About Brighton & Hove Beach Volleyball Community

This app was created to make it easier for people in the Brighton & Hove beach volleyball community to organise games, find players, and ultimately get more people out playing.

A few years ago, there was a large shared Google Sheet that people in the community used to organise games. It made it much easier to find players, arrange matches and play with people outside your usual group.

For many players, myself included, it helped make the beach volleyball community feel more open and accessible.

I’m not actually sure who originally created it, but I always thought it was a brilliant idea.

This app was built in that same spirit.

Anyone who has organised beach volleyball games knows how quickly things become messy.

You book a court.

Then you need to find players.

Someone says yes.

Someone says maybe.

Someone drops out.

Someone messages you privately.

Someone replies in WhatsApp.

Someone replies in Messenger.

Suddenly you’re scrolling through conversations trying to remember who is actually coming.

It becomes even harder when you’re organising by playing level, game format, venue, time, number of spaces and waitlists.

The aim isn’t to replace WhatsApp.

It’s simply to make organising games a little easier.

The platform allows organisers to:

• Post games
• Choose the venue
• Set the playing level
• Choose the game format
• Manage sign ups
• Handle waitlists

Players can quickly see:

• Where games are
• What level they’re aimed at
• What format they’re playing
• How many spaces are left

Hopefully this helps:

• Find players faster
• Reduce organiser stress
• Avoid losing track of sign ups
• Handle cancellations more easily
• Help newer players find games
• Encourage people to play with a wider mix of the community

This platform is completely free to use.

It wasn’t built as a business or a paid service.

It was built because I thought the community deserved a simple tool that makes organising games easier.

I intend to keep it free for as long as I reasonably can.

If, in the future, the running costs become too expensive, I may introduce a very small amount of non-intrusive advertising or another lightweight way of covering hosting costs.

If that ever happens, my aim will always be to keep it respectful, transparent and community-first.

This app has been built with the help of AI, so naturally there will be bugs, rough edges and probably the occasional unexpected behaviour.

Please don’t be afraid to report issues or suggest improvements.

The best ideas usually come from people actually using the platform.

Hi, I’m Sam.

By day I work in IT, and in my spare time I enjoy tinkering with technology and building little projects.

I’ve always wanted to contribute something back to the beach volleyball community, but I never really knew how.

This app is my attempt.

It’s not trying to reinvent beach volleyball or replace WhatsApp.

It’s simply a tool that I hope makes organising games a little easier and helps more people get out and play.

I’m definitely not a professional software developer, so I’m learning as I go.

If you happen to have experience in software development, UX design, accessibility, product design, IT, data protection or anything else that you think could help improve the platform, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Equally, if you’re simply someone who uses the app and has ideas, suggestions or feedback, I’d love to hear that too.

This isn’t really “my” platform.

I’d like it to become something the community helps shape over time.

At the end of the day, if it saves people scrolling through endless WhatsApp messages trying to remember who’s actually playing, or helps even a few more people get involved in beach volleyball, then I’ll consider it a success.

Built with ❤️love for the Brighton & Hove beach volleyball community.

Samuel O’Dell