Badminton scoring explained

Badminton has used rally point scoring since 2006. Every rally scores a point, whether you served or not, and the side that wins the rally serves next. A game is the first to 21 points, and a match is the best of three games.

Serve from the right service court when your score is even and from the left when it is odd. Players change ends after each game, and in the third game when the leading side reaches 11. There is a short interval when a side reaches 11 in any game.

Reaching 21 is not always enough. A game has to be won by two clear points, so at 20-20 play continues until one side leads by two: 22-20, 23-21, and so on.

The cap keeps that from running on without end. At 29-29 the next point wins the game, so 30-29 is the highest score a badminton game can reach.

Before 2006 only the serving side could score. Men's singles and all doubles were played to 15 points, women's singles to 11, and a side that lost a rally on its own serve simply lost the serve. Games took longer, and a lead could disappear without the score moving.

Many clubs still play to 15 and 11, usually with rally point scoring, because a shorter game fits a timed court slot. FinalPoint accepts 11, 15 and 21 as a full game, and a group can set its usual target in its settings so the record form matches how it plays.

In doubles the serving pair keeps the serve while it keeps winning rallies. The same player serves each time, switching between the right and left service courts as the score changes. Partners do not swap places between points.

When the receiving pair wins a rally they take the serve as well as the point. The player standing in the right court serves if their score is even, and the player in the left court serves if it is odd. Nobody changes position, so the score decides who serves next.

FinalPoint records each game of a badminton match as its own result, kept together under one match record. A match that went 21-18, 19-21, 21-15 shows all three games and who won, and each game counts on its own.

Any score saves. A timed club session that ends at 19-16 is kept as played, marked "Not a full game, saved as played", so the players in it still get the result. Groups can choose a single game or the best of three, five or seven, and a target of 11, 15 and 21, and the record form follows those settings.

Singles and doubles are both recorded the same way. In doubles all four players get the result on their record and their badminton EVO moves with it.