Guides

Practical guides for running a great club or society

Committees, volunteers, membership, money, reporting, match days and websites — written for the people who keep community clubs and student societies going.

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Season & match day · 15 min read · 23 Sept 2026

Youth sports age groups explained — divisions, cutoff dates and playing up

U8, U10, U12 — every youth sports season starts with the same question from parents: which division is my kid in? Here's how youth sports age groups actually work: the birth-year and school-year models, why the cutoff date matters so much, one-year versus two-year bands, a playing-up policy your board can defend, and how to publish an age chart families can read.

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Season & match day · 16 min read · 12 Sept 2026

How to run a box league at your club

Boxes of four to six players, a round a month, promotion and relegation — the cheapest retention activity a racquet club has. Here's how to design the boxes, choose a scoring system, handle the player who never arranges a match, and publish results members actually look at.

Season & match day · 14 min read · 12 Sept 2026

How to run a pennant season

A pennant tie is not one score — it is a sequence of rubbers, rinks or sets that add up to a team result, and that is the thing every spreadsheet gets wrong. Here is how to grade and nominate teams, select and notify a side each week, run the match card, record forfeits and washouts honestly, and read the ladder that decides finals.

Season & match day · 18 min read · 12 Sept 2026

How to register a junior team

Nominations close before you know your numbers, grading happens before half the registrations land, and every child has to be cleared by round one. Here's how to register a junior team without the annual scramble: a countdown from round one, how many teams to nominate, the age-group rules that actually bite, what to collect at registration, and the parent who should be receiving everything.

Season & match day · 13 min read · 11 Sept 2026

Setting up quarters, halves, sets and innings in your competition

How you divide a match decides what the scorers write down, when substitutions happen and what the crowd sees on the board. A sport-by-sport walkthrough of halves, quarters, sets, innings, periods, ends and chukkas, how to pick junior period lengths, and the one-page scoring note that keeps every volunteer doing the same thing.

Season & match day · 15 min read · 11 Sept 2026

Ladder tiebreakers explained — percentage, points difference and head-to-head

Two teams finish level on points and somebody has to decide who is third. This is what each tiebreaker actually measures, which order suits which sport, why head-to-head is loved and awkward, and how to write the rule into your by-laws before round one so nobody argues about it in round eighteen.

Season & match day · 10 min read · 11 Sept 2026

Streaming your club's matches with a camera you already own

Most clubs shopping for a streaming camera already own one. Here is how the phone, action camera or club camera system you have gets a match onto the internet, which platforms your match page can actually embed, and the one honest limitation worth knowing before you pick where to stream.

Season & match day · 7 min read · 8 Aug 2026

How to sell tickets for a club event (presentation night, quiz night, season launch)

Ticketed events fund clubs and fill clubrooms, but the ticketing itself is where the volunteer hours vanish — cash floats, door lists, "I paid Deb at training". Here is how to run event tickets properly — pricing, selling online from your own site, early-bird tactics, the door list, and refunds without drama.

Season & match day · 11 min read · 19 July 2026

The wet weather communication plan every club needs

A decision tree for calling off training and games, a channel escalation ladder that actually reaches everyone, and copy-paste template messages — so a washout never turns into a hundred phone calls.

Season & match day · 10 min read · 15 July 2026

How to livestream local sport — cheap setups that actually work for clubs

A practical guide to livestreaming club sport on a volunteer budget — phone-and-tripod setups that work, what to spend money on (and what to skip), choosing a streaming platform, and embedding the stream on your club website.

Season & match day · 26 min read · 15 July 2026

How to run a LAN party

A LAN is not a games night with extra chairs — it is a small events-production job with a load budget, a network build and a seat map. How to plan power, tickets, seating and an overnight duty of care so the night runs clean.

Season & match day · 10 min read · 28 June 2026

How to run a presentation night your members will actually enjoy

The complete trophy night playbook — a minute-by-minute run sheet, award category ideas beyond best-and-fairest, a realistic budget table, and the planning countdown that makes it all look effortless.

Season & match day · 9 min read · 22 June 2026

Training session plan template (for busy volunteer coaches)

A simple, copyable training session plan template — warm-up, skill, game, cool-down — plus how to plan a whole term of sessions and track attendance without adding admin.

Season & match day · 11 min read · 13 June 2026

How to run a club registration day that actually signs people up

The full playbook for a sign-on day, open day or come-and-try day — station layout, staffing plan, on-the-day online registration, and the follow-up that turns visitors into members.

Season & match day · 9 min read · 27 May 2026

How to make a fixture draw — round robins, byes and finals explained

The maths and the method behind a fair fixture draw — round robin rotation, handling byes and odd team counts, grading, and how knockout and page finals systems actually work.

Season & match day · 8 min read · 26 May 2026

How to run a come and try day that converts

How to plan and run a come and try day that turns curious visitors into registered members — planning timeline, on-the-day stations, capturing details on the spot, and the follow-up sequence that does the converting.

Season & match day · 7 min read · 19 May 2026

How to write a match report people actually read

A practical guide to writing club match reports — a structure that works, opening lines that hook readers, junior-sport sensitivities, and a publishing workflow that gets reports out while anyone still cares.

Season & match day · 11 min read · 28 Mar 2026

Team selection policy template (with junior fair-play rules)

Why every club needs a written selection policy, the principles that make one defensible, junior fair-play considerations — and a complete template you can adapt and adopt tonight.

Season & match day · 10 min read · 6 Mar 2026

The pre-season checklist for sports clubs (month-by-month)

A month-by-month countdown checklist that takes your club from post-season lull to round one without the last-minute scramble — registrations, fixtures, volunteers, money and comms, all in order.

Season & match day · 11 min read · 3 Mar 2026

End of season report template for sports clubs (every portfolio)

A complete end-of-season report outline for every committee portfolio — president, treasurer, registrar, coaches and more — plus the process that turns the report into next season's head start.

Season & match day · 12 min read · 25 Feb 2026

How to organise a sports carnival — formats, schedule maths, and the gala day checklist

A complete guide to organising a sports carnival or gala day — choosing between round robin and lightning carnival formats, the schedule maths that makes the day run on time, station planning, and a checklist from eight weeks out to pack-down.