worked example of match point scoring
There are basically two types of "movements" in bridge, Howell and Mitchell. Generally speaking the Howell movement gives an overall winner and the Mitchell movement gives a top North and South and a top East and West. We play Howell at Raunds bridge Club.
The above shows a screen shot of the results of board 18 which was played on October 4th 2018 at the club. I chose this board because everyone bid the same contract, Three No Trumps, and the declarer was the same in each case, which makes it easier to understand.
Note that two match points are awarded to a pair that beats another pair and one match point is awarded to a pair who draw with another pair. Looking at the above from West's point of view, pair number two did better than anyone else making twelve tricks which no one else managed. (very embarrassing as I was playing in pair seven at the time!).
Pair two East/West beat pairs East/West pairs five, four and six and got what is normally known as a "top". As they beat three pairs they scored 3 x 2 = 6 Match Points shown on the extreme right of the picture by the red mark. It should be noted that, whatever score one pair gets, the opponents always get the complimentary score. In other words, pair 2 got six and therefore pair seven scored zero. This is an important factor which is often overlooked.
Pairs four and six drew with each other as both made eleven tricks and they therefore get one point for a draw and a further two points for thrashing me and my partner so they score three points. Following on from above, it follows that their opponents ALSO score three points. 3 + 3 = 6.
This type of scoring also rewards the best defence. Look at the top line by the blue spot. In this case pair one, sitting at North South, held West to only ten tricks: something the others couldn't manage. They therefore beat all the other North/South pairs and scored six points, a "top" even though East/West made their contract!
So having got to this stage how are the percentages worked out? On 21 boards where the maximum that can be scored is six match points, if someone scored a maximum on every board, (unheard of), they would score 21 x 6 = 126 and everyone else would score zero of course.
It looks bad for us, (pair seven), but overall the match we scored 66 match points so 66/126 x 100 = 52.3% which gave us third place.