Crystal Palace Bowmen

Handicap Tables

New handicap tables are being created by AGB. Most of the changes are small, however the usefull range is being expanded from 100 values to 150, so old hadicaps numbers will not match new handicap numbers.

Handicaps are useful for tracking progress when shooting different rounds each week. These tables use the method devised by David Lane to produce the tables published by ArcheryGB. Tables for non-standard rounds can easily be calculated and some rounds eg Frostbite, Burntwood and the new metric rounds for juniors have already been added.

The main reference on the calculation of the 1995 handicap tables is:
"The Construction of the Graduated Handicap Tables for Target Archery", David Lane, Sep 2013.

Earlier papers, written before the 1980 handicap tables, give some background into the work done. Of which "Handicap Tables" is probably the easiest to read.
"Handicap Tables", David Lane, published in Toxophilus Vol II Number 1 1979
"The variation of accuracy with range", David Lane, published in Toxophilus Vol II Number 3 1979
"The Construction of Handicap Tables for Archers", David Lane, March 1978

Using the "non-standard round" (last entry in the drop down list) you can work out the handicap for each distance shot to find out if you have a weaker distance that you need to practice.

The basic form of of handicap competition works well within a club, each archers handicap is used to work out an allowance for the round being shot which is then added to their actual score. The winner is the archer with the highest adjusted score. The allowance is the archers handicap score for the round subtracted from 1440. So in theory everyone should end up on 1440, unless they shoot better or worse than their handicap. No adjustment is needed for round, bow type or gender.

With an open competition the archers handicap is not always up to date or available, so the handicap is often calculated from the first 2 dozen arrows shot in the round. This gives an advantage to those archers that start slowly, but finish strongly.

2023 Handicap tables.
Rounding the average scores, or 1 decimal place.
Extended range, to include most maximum scores and some lower scores.
Big tables, handicaps in 0.2 steps.
Allowance for round.
Arrow Diameter:

There is often some discussion about using thick line cutter arrows indoors to improve scores. The standard handicap tables are based on 18xx arrows which are 7.14 mm (18/64 inch) in diameter. Use your handicap to find the average score for your actual arrow diameter, then change to the thicker 23xx arrows to get a new score for the same handicap. Note: 9.3 mm is the maximum diameter for most bow styles, and 24xx are 9.5 mm. Biggest gain is on the smallest targets, for WA 18 metre you gain up to 5 points over using your thin outdoor arrows (5 to 6mm). For a Portsmouth the gain is at most 3 points, but you might lose much more by having arrows that are hard to tune and shoot.