One of cricket's great traditions is dying out

Telegraph

20-04-2025

Cricketers up and down the country are dusting off their whites for the start of a new season. And a new season also means new scorebooks. Or at least it used to.
Traditionally, each game that takes place requires two scorers who, working alongside umpires, will keep a record of what unfolds.
The sight of a hardy soul diligently filling out a scoresheet, in a hard-backed scorebook, using numbers and symbols impenetrable to the uninitiated is pure cricket.
And scorers are not only crucial to the logistics of the game. They are woven into the fabric of the culture. From the village green to the Test arena, scorebooks are an indelible record of a cricketer's exploits and opening up an old one is like being transported back in time with the reader presented with an instant flavour of the match.
Recreational clubs have been preserving these generational totems for decades. Each team gets a new scorebook at the start of the season, forming collections kept in the clubhouse going back decades, chronicling its history, thumbed through and reminisced over by players during rain breaks. Over time, shared stories triggered by the scorebooks become ingrained.
There's no doubt that scoring by hand can be daunting – just look at the elaborate colour-coded handwritten scorecards of Test Match Special's Andy Zaltzman. Or the complex system of coded symbols concocted by one of his TMS predecessors, the late Bill Frindall.
But a complete scorecard tells a narrative. It is why spectators at Lord's once queued up to buy scorecards printed up at the end of a day's play that might have featured Denis Compton or Bill Edrich, a tangible souvenir in a pre-digital age.
But this season, in the amateur game, instead of scorers recording each ball by hand in the scorebook, there's a good chance it will be done electronically, on a tablet or smartphone via an app.
English cricket's governing body, the ECB, has not set a target for recreational clubs to transition from traditional book scoring to digital, but take-up of the market-leading Play-Cricket Scorer app is rising – and fast – as it has become more reliable, faster and easier on desktop and mobile.
Nearly three-quarters of the 221,000 recreational matches recorded on Play-Cricket last year were scored live, up by nearly 10 per cent on the previous year, according to figures provided by the ECB, which owns, operates and supports the platform.
It poses the stark question: Could we soon see the death of the scorebook and conventional scoring?
The answer might lie in Winchmore Hill Cricket Club's pavilion on an early April evening, pre-season. Here around 20 middle-aged and senior men and women are crammed into the North London club's unprepossessing back bar for a two-and-a-half-hour workshop on how to score, led by Paul Stubbs.
A retired civil servant based in Staines, Stubbs has been running workshops like this one since 2022 as an ECB Association of Cricket Officials Scorer Tutor – that is, when he's not scoring matches for the likes of Middlesex CCC, the Sunrisers women's team and recreational outfit Barnes.
This evening, there's not a paper scoresheet nor coloured pen in sight. Instead, attendees will soon be tapping away on their tablet or smartphone of choice, because this is a workshop on how to score digitally.
But first, Stubbs has some formalities to talk us through. 'Record what you see,' Stubbs says, as he explains the laws of cricket including the one that applies to scorers: 'Law 3.1: Two scorers shall be appointed to record all runs scored, all wickets taken and, where appropriate, the number of overs bowled.'
'Don't pre-empt the umpire,' he then adds, as he talks us through understanding and acknowledging those hand signals from the men in the middle in white coats.
Like an opening batter facing challenging early season conditions, Stubbs gets a serious going-over from the workshop attendees. He is peppered with questions, including 'Can you have a wide with byes?' [answer: no]; 'Do you correct the umpire if he has called 'over' after only five balls bowled?' [under no circumstances should a scorer correct the umpire]; and 'What does a dot mean?' [this is when no runs are conceded off a delivery, the term originating from scorers using a dot to mark a no-run delivery in the scorebook].
Then we get to the nitty gritty: scoring electronically. We open up the Play-Cricket Scorer app, some on tablets, others including myself on mobile, and head straight to a Somerset vs Essex demo game. We learn how to record the toss, select the striker and non-striker, record runs and wickets and correct mistakes to make live adjustments.
It's all pretty straightforward until I make a mess of one of Stubbs' hypothetical scenarios – recording a run-out dismissal after the batters have crossed following a legitimate first run.
'You've got to have that calmness,' says Stubbs. 'I like to say that scorers are like swans. On the surface, they're graceful, but underwater, their legs are flapping all over the place.'
Well, for a moment, I'm certainly flapping. But making a correction is easy, meaning I'm quickly back on track. No Tipp-Ex required.
Some of those in attendance, such as Julia Elder, are experienced scorers. Her 'innings' began 30 years ago, and these days she scores games in a book home and away for Winchmore Hill's 1st XI, who currently play in Division Two of the Middlesex County Cricket League.
'One day, somebody said they didn't have a scorer and I said I'd give it a go,' she tells me later, which seems to be how many get their start.
Others, like me, are parents whose children play the game, so they want to learn how to score so they can help out on match days.
Tim Graveney, whose son plays at Winchmore Hill, says: 'I found using the app remarkably easy. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to correct errors. In a book, I've got my way of scoring, box-style, with the actions for every ball – acknowledging the umpire, the runs, the total, the bowling, checking with the other scorer.
You feel like it's more accurate. But on the app, in theory, those things are done sequentially for me. I don't have to worry too much about all the different places to record the delivery.'
Graveney says he will be using the app this season – 'I see the way the game is going' – but there's a tinge of regret.
'I do enjoy scoring in the book and have very fond memories of learning how to do that when I was a kid. With the app, you don't need two people to check. So the charm of two scorers sitting together at the table will be eradicated if there's only one scorer on an app. I'm not sure it will quite be the same when I 'chalk up' the winning runs on the app.'
Digital scoring is helping to grow recreational game
After the workshop, sitting under scores of black-and-white portraits of Winchmore Hill chairmen and chairwomen dating back to the club's early days (it was founded in 1880), Stubbs talks me through the benefits of digital scoring, as he sees it. 'Youngsters will pick up scoring on the app much quicker, they've grown up with technology, with touchscreens. When I was young I was constantly used to writing longhand – an entry in a scorebook was second nature to me.'
There's also a strong argument that digital scoring is helping to grow the recreational game across men's, women's, junior and girls' sections.
'Now, with live electronic scoring, you can follow the game even if you're not at the ground,' says Stubbs. 'So players and members from my Barnes CC, for example, are seeing how, say, the 1st XI are doing, how our rivals Ealing or North London are getting on. Family and friends can follow online.'
I experienced the thrill of this myself last season when glued to live ball-by-ball coverage as my son batted through a nailbiting – and ultimately victorious – under-12s run chase.
At Barnes, 87 per cent of games last year were scored electronically. So, has Stubbs himself filed away his scorebooks for good?
'I will do at least one game a year in a book. There's nothing like looking at a nicely set out and completed recorded cricket match, with colours. The scorer feels there's a sense of achievement at what they've created. Somebody looking at it can admire the time and effort that has gone into it. I know it is something that will last forever.'
As for me, the true test will come later this month: I've got an under-13s match to score – and I'll be pressing a button on an app.