WHAT DO POINTS MAKE?

A cutting in one of my mid-1980s scrapbooks - sports reporters kept them in those days because there was no digital archive to fall back on - mentions the adoption of a new scoring system in the Lincolnshire County Cricket League.
It replaced what I called in my report of that league AGM at Market Rasen 'the old much-criticised percentage system'.
Points were now to be:
10 for a win
6 for a winning draw
2 for a losing draw
6 each for a tie
4 each in a rain-affected or cancelled game
Batting bonuses: 1pt for 100 runs, 2pts for 120, 3pts for 140, 4pts for 160, 5pts for 180.
Bowling bonuses (as now): 3wkts - 1pt; 5wkts - 2pts; 7wkts - 3pts; 9wkts - 4pts; all-out, 5pts.
All matches were to become 90 overs (there had been a provision to allow for 70 if both sides agreed).
Looking back more than 20 years I must say I quite like the four-point divide between winning and getting a winning draw - offering an incentive to go all out for the win. Now, of course, you can get 19pts out of a possible 20 (rather than 6pts out of 10) for reducing your opponents to nine down, and scoring more runs. So that one point is not really a massive loss.
I also like the two-point reward available in the late 1980s for the losing draw. But only because I have memories of stubbornly defending to earn our side a token draw (mainly under the old 9-1 and 7-3 system). These days, as a young batsman, because your side isn't getting anything for coming second, you may as well have a slog in the closing overs if the other team's score is well out of reach.
Whatever the scoring system there will be cricketers who like it and others who don't.
Take the one we now use in the Lincs League. Examples are sometimes quoted when it hasn't worked well as far as a particular side is concerned - usually when, bowling first, they've failed to dislodge stubborn opponents and therefore only been able to make 12 or 13 points, rather than the full 20.
That AGM report - unfortunately without the exact year - also makes reference to Louth 2nds gaining membership of the Lincs League, along with Alford and District, who 'pipped Skegness 2nds for the remaining place in division three'.
Chairing the meeting was Ken Portlock (Ross Sports), with Bill Threapleton (Grimsby Town) then league secretary.
I think I attended my first Lincs League meeting in 1976/7, when Brigg Town first gained admission, and wouldn't like to estimate how many hours have been spent at Rase Park in the years that have followed.
Plus, of course, meetings of the Humberside Alliance, Broughton and District Evening League, Scunthorpe Intermediate League, North Lindsey League, Scunthorpe Midweek Friendly League, West Wold League, Scunthorpe Umpires' Association...and committee meetings at club level (including sub-committees).
As most of us know there's a lot more to running a cricket club, and a league, than just taking the field for a weekend game, getting changed and dashing to the bar for a pint or three.