The table below gives an indication of the abilities of players with various handicaps. Four- and three-ball-breaks are manoeuvres involving standard arrangements of balls which allow many hoops to be made in a turn. Bisques are extra turns for the weaker player, in which you have to continue playing with the same colour ball as in the prior turn, but can re-roquet all the other balls again. A bisque turn can be taken at the end of a normal or preceding bisque turn.

To gauge your handicap in the 26 to 12 range the following routine is suggested on a full-sized lawn with standard equipment. Place a ball in Corner 2, a ball level with hoop 1 on its adjacent boundary, and two balls a yard apart on the boundary to the side of hoop four. Now, using bisques, play with one of the balls by hoop 4 and count how many bisques you need to take to get the ball to the peg (all 12 hoops). Doubling the number of bisques taken indicates your approximate handicap.

Recognised handicaps are set by Official Handicappers; in Oxford these are Ian Plummer and Mark Wormald. They will watch your play and assign a handicap. Once you have a handicap it can be changed by an automatic system which moves your handicap up and down depending on the number of games you lose or win.