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Start a tournament

From nothing to a page anybody can read, in about ten minutes. You need a name, the dates, and some idea of the grades. Everything else can be changed afterwards, and nothing is public until you say so.

1

Give it a name

Log in, then go to Start a tournament. A name and the dates in your own words is all it asks for: "Northern Beaches", "5 and 6 December 2026". It starts as being set up, which means nobody but you can see it.

Where it lives afterwards

On your account page, under Tournaments you run, and in the bar at the top of every page. You will not have to remember a web address.
2

Say when it is on and what it is

Open The tournament at the top of your tournament screen: the first and last day, a line about it for the public page, and whether it is being set up, running or finished. The first day is what new grades take as their own first day, so setting it once saves setting it five times.

3

Say where it is played

Under Where it is played, type the name of the ground. The search offers grounds already on file first, then places from the map: pick one and it takes the address and drops the pin for you, which is what puts a visiting side at the right corner of a large reserve rather than at the front gate.

Then add the pitches on it: "Field 1", "Field 2". A tournament can only use pitches at its own grounds, which is what stops a fixture ending up two hours away.

The where it is played panel, with a ground search
Grounds are searched for, not typed. The pin comes with it.
4

Add the grades

A grade is what a squad actually plays in: Over 60 Men, All Female, Mixed Social. For each one, say how many teams fit, when entries close, who it is open to and the age range. None of that is enforced against anybody — it is what the team sheet checks a player against, so a convenor and a referee can see it and decide.

The add a grade form
Name, places, closing date, who it is for. A short code for the ladder.
5

Bring the draw in from your spreadsheet

If you already have the draw in Excel, do not retype it. Select the rows, copy, and paste them into Paste it in from a spreadsheet. It reads tabs, commas or semicolons, headings or none, times written any way anybody writes them, and dates day first. It also reads a draw laid out as a grid, pitches across the top and times down the side.

Nothing is saved until you have seen what it understood: how many games, which teams are already on the site and which are new, and any row it could not read. Paste a corrected sheet later and it updates rather than doubles. If it was the wrong sheet entirely, there is an undo.

The paste panel showing what it understood
What it made of your columns, and what it will create. Nothing is saved yet.

No spreadsheet, or one that will not behave?

Add the grades and invite the squads by hand, or email the spreadsheet to the address on the paste panel and somebody will set it up for you.
6

Open the doors

Press Make the public page. That is the page everybody else reads: the grades, the draw, the tables as results come in, the ground with directions. Send that link to your clubs and set the tournament to Running.

The other guides