A scorer is paid £510 for a Test match, £120 for a one-day international and £93 for a Twenty20 international. He or she — it remains largely a male preserve — is given meals by the club hosting the match and can claim expenses. Salaries paid to county scorers vary.

Some work for little more than expenses and live off their pensions. Younger ones, such as the erudite Dr Andrew Hignell, of Glamorgan, can also act as the club’s archivist.

Traditionally, the post of scorer was often offered to a retired pro. Claude Lewis served Kent for 60 years as player, coach and scorer. This began to change when the quill pen and scorebook gave way to computerisation in 1993. Although the first-class scorers have their own association, they remained largely anonymous until Bill Frindall joined BBC’s Test Match Special in 1966 and was given his own microphone.

Few scoring sticks remain in existence. The oldest surviving scorecard details a match between England and Kent at the Artillery Ground in London in 1744. The first known copy of The Laws the same year refers to “notches” and Law 4 dictates that scorers “shall accept and acknowledge all instructions and signals given to them by the umpires”.