It has recently been brought to the Management Committees attention by the WCF Advantage Rules Committee and Golf Croquet Rules Committee, that the current GC rules do not adequately cover how to determine the winner of Time-limited Advantage games if play is stopped before either side has reached its target score.
The intent is that this omission will be addressed in the next edition of the GC Rules. In the meantime, we advise National Governing Bodies to deal with this by releasing advice to the managers of their tournaments.
The GCRC recommendation is to use the concept of ‘Scoring Fractions’ to determine who has won once play has stopped, as defined by Rules19.1. Stated simply, this means dividing the number of hoops a side has actually won (when play has stopped), by the total number they needed to win at the start of the game.
Example:
Side A: started on -1 and therefore needed to score 8 points to win a typical 13-point game.
Side B: started on 2 and therefore needed to score 5 points.
If the score was 4:5 when play was stopped,
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- side A would have won 4 - (-1) = 5 hoops with a scoring fraction of 5/8 = 62.5%, and
- side B would have won 5 - (2) = 3 hoops with a scoring fraction of 3/5 = 60%.
Therefore, Side A wins the game, having achieved the higher scoring fraction.
Unless the organising body has stated that tied games are allowed, if the scoring fractions are equal when play is stopped, play is to continue and the side that wins the next hoop is the winner of the game.
This advice only impacts Rules 19.1.4, 19.1.5 and 19.1.6.
