In the world of sport, scoring systems range from the simple and and easily understood to the downright bizarre. 

Football is straightforward enough, as are hockey, badminton, volleyball and squash. Tennis though seems needlessly complicated.

A match in tennis consists of three or five sets, the winner being the first to two or three sets, each of which has a number of games. The aim is be the first to get 6 games to win a set, and be ahead by two. If the number of games is tied at six each then there is a tie breaker to decide who wins a set. Unless it’s the final set, then the players keep playing until one of them is two games ahead. Each game sees the players seek to be the first to score 4 points, and be ahead by two. But rather than points increasing in the obvious progression of 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, instead the scoring system goes 15 – 30 – 40, and then the next point the game is won. Unless they are at 40 for each side, in which case it’s called ‘deuce’, and the next player who wins a point moves to ‘advantage’, then winning the game if they successfully take the next point, or moving back to deuce if they don’t.

There are all sorts of theories as to how the scoring system arose, but it’s true origins are somewhat obscure, various alternative origins having been suggested for nearly 500 years.

Finding a way to keep score is not just limited to sport. 

In music there’s the number of albums sold, the frequency a song is played on the radio and the size of crowds at a gig.

In the jobs sphere it is often the salary being paid or the title on the plaque fixed to the office door.

When it comes to seeing things God’s way, the view can be markedly different. Rather than achieving monetary wealth, sporting triumph or a number one single, success is in keeping the hungry fed, the homeless housed, and above all else loving God. It may not see the same public plaudits or swelling of the bank balance, but the end result is definitely a win!

(October 2019)