Not having a score is silly (9)
I believe the answer is:
pointless
'silly' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'not having a score' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'not' could be 'nt' (synonyms) and 'nt' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pointless that I've seen before include "Having little use" , "like a team that always loses?" , "Having no bits of news" , "unprofitable" , "silly" .)