Clayside

Court booking

Court booking that knows your box league

Clayside is court booking software for racket sports clubs, with the club's competitions in the same place. Your members book a court on their phone. When two of them agree a time for their league match, the court is booked in the same press.

Start my free trial Book a court in the demo

One slot, one booking Members book it No money taken for a court

What a member sees. Tap an hour, take a court.

The problem

The court sheet and the league have never met

Your courts are in one system and your league is in another. Nothing joins them up except the members, one message at a time.

01

The match with no court

They sorted out Thursday at seven in the group chat three weeks ago. Nobody booked anything. On Thursday at seven every court has somebody on it, and the match goes back in the pile.

02

The court nobody can explain

Court 3, Tuesday, six o'clock, one name on it. Is that a league match, a coaching session or two people having a hit? The sheet does not know, so neither do you.

03

The slot that went twice

Two confirmation emails, one court. Somebody drives over and finds a stranger on it, and you spend Wednesday morning working out which of them was first.

The court sheet

One Tuesday on the court sheet

5 courts, open 08:00 to 22:00, 60 minutes a slot. Club night has 3 of them from 19:00, the juniors have Court 1 before it, and the 4 courts in blue were taken by a match rather than by somebody remembering to book one.

This is not a drawing of a sheet. It is a sheet, worked out by the code that ships, from one club's Tuesday.

Tuesday 4 August 5 courts · peak from 6pm
8am 4 courts free
9am 4 courts free
10am 4 courts free
11am 4 courts free
12pm 4 courts free
1pm 4 courts free
2pm 4 courts free
3pm 5 courts free
4pm 4 courts free
5pm 4 courts freeJunior coaching has Court 1
6pm Court 5 freeJunior coaching has Court 1 Peak
7pm Court 2 freeClub night has Court 3 and Court 4 and Court 5 Peak
8pm FullClub night has Court 3 and Court 4 and Court 5 Peak
9pm 5 courts free Peak

Blue is a court a competition booked, and it says which match. Amber is the club's own: Club night, junior coaching, a team match, a court closed for repairs. Grey is a member's own booking with whoever is playing on it. Dashed is free. On a phone the same day is a list of start times, which is what your members will mostly see.

Every hour says what is free and what is on. This is the phone's half of it. On a laptop the same day is the paper sheet, courts across and times down, with the courts a competition booked marked out from the rest.

One slot, one booking, decided by the database

Not checked for first and hoped about afterwards. Two people pressing the button in the same second is the only case that matters, and the second one is refused outright and told what is still free.

The join

Agreeing a time and booking the court are one job

Every other league tool stops at "Thursday at seven suits me". This one knows which courts are free on Thursday at seven, and takes one.

Suggest timesBox 2 · v D. Byrne

Tuesday 4 August

17:0018:0019:0020:0021:00

The struck-through hours have no court free. Your club's diary decides which times are on offer, so a time you can pick is a time you can play.

Match on: Tue 4 August, 19:00

Court 2 is free then. Book it and you are both told where you are playing.

Book court 2 Not now

Never automatic. Taking a court off the club on a press that was about agreeing a time would be the software deciding. Closing this is a real answer, and it leaves you exactly where every other club is: a match on, and the courts to sort out.

The court then says which match it is for

Court 2, 18:00, Box 1: A. Whitcombe v D. Byrne. Anybody reading the sheet knows what is on, both players are told, and a court booked for a match counts against neither player's quota. Cancel it, and the other side is told that too.

Your courts, your rules

What your club decides about its courts

Every number here is yours. We ship a set that works on day one and none of them is fixed by us.

01

The courts and the hours

Name every court the way the club says it: Court 1, the Astro, the back two. Give it a surface if you like. Opening hours are per day, so a Sunday that shuts at six is a Sunday that shuts at six, and the day you close is a day with no hours at all.

02

Slot length and peak times

An hour for tennis, three quarters for squash, an hour and a half for padel. Peak is two real ranges you type, one for the week and one for the weekend, not a preset that says evenings and means something else.

03

The window and the caps

How far ahead a court exists, how many one member may hold, and how many of those may be at peak. It rolls forward through the day rather than opening at midnight, so nobody sets an alarm and nothing gets sniped.

04

Club night and coaching

Type Tuesday once and it stands every Tuesday, on the courts you name. Cancel one week without touching the rest. The cell says what is on, so nobody has to ask.

05

Booking for the member who rings up

Somebody at the club puts the court in their name, not in the club's. It is their booking on their sheet, and the record says who made it.

06

Changing your mind, safely

Every setting is saved with the date it starts from, and nothing already booked is ever cancelled by us. Change something that would strand a booking and you are shown whose it is before you save. Save anyway, and their court still stands.

Court history

The court hours your committee has been guessing at

Pick a fortnight, a month, a season. You get the share of your bookable hours that was actually used, and what it was used for.

League matches, ladder matches, tournaments, club night, coaching, team matches, friendlies and practice, each as a share of the whole. Narrow it to one court and the percentage is about that court, not about the club. Narrow it to a fortnight and it is about the fortnight.

It is the answer to the two questions that come up every time a club talks about its courts: do we need another one, and is the league filling the midweek evenings nobody else wants. The whole range comes out as a spreadsheet, so it can go straight into the papers for the meeting.

Questions

What clubs ask about court booking

How do members book a court?

They are on your membership register, so they already have a way in: their own address, a code, and they are signed in. There is no separate booking account and no password to forget.

The sheet opens on today. They press a free slot, confirm, and it is theirs. Nothing is ever drawn as booked that the database has not said is booked.

Can two people book the same court at the same time?

No, and not because we check first. One slot on one court is one row, and the database itself refuses the second one. Two people pressing the button in the same second is the only case that matters, and no amount of checking-then-writing can decide it.

Whoever loses the race is told the truth straight away: that court has just gone, and here is what is still free on that hour.

Does it book the court for a box league match?

That is the whole point of it. Two players agree a time inside the app, and the moment the second one taps it, the confirmation names a court that is free then and offers to take it.

Never on its own, though. Taking a court off the club on a press that was about agreeing a time is the software deciding, so it is always a second press, and closing the box is a real answer. A match with no court is what every club has today.

Can we stop members hogging the courts?

Your club sets how far ahead a court can be booked and how many a member may hold at once, with a tighter number for peak hours. The window rolls forward through the day: there is no release hour, because a fixed midnight release is the thing players complain about most on every other system, and it is what the bots turn up for.

Two things are deliberately outside the count. A court booked for a league, ladder or tournament match counts against nobody, because the club wants those matches played. And today is exempt from every cap: the quota is there to protect next Tuesday, and tonight's empty courts are better used than saved.

How do we block out club night, coaching and team matches?

As a block, which is a court taken by the club rather than by a person. Type Tuesday once and it stands every Tuesday. Nobody can book over it.

A week your club is away at the county finals, you cancel that one night and the rest of the series carries on. The cell says Club night or Junior coaching, not "Blocked", so anybody reading the sheet knows what is on.

Do you take any money for a court?

No. There is no fee per booking, no percentage, and no card details anywhere near it. Booking a court moves no money at all.

The money we do handle is your membership subscriptions, collected by Direct Debit into your club's own bank account, and we take no cut of those either.

Can visitors or the general public book a court?

No. The register answers who may book, and being on it is the whole of it: if somebody has left, or was never a member, there is no door.

So there is no public booking page here. If your club sells pay-and-play to passers-by, keep the system that does it. What we do and what ClubSpark does is set out side by side.

What happens to bookings if we change our opening hours?

Nothing is ever cancelled by us. Hours, slot length and peak times are saved with a date they start from, so a change lands on the day you chose and every day before it reads as it always did.

If a change would leave somebody holding a court at a time your club no longer opens, you are shown exactly whose booking that is before you save. Save anyway and their court still stands: two people agreed to play, and hiding it would be the software deciding otherwise.

Does it work on a phone?

It is the same page your members already use for their box, so there is nothing extra to install and nothing in an app store. On a phone the day is a list of start times with what is free beside each one; on a laptop the same day is the paper sheet, courts across and times down.

One thing, two shapes. Not a website and a worse app, which is the complaint players make about nearly everything else.

Which plans have court booking, and what does it cost?

The court diary is on the club plans, from £265 a year for a club of up to 125 members. It is included: no charge per court, per booking or per member.

Every new league gets fourteen days with everything switched on, courts included, and no card. See what each plan holds.

Your courts

Put your courts in and let the league book them

The court diary is on the club plans, from £265 a year, with no charge per court or per booking. Every new league gets fourteen days with everything switched on, and no card.

Start my free trial Book a court in the demo

The demo is a real club with a week of its diary already in it. Press a free slot and it is yours. It resets every hour, so nothing you do to it lasts.