How play groups work
Everything from creating your crew to booking courts, splitting costs, and scoring matches that move your PERA rating. Ten minutes here and you're the group expert.
What play groups are
A play group is your regular badminton crew on 24by7 Access — the same people, the same club, playing on a rhythm. The group gets its own home page with a roster, upcoming play dates, live standings, and match history. One person leads (invites, play dates, court bookings); everyone else just shows up and plays.
Create a group
- Go to Groups and use the create form: pick a name and the club you play at (start typing — clubs whose name starts with your letters rank first).
- New groups start private — only invited players can see them. You can flip to public later from Manage.
- While typing a club name, any public groups at that club appear right below the search box — maybe the crew you're looking for already exists.
Invite your crew
Membership is invitation-only — nobody is ever added silently. From your group's Manage page, invite by email:
- On HmBr already — they get an invite and join once they accept.
- New to HmBr — opening the emailed invite proves it's their address, so they enter just their name (no password, no phone, no separate sign-in) and land straight in the group.
- Email didn't arrive? Hit Resend on the pending invite from Manage — or, if delivery is down, Manage hands you a link you can share directly.
- Sent an invite by mistake? Revoke it from Manage while it's still pending.
Public groups & asking to join
- Leaders can make a group public from Manage. Public groups show a profile to signed-in players — name, club, member count — with an Ask to join button.
- The leader answers each request with Accept (they're in), Decline, or Park — park quietly defers the decision; the requester simply keeps seeing “pending.”
- Traveling? Search a club you'll visit when creating a group and its public groups appear — ask to join one instead of starting your own.
Leaving & leadership transfer
- Any member can leave a group from the group's home page — the leader is notified by email so the roster is never a mystery.
- Moving away or stepping back? The leader can hand the group to any active member from Manage. The new leader gets full organizer control and an email; the old leader stays on as a player.
Play dates, RSVP & check-in
- The leader posts a play date from Manage: name, date & time, singles or doubles, optional court fee. Every member lands on the roster and gets a heads-up.
- Members RSVP yes or no on the session page — the group home shows who's in at a glance (green dots).
- On the day, the leader checks players in. Check-ins drive the cost split and who can record matches.
- The session page also shows where you're playing — the club's hall map with courts laid out from the entrance, so first-timers walk straight to the right court.
Booking a court with a play date
If your group's club is a 24by7 booking partner, the play-date form grows a court picker — choose a court and duration and the fee computes itself from the club's hourly rates (off-peak slots cost less). Then the email-callback flow runs:
- Your points are held — locked, not spent — before we ask the club. No surprise charges later.
- The club gets an email with the court, time, and fee, plus three one-tap buttons: Accept, Suggest other times, or Not available.
- Accept → your hold is captured, and the play date shows a green “Confirmed by the club” chip.
- Not available → the hold is released in full and the play date is cancelled.
- Suggest other times → the club proposes up to three alternate slots; the leader picks one by email (the hold re-prices to the new slot automatically) or declines them all.
While the request is awaiting confirmation, the leader can cancel it from the session page — the hold releases immediately. Requests that sit unanswered expire on their own, also releasing the hold.
Cost split & paying with points
- The court fee splits equally among players who show up — checked-in players once the session runs; before that the estimate uses RSVP yeses, then the full roster.
- Each player settles their share with HmBr points or cash — the session page says exactly which (“settled with 8,000 HmBr points — no cash involved” vs “settled in cash”). No ambiguity.
- Past play dates keep the full record: who attended, which court, and how the cost was split.
Recording scores
Two ways to get a match into the books — both update PERA the moment you save:
- Quick record card (on the session page): pick the players on each side, punch in the game scores (BWF 21, best of three), save. Perfect when you scored on paper or memory.
- Score live courtside: the full umpire console. Pick the four players (or two for singles), then tap each point on a real court view — it tracks serving and receiving, service courts, and game transitions for you. Swap the lineup between matches without leaving the court.
- Gym wifi died? Keep scoring — the result is saved on your phone and syncs automatically when the connection returns. No match is ever lost.
- Only attendees of the session can record its matches — that's what makes group results trustworthy.
PERA ratings & standings
- PERA is HmBr's skill rating — separate numbers for doubles and singles, starting at 1500. Win and it rises; lose and it dips; the size of the move reflects how surprising the result was.
- Group matches are verified play — recorded by attendees at real sessions — so they feed the same rating engine as HmBr Open tournament matches.
- Your group's standings rank members by wins, then win-rate, then PERA. Only matches between current members count, so nobody's record is skewed by players who've moved on.
Your group's home page
Every group has a clubhouse page, and it adapts to whoever's looking:
- You — your win-loss record in this group and your PERA ratings, right under the header.
- Next up — the next play date with your RSVP status (“You're checked in” / “You haven't answered yet”) and a red Score button when it's game time.
- The squad — everyone's avatar and ratings; the leader wears the red ring.
- Latest results — recent scorelines where your matches carry W/L chips and your name reads “You.”
- Standings — the table everyone argues about at dinner.
- Leaders also get the Manage button — invites, play dates, visibility, join requests, and leadership transfer all live there, off the home page.
Archiving & restoring a group
Groups are never deleted — a leader archives one to retire it, and can restore it any time:
- Archive from Manage (a two-step confirm). The group home switches to a read-only banner: invites, new play dates, and RSVPs all pause.
- Nothing is lost — past play dates, match results, PERA history, and the member roster all stay exactly as they were.
- An archived group drops out of your groups list (a Show archived toggle brings it back into view) and off any public listing.
- The current leader can Restore it from the group home whenever — it comes back live, history intact, ready for the next season.
Quick answers
Do my friends need an HmBr account to join my group?
No account to set up first — the invite handles it. If they're already on HmBr they just accept; if they're new, opening the emailed invite proves it's their address, so they enter only their name (no password, no phone, no separate sign-in) and they're in the group.
When is my wallet charged for a court booking?
Never before the club confirms. Points are held (locked, not spent) when the request is sent; the hold is only captured when the club accepts. If the club declines, you cancel, or the request expires, the hold is released in full.
What if the club can't do our requested time?
The club can suggest up to three alternate slots from their reply email. The group leader gets those options by email, picks one (the hold re-prices automatically) or declines them all — declining cancels the play date and releases the hold.
How do group standings decide who's on top?
Wins first, then win-rate, then PERA rating (doubles, falling back to singles). Only completed matches between current group members count, so a departed member's games never skew the table.
What's the difference between the quick record card and the live scoring app?
The quick card on the session page is for entering a finished match's game scores in one shot. The live scoring app (Score live courtside) is a tap-per-point umpire console with serving/receiving tracking that works even when gym wifi drops. Both update PERA the moment the match is saved.
Can someone see my group without being a member?
Private groups are invisible to non-members. If the leader makes the group public, signed-in players can see its profile and ask to join — the leader decides with Accept, Park, or Decline.
Who pays for the court?
The total court fee is split equally among the players who actually show up (checked-in players; before check-in the estimate uses RSVP yeses, then the full roster). Each player can settle their share with HmBr points or cash.
Can I move my group to a new leader?
Yes — the leader can hand the group to any active member from the Manage page. The new leader gets full organizer control and an email; the old leader stays on as a player.
What happens if I archive my group — can I get it back?
Archiving retires a group without deleting anything: invites, new play dates, and RSVPs pause, and the page becomes read-only, but every past play date, match result, PERA record, and member stays. The leader can Restore it from the group home at any time and it comes back live, history intact.
Ready to rally your crew?
Go to your groups →