I would like to play tennis at my own tennis night please

It's twenty to ten on a Wednesday and I'm stood at the hob counting to fourteen.

Twelve yeses, one "probably", and Keith. Keith has replied with a thumbs up. After five years I know a Keith thumbs up means yes unless it rains, or his knee goes, or there's something good on BBC Four. So that's thirteen and a Keith. Which is either three courts or three courts and a sit-out and I won't know which until about 6.55 tomorrow.

Here is my point and then I'll stop. I would like to play tennis at my own tennis night.

That's it. That's the whole post really. I started running Thursdays in 2019 because Margaret moved away and nobody else put their hand up, and somewhere along the line it turned from "Bev sends a message on Tuesday" into a second job I do from the kitchen, the train, the car park, and once (Sue will confirm this) the dentist's chair.

I collect the names. I chase the maybes. I work out who's on which court so it's not the same four on court one every week (it is always the same four on court one if I don't do it, the ones who reply fastest). I remember who played with who. I don't always remember who played with who. I collect the £4 for balls. I am the reserve list. I am the leaderboard. I am, basically, a spreadsheet with a forehand.

And then I get to the club and I spend the first half hour sorting people out and the second half hour sorting out the people who came late, and by the time I get on court it's ten to nine and the lights go off at nine.

I've started calling it organiser fog. It's not stress exactly. It's just always THERE. Something to count, someone to reply to, a bit of paper that mustn't get lost. You don't notice it on people. What you notice is that eighteen months later the organiser quietly stops and the group quietly stops with them. I've watched it happen twice at our club. Wednesday ladies' doubles, gone. Sunday padel, gone, the minute Martin moved to Bristol. Nobody stopped liking tennis. The person carrying it just put it down.

I'm not putting it down. I just want to put SOME of it down.

None of the jobs I listed need to be me. Counting heads doesn't need to be me. Moving a reserve up when someone drops out definitely doesn't need to be me. Jake at our club (he builds apps, he's on here too) keeps nodding very hard when I say all this, so watch this space I suppose.

Right. Keith's just changed his thumbs up to "maybe 🤔". Back to counting.

P.S. If you organise something and you're reading this at the hob, have a biscuit. You're not bad at it. It's just a lot.