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Setup

Club Manager

Appears: Everywhere a player is added

What a club is

A club in Club Manager (Tools ▸ Club Manager) is its own record, outside any league, team or event: the club's name, short name, country, logo and colour; its venue and lawns; who runs it; and its Players list. A ladder or box league the club runs, the club's team in a team league, and any tournament can add people from that list instead of typing them again.

The list is the club's own. A person on it can also be on another club's list; each club keeps its own record. A person with a WCF record is linked to it on the list; a person without one carries the club's estimated dGrade. Every person can also carry an Estimated GC dGrade, an A6W handicap and an AC handicap, and can be linked to their AC ranking record for an AC dGrade.

Club Manager and League Manager are open to every signed-in account while in development; features are added regularly, and the card at the top of each takes suggestions and needs for your club's leagues.

+ New club warns when a club by that name is already in Club Manager (the ones you can find: every club, except test clubs that are not yours). If it is your club, one of its admins adds you on its Admins card; Create another club anyway is for a different club that happens to share the name.

The club's page has a rail of sections: Players, Leagues & teams, Club details, Venue & lawns, Admins and Who can find the players. It opens on Players; a link ending #players opens the list directly.

✨ Ask AI, at the bottom right of a club's page, answers questions about it from this manual, naming the section and setting, and makes changes to the club on an Apply card. See Ask AI.

Players

Everyone at the club, whether or not they play ranked croquet. The table shows each person's name, the grade and handicap columns the club has chosen (see Grades shown), email and phone. Find by name or email and Active / Inactive / All narrow the list. A count beside them says how many are listed, or how many of the whole list match the filter.

Lists

A player can be on any number of lists the club names: Active, Occasional, Interclub, Social, whatever fits. Lists are separate from Active / Inactive, which is a player's status. The Lists row under the filters shows each list as a chip with how many are on it; click one to show only that list, several to show anyone on any of them, All players to clear. A dashed Not on a list chip shows the players on no list at all, so they can be ticked and put on one. With one chip on, Rename renames it for everyone and Remove list takes everyone off it (the players stay on the club list). Export and Copy email list work on what the table shows, so two chips and Copy email list gives the addresses of both lists together.

To put people on a list, tick their rows and use Add to list… (an existing list or + New list…), or Remove from list… to take them off. The open player's form has a tick box per list, saved as you tick. + Add people has Put everyone in this file on the list, so an upload lands tagged, including anyone in the file who was already on the club list. A club with no lists sees only the hint to make one.

+ Add people

Three ways in, all through the same box:

  • Paste from a spreadsheet: select the cells in Excel or Google Sheets, copy, and paste. Any column order works.
  • Choose a file (.xlsx or .csv): the first sheet with data is read; other sheets are named so you know they were not.
  • Type, one a line: Name, email.

A name is all the list needs: a full name in one column is split into first and last name (Full name (split for you) in the column row), and separate First name and Last name columns work too. Email and phone are worth having (ladder emails and contact links use them); Est. dGrade and Handicap (saved as the A6W handicap) are optional, for seeding club events.

With more than one column, a Columns row appears above a preview: one drop-down per column saying what it holds (First name, Last name, Name for a full name in one cell, Email, Phone, Est. dGrade, Handicap, or Don't import). The headings in the sheet are read for a first guess; change any that is wrong. A name column that turns out to hold email addresses or phone numbers is flagged in red and nothing is saved until the mapping is fixed. First row is headings says whether the top row is data. The preview shows how each person will land, so a phone number in the surname column is caught before anything is saved. Rows with no name are left out and counted.

The last preview column, On the list?, says what each row does: New, or Already on the list (matched by email, else by full name) with what changes. Nobody is added twice. By default a person already on the list keeps what the list holds and only blank details are filled in; the column names them (fills in phone). Where the spreadsheet disagrees with the list (keeps their email), a tick box Replace details already on the list with the spreadsheet's appears; ticked, the spreadsheet's non-blank values win. A name repeated in the same sheet is counted once. The line under the preview totals it: new, already on the list, repeated, left out.

Check and add checks each name against the WCF player list: a single clear match is linked, a name with several close matches lists them to pick from (or None of these, add as typed), and a name not on the list is added as typed. A typo shows up here as no match or the wrong matches: Fix the name… on that row opens the name to edit, and Search again re-checks that one row without losing the rest. The button stays grey until every name with several matches has its pick; the line beside it counts the names still waiting, and Show me scrolls to the first. There is no limit on how many names go in at once. The message afterwards says how many were added, updated and unchanged.

The table shows each person's grade and handicap columns and Contact (email and phone):

  • GC dGrade: from the player's WCF record, updated automatically from the WCF rankings. A dash means no WCF record is linked, or the record has no grade yet.
  • Est. GC dGrade: the club's own estimate, entered on the player's form.
  • AC dGrade: from the player's AC ranking record, updated automatically.
  • A6W hcp and AC hcp: the handicaps entered on the player's form.

The list opens sorted by last name; tapping Person reverses it. Tapping a grade heading sorts best first (tap again for weakest first). GC dGrade and AC dGrade sort by that grade, with players who have none at the bottom. Est. GC dGrade sorts by the estimate; a player with no estimate is placed by their GC dGrade, and players with neither are at the bottom by last name. On a narrow screen the handicap columns and Contact are hidden; they are still on the player's form and in the export. A player with no email address is marked No email beside their name.

Grades shown

Grades shown ▾, beside + Add people, lists the five columns with a tick box each: GC dGrade, Est. GC dGrade, AC dGrade, A6W handicap and AC handicap. Each tick is saved at once for the whole club, so every admin sees the same columns. An unticked column is hidden from the list and from the player's form; the values are kept, and come back when the column is ticked again. The export always includes every column. A new club shows GC dGrade, Est. GC dGrade and A6W handicap.

Opening a player

Opening a player shows their form right under their row and edits their first and last name, email, phone, the grade and handicap fields the club shows, Notes (seen by club admins only) and the Inactive tick. A Holds line lists every role the person has anywhere on Croquet Tools (club owner, club admin, league owner, organizer, captain, co-captain) and where. Under WCF, a linked player shows their WCF record with Unlink; an unlinked one has Link to a WCF player…, which searches the WCF list by their name and links the one you pick. Save closes the form.

GC dGrade and AC dGrade on the form are read-only: they come from the player's WCF and AC records. Estimated GC dGrade, A6W handicap and AC handicap are typed in. Entering an estimate for a player who has a WCF dGrade shows a caution: using an estimate when a published grade is available is not standard practice. The estimate is for the club's own use; a player with a WCF record is still added to events with their WCF dGrade. The A6W handicap is the one an American six-wicket event uses when it adds the player from the club list.

With AC dGrade shown, an AC row under WCF links the player to their AC ranking record: Link to an AC player… searches the AC rankings by the player's name and lists matches with country, dGrade, games played and the last year played; edit the name and Search to look again, and Link on the right one. A linked player shows their AC record with Unlink.

Remove from the club takes them off the list and keeps the record; leagues and teams they are already on keep them. Delete record… deletes the club record for good, after a confirm that says how many league or team lists and event entries point at it. Those lists and entries stay, with their games and results; they only lose the link to the club record. Delete is for a record that should never have been made (a bad import, a duplicate); for anything else, Remove.

An inactive player stays on the list but is not offered to leagues, teams or events.

Delete selected

Each row has a tick box, and the heading's tick box selects every row shown. With rows selected, Delete selected… deletes those records for good after one confirm that totals the league or team lists and event entries pointing at them (those stay, with their games and results). To clear a list and start again: All in the status filter, the heading tick box, Delete selected….

Export

Export ▾ works on the list as shown (the current filter), or on the ticked rows only when any are ticked; the button says how many. It offers:

  • Excel (.xlsx) and CSV: the same columns either way, first and last name, email, phone, status, WCF code, name and GC dGrade, estimated GC dGrade, AC code, name and dGrade, A6W handicap, AC handicap and notes.
  • Copy email list: puts everyone in the list on the clipboard as Name <address>, separated by commas, with duplicate addresses and blanks left out, to paste into the To or Bcc line of a new email in your own mail program. The message under the table says how many were copied and how many players had no email. Croquet Tools does not send the email.

A new league starts with the club

+ New League in League Manager asks for the club first. Find the club by name, or type a name under or create one and the club is created with the league; the league is linked to it from the start, with the club's venue, logo and colour. Not run by a club skips it, for a federation or regional league. On a team league the club is optional (Host club (optional)): it is who runs the league, and each team is linked to its own club later under Teams (Team's club).

Make this a club

A ladder or box league made before Club Manager, with no club linked, shows Keep this list on a club above Everyone in the league in League settings ▸ People. Make this a club builds the club from the league (its host club name or the league's name, country, venue, logo and colour), copies everyone on the league's list onto the club's list, linked, and links the league. A team in a team league has the same on My Team ▸ Players, for a league manager: it builds the club from the team.

Leagues and teams

Lists the leagues the club hosts and the club's teams in team leagues, each opening its League settings. + New league for this club opens League Manager's new-league form with the club already picked. + New event for this club opens the new-event wizard with the club picked under Club, so the event starts with the club's venue, lawns and logo.

A club relates to a league in one of two ways:

  • Host club: the club the league belongs to. It gives nobody a role: when a league is made for a club, the club's admins are written onto the league's People ▸ League access list as organizers, where they can be removed like anyone else, and that list alone says who runs the league. The link brings + Add from club on People, the club's logo and its venue as the season default. On a team league it is optional (Host club (optional) on New league, or League settings ▸ Details ▸ Host club later; the ✕ beside the club clears it); a league run by a committee of clubs leaves it empty and invites its organizers on People.
  • Participating club: the club has a team in someone else's team league. Its admins and the team's captain run the team and add its players from the list; the league's organizers see the players put on the team, not the list.

Only the club's admins can link it, so nobody can attach a league to a club and read its list. A league made before the club existed is linked by one of the club's admins, from the league's side: League settings ▸ Details ▸ Host club offers the clubs you administer. A team in another organizer's league is linked by invitation: the organizer uses Invite the club… on the team's row, and the invitation appears here under Leagues and teams, with Accept and Decline. An invitation sent by email to a club not yet in Club Manager opens a page that signs the person in, creates the club from the invitation (no League Manager permission needed) and accepts in one go; it also waits on Club Manager's front page for that address.

Changing a league's club later changes the label, logo and player list it draws on; the organizers on People are untouched, and a league is handed to another person with Make league owner on People.

Once linked, People in League settings and My Team ▸ Players gain + Add from club.

Add from club

On a linked league's People page, and on a linked team's My Team ▸ Players, + Add from club lists the club's active players with a tick box each; people already on the list show ticked and greyed. Find a name narrows it; All ticks everyone not yet on the list. Also put them on the [season] team (or Also add them to the [season] ladder, with a choice of ladder when the season has several) is ticked by default and puts them straight on the season. On a team league's People page with several linked teams, a picker says which team.

An added person stays linked to the club's record: a change to their name, email or phone in either place reaches the other. A person already on the league's list under the same WCF player, email or name is linked to the club's record rather than added twice.

Club players in an event

In any event's Add player search, names from club lists you can read appear under the WCF rows, each marked Club · [club name] so a shared name can be told apart. Which lists you can read: the clubs you are an admin of, the clubs whose leagues or teams you organize, and any club whose admins turned on Organizers anywhere can find my players by name.

  • A club player with a WCF record is added to the event as that WCF record, with the WCF dGrade; the club row is only where you found them.
  • A club player without one is added by name, with the club's estimated dGrade (shown in amber) and, on an American Six Wicket event, their handicap.
  • An AC event uses the AC record; a club player with only a GC record is added by name.

Either way the entry remembers the club player. Someone already in the roster shows Already added.

Venue & lawns

Venue searches the venue catalog; a venue picked from it puts the club on the map, and a typed name is kept when the club is not listed yet (with a link to add it). Picking a catalog venue copies its address, phone, email, website, map pin, number of lawns and logo into the boxes that are still empty; boxes the club has filled keep the club's text. Nothing is kept until Save.

The rest is the club's own copy: Address, Contact name, Email, Phone, Website, Social links (Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube), Map pin (tap the map to place it, drag it to move it), Number of lawns (blank = the number of lawn names) and Lawn names (one a line).

Show on venue page

Each item has a Show on venue page tick, and so does the logo (from Club details). On Save, the ticked items replace the catalog's values on the public Venues page and its map. Ticked by default: address, phone, website, social links, map pin, logo and number of lawns. Not ticked by default: contact name, email and lawn names. An item that is not ticked leaves the catalog's own value as it was; the contact name, social links and lawn names only appear on the venue page while ticked. The venue's name is always the catalog's, since games and rankings are matched on it; a different name goes through Suggest an edit on the Venues page.

One club looks after each venue's page: the first to save while linked to it. Another club linked to the same venue is told which club that is and uses Suggest an edit. A test club never changes the public page. A club that moves to another venue lets go of the old one.

The lawns are used in two places. An event run for the club (Club on the new-event wizard or in Details ▸ Venues & lawns) loads them into the event's venue. A league scoresheet for a home match prints the home team's club lawns, or the host club's when the match is at the host club's venue.

Admins

Club admins manage everything on the club's page: the players list, club details, venue and lawns, logo, admins and who can find the players. Being a club admin gives no role in any league or on any team: a league's organizers are the list on its People page (the club's admins are written onto it when a league is made for the club, and can be removed), and a team's captains are the Captain and Co-captain ticks on its team sheet. Across the tools there are four roles: a club admin runs the club, a league owner created the league and can delete it or hand it on, an organizer runs one league, and a captain runs one team; one person can hold several, and each is held by being on the matching list. They are Croquet Tools accounts, added by the email of their account; an email with no account is reported, and the person signs up first. A club keeps at least one admin. The person who created the club is the club owner, with the same powers as the other admins plus Make club owner, which hands the club to one of them.

Delete club

Below the Admins card, for the club owner only. Deleting moves the club to the bin, and with it the club page, venue, lawns, logo, the whole Players list and every league the club runs, with all their seasons, matches and scores. The card lists what goes before you confirm: the number of players, and each league by name with its season count. Teams linked to the club in other leagues stay in those leagues and only lose the link to the Players list. Type delete this club to confirm. Nothing is erased: every club admin is emailed that the club was deleted, with a link that opens it.

Any admin restores the club from that email, from the red banner on the club page, or from In the bin on the Club Manager list, which shows each binned club with who deleted it and when. Restoring the club restores the leagues binned with it. The bin has no time limit, and the Croquet Tools team can restore a club at any point.

Changes

Every change to the Players list, newest first: the date and time, who made it, which player, and a short what (added, name, email, phone, now inactive, estimated dGrade, A6W handicap, AC handicap, notes, WCF or AC record linked or unlinked, put on or taken off a list, removed from the club, record deleted). It is written by the database on every change, whichever way it was made: the player's form, + Add people, a bulk list action or a league keeping a linked person's details in step (shown as Croquet Tools). An upload or a bulk action shows as one line with the count and the first few names. Club admins see the log; nobody else. It starts from the day it was switched on. The first 400 lines load; Show everything loads the rest.

Who can find the players

Club admins, the organizers of leagues the club hosts, and the captains and organizers of the club's linked teams can always add players from the list. Organizers anywhere can find my players by name (off by default) also shows matching names, with the club's name, to any signed-in event organizer searching for a player. Off, only the people above see the list.

Test club

A club marked Test club is found by its admins only, in club search and in event player search.

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