Here is something that surprises most committees when they first see it.
At Woburn Sands Tennis Club, after James and Kevin had grown membership from 30 to 200, after there was an 80-person waiting list, after the club had been genuinely transformed — their courts were still only 55% utilised.
Two courts. Two hundred members. And half the available time sat unused.
It wasn't lack of interest. The members wanted to play. The courts were there. But tennis works differently from most sports. You don't just turn up and join in. You have a court booking, and separately, you have people to fill it. If your regular playing partner is unavailable, the default is to cancel — or to just not go.
This is the version of the problem everyone understands. But there is a second version, and it is the one that explains the August dip.
Summer brings disruption. Holidays, school schedules changing, work quietening down in one area and ramping up in another. The informal arrangements that held through the year — the regular Tuesday morning four, the Thursday evening doubles — fall apart. Members have more time to play and less certainty about who they're playing with. So courts sit empty in the middle of the day, while members sit at home, available, with no easy way to find each other.
The problem isn't bookings. Most clubs have a way to book a court. The problem is the step that comes after: finding someone to share it with, at short notice, at a matching level, without resorting to posting in the group chat and hoping someone sees it in time.
What James and Kevin built first, before anything else, was a physical board on the wall of the Woburn Sands clubhouse. Members could pin their name, their level, and when they were free. Someone would see it, match themselves up, reach out. It worked. Members used it. Then Kevin — a software engineer — looked at the board and saw the obvious problem: you had to physically walk to the clubhouse to use it, and pinning your name and number on a public board is, as he puts it, "maybe not ideal from a GDPR point of view."
The digital version of that board is the core of what Clubmatch does. Not a booking system — there are plenty of those. Something more specific: a way for members to signal availability, find others at their level, and arrange a game without friction. No sharing of contact details. No group chat noise. Just the information that someone at your level has a free slot on Thursday afternoon, and a way to connect with them directly through the app.
The 55% figure didn't stay at 55%. When members could find each other, they played more.
August doesn't have to be quiet. The members are still there. They just need a way to find each other.
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