Running your first Matchnight

It runs the admin of a regular game night for a group of friends or colleagues. Every week it asks who's playing, makes the draw, puts pairs on courts, takes the scores, and keeps a table and a rating for everyone.

It is not a club, a booking system, or a way to meet strangers. You book your own courts as you always have. Matchnight sorts out who plays with whom, and gives everyone something to argue about on the way home.

Your name, and either a photo or a colour for your initials. You're asked once and it carries across every competition you're ever in.

Nothing there is shown to anybody by itself. When you join a competition you choose separately what to share in that one— so you can show your photo to your Thursday league and not to another. That's deliberate.

• A league — runs for a season, a night a week, with a table.
• A cup — one night, knockout, someone lifts a trophy at the end.
• A one-off match — four people, one game, no table.

You can run more than one. A league with a cup night in the middle of it is a perfectly normal thing to do.

• Which night, and what time. Pick the day and the weeks get set up for you.
• How many courts you've got. The important one — it decides how many can play. You get a sensible suggestion and can override it.
• How long you've got.Booked ninety minutes? Say so, and you'll be warned when the numbers won't fit before anyone turns up.
• How you score. Games to a number, or full sets. Golden point or advantage. Whatever your group already does.

None of it is permanent. Change it between weeks as you learn what your group likes.

Grab-a-court groups:if you don't play structured rounds — if it's “next four on, play when you can” — set it that way and the warnings will match how you actually play, rather than nagging about a schedule you're not following.

Just names. That's all.

Your players do notneed an account, a password, or to download anything. You can add somebody who has never heard of Matchnight and they'll be playing on Tuesday.

Each player gets a link of their own, with a WhatsApp button next to their name to send it.

• The link is that person's key. Tapping it signs them in as themselves.
• It works once.Then it's spent — so nobody forwards their way in, and a friend of a friend can't wander into your league.
• You can reissue it any time. Same button.

Send them one by one rather than dropping a link in the group chat — that one would only work for whoever tapped it first.

Worth reading twice, because it's where other apps send people to a support desk and this one sends them to you.

There are no passwords.Nobody can forget one and nobody can leak one. If somebody loses their phone, gets a new one, or just can't get in:

1. Go to your players list.
2. Find their name.
3. Send them a fresh link.

That's the whole recovery process. You never need to know anything secret about them, and you never wait for anyone to help you.

Players can also set up Face ID or a fingerprint, which makes getting back in a single tap. Their link still works if they do — it's an extra way in, never the only one.

• People say whether they're in when the app asks them.
• The draw goes out with a countdown, which is half the fun.
• Scores get tapped in on the court, by anyone playing.
• The table and everyone's rating update as you go.
• The morning after, everyone gets a short summary of how they did.

If somebody drops out on the day, swap them for someone else in a couple of taps and the people affected get told. Players can also pull out themselves without ringing you. If you're short, add a guest for the night and send them a link the same way.