Woburn Sands has always been a small, two-court community tennis club, kept going over the years by people willing to give their time to it.
But by the time James Godber and Kevin Rand became involved, it had reached a difficult point. Membership had fallen to around 30 and there were genuine questions about what the future of the club might look like.
After COVID, James left a large health and racquets club to become Head Coach at his local club, Woburn Sands. Kevin became Chair around the same period, bringing his background in technology and product development.
The club had a simple clubhouse, two courts and a small but committed membership. People came to play tennis, but there wasn't always much to keep them there afterwards or many opportunities for members who didn't already know each other to connect.
Kevin had experienced through other sports how powerful a strong sense of club community could be — where people knew each other, stayed around and felt part of something beyond the activity itself.
“People would turn up, play tennis and go home. We started thinking about how we could create more of a community feel around the club.”
That became the starting point.
Kevin and James didn't begin with a grand strategy. Together with the committee and members, they started looking at the club through a simple question: what could we do to make the experience better for everyone?
The first changes were small.
They bought tins of green paint and gave the clubhouse some attention. They asked members if anyone had old tennis memorabilia sitting in a loft — trophies, photographs, rackets, programmes — and offered to display it with the member's name alongside it. They got a coffee machine. They kept touching things up, replacing things that looked tired and adding small details that showed people cared about the club.
“A friend started coming in every couple of weeks and saying, ‘There’s always something new.’ There was a bit of excitement to it.”
Then they started thinking about how they could make it easier for more of the membership to get involved.
They introduced sessions for complete beginners, where everyone was in the same boat. Power Hour sessions gave people with busy lives another way to play when they couldn't commit to a longer social session. And when a new face arrived, somebody made an effort to welcome them and show them around.
“We started with two ambassadors. That grew to ten, then fifty. More and more people became proud to be part of the club and wanted to help others feel part of it too.”
Some of the things the club became known for had nothing to do with tennis.
The WSTC cap — branded and sold to members — turned into a running competition to photograph it in unusual places around the world. A map went up in the clubhouse with pins marking where it had travelled.
The annual Quiz and Chips night developed its own traditions too: a quiz where some of the questions make very little sense, some of the answers are debatable, and a chip van arrives halfway through.
“The first year, six people came to the Christmas do. A few years later, we had 67.”
As more people became involved, more people wanted to contribute. Committee meetings became more regular and, over time, more members started putting their hands up to help. Today, there is no shortage of people wanting to get involved.
Over time, membership grew from around 30 to around 200, with a waiting list developing behind it.
But perhaps more importantly, people weren't simply coming to play tennis. They were staying, meeting other members and feeling part of the club.
One long-standing neighbour raised concerns as the club became busier. Kevin went to listen. Resident meetings followed, changes were made where possible — including to the floodlights — and where something couldn't be changed, the reasons were explained.
Over time, the relationship changed completely. That same neighbour eventually joined the club and was later voted Member of the Year.
One member who can no longer play because of illness still comes to the club regularly. She brings a cushion, sits beside the court and watches the social tennis.
“I think if we took that away from her, she'd be lost. That's when you realise it isn't only about tennis. It's about what tennis and being part of a club can make people feel.”
Even as the club grew, something kept happening that didn't quite make sense.
There were plenty of people wanting to play, but members could still struggle to find someone to play with.
James and Kevin put up a physical Buddy Board in the clubhouse — a T-card system where members could leave their name, contact details, availability and playing level so other members looking for a game could find them.
It worked.
But you had to physically come to the club to use it and, from a data protection perspective, displaying contact details on a wall wasn't an ideal long-term solution.
Kevin, with his background in technology, saw that there could be a better way.
That simple idea became the starting point for Clubmatch.
Not something conceived in a meeting room, but something that emerged from everyday club life and a real problem they were trying to solve.
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This isn't a blueprint. Every tennis club is different, and what worked at Woburn Sands reflected its members, its community and its circumstances.
But the experience taught James and Kevin something that has stayed with them: when you make it easier for people to play, connect and feel part of their club, good things tend to follow.
That thinking has been at the heart of Clubmatch ever since.
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