the handicap to check the index.
Do your best. If a number is not clear, I leave it, and it catches up next time.