Club night is the app's answer to the whiteboard: a social evening — doubles (courts of four) or singles (courts of two) — where everyone mixes in, pairings sort themselves fairly, and the standings are always up to date. Club nights are set up by organisers.
Starting a session (organisers). Go to More → Club night and tap Host a club night. Choose singles or doubles, pick a format, how many courts you've got, how each court is scored, and go:
- Popcorn — everyone shuffles every round. You play with (and against) as many different people as possible.
- Up & down the river — win and move up a court, lose and move down. King of the top court by the end.
- Fixed partners — pick your partner and keep them; you face a different pair every round.
You can start it on the spot, or schedule it for later — and tick weekly to make it repeat. A weekly session re-invites last week's players automatically each time.
One Point Slam ⚡. A knockout where every match is a single point — win it and you're through (the Australian Open's 1 Point Slam, club-style). Pick One Point Slam as the format, then choose:
- Serves — one serve each (the default: no second chances), or two. On a two-serve night you can tag first teamers down to one serve, like the AO's pros.
- Who serves — the app tosses for serve (and remembers it, so nobody argues), or players settle it with rock, paper, scissors on court.
- The draw — seeded by club rating (byes go to the strongest) or completely random.
Once everyone's in, tap Make the draw. The app calls matches to your courts and pushes each player: "You're up — Court 2 · you're SERVING". After the point, either player (or the host) taps "… won it" and the next match is called straight away — no waiting for a round to finish. Winners hear who they play next; the champion goes up on the club TV and into the Hall of Fame. Made a mistake? The host can undo a point until the winner has played again.
How people join. Tap Share link to send the join link (it carries the code), show the QR code on your phone, or read out the 6-character code (or print the poster). Members join with one tap. Friends without the app can join too — they just enter their name, no account needed. If they later sign up with the same email, their club-night history comes with them.
Spots and the waitlist. You can cap the session (say, 12 players). Once it's full, later joiners go on a waitlist and are promoted automatically — oldest first — whenever someone drops out. Promoted players get a "You're in!" notification.
Rounds. Nothing is pre-scheduled. When you're ready, tap Next round and the app pairs up everyone checked in right now — late arrivals just check in and play the next round, and anyone resting gets unchecked. Pairings are fairness-first: the app avoids repeat partners and repeat opponents, and if someone has to sit out, byes rotate so nobody sits twice before everyone has sat once.
Scoring formats. Set this when you create the session (or later in Settings):
- Timed round — play to the bell and enter whatever the games were (7–5, first to 10, whatever your club plays).
- One set — first to 6, tiebreak at 6–6.
- Short set — first to 5, tiebreak at 4–4.
- Best of 3 · champs tiebreak — two sets, then a 10-point championship tiebreak at one set all.
Co-hosts. Running it with a friend? The host can add co-hosts (the Co-hosts card under the session). A co-host can do everything the host does on the night — check people in, make the draw, run rounds, score courts and end it — except change the coin prizes or the co-hosts. Weekly nights keep the same co-hosts from week to week.
Scores. The host — or anyone playing in the session — taps in their court's score. In a timed round that's two numbers; in a set format you say who won and enter the sets with the same picker used everywhere else in the app. No confirmation ceremony; it's club night. When every court is in, the next-round button lights up. Got a score wrong or generated a round too early? Undo round removes the latest round so you can go again — earlier rounds' scores can always be edited in place.
Changing things mid-evening. More people turned up than the cap? Tap Settings on the session to add courts, raise the spots (the waitlist comes straight in), rename it or change the scoring — no starting over. Singles / doubles and the pairing format can only change before round 1.
Choosing the first pairs. In Up & down or Popcorn you can set the round-1 pairs yourself (give two people the same team number) so the evening starts at the right standard — Team 1 and Team 2 open the top court. From round 2 the format takes over.
Who sits out. If there are more players than courts, byes rotate so nobody sits twice before everyone has sat once. In Up & down, when it's a tie on sit-outs, it's the bottom-court losers who sit.
Standings. The table ranks by win % of games you actually played — sitting a round out never counts against you. Ties are broken by average game difference (winning 7–2 beats winning 7–5). Standings are valid whenever the evening stops — just tap End session and they freeze where they are.
Do club-night games affect my ranking? Your ladder position — never. Club night is social. Games between members do feed your doubles rating (the skill number, not your ladder spot), so your level stays honest. Guests' games start counting once they join Tennis Ladder.
On the big screen. Every session has a 📺 TV mode — a big-type, dark scoreboard page you can cast to the clubhouse telly, showing the current round and standings live. There's also Club TV (Clubhouse → 📺 Club TV), which shows your club night and any matches being live-scored at the club, all on one screen.
Juniors. The usual safeguarding rules apply — junior names are masked on public screens, same as everywhere else in the app.
Finals Night
Once a quarter, organisers can crown the club's Pickup Doubles quarter with a Finals Night — created in one tap from the Doubles Race sheet. The quarter's top 8 players (by Drop-in wins) get a push invite with the join code; first 8 in. It runs like any club night: fair pairings, scores feed everyone's doubles rating, and the clubhouse TV mode works too.