Racket Stries

Tales from the tramlines. Real club players, real shanked volleys, real WhatsApp groups that got out of hand.

About Racket Stories

Hello! Racket Stories is a little group blog written by people who play at (and, in some cases, organise far too much at) a big multi-sport club in Surrey. Tennis mostly, but also padel, squash, pickleball, and the occasional heated table tennis rally in the bar.

We write about the bits of racket sports nobody puts in the brochure: the WhatsApp group with 140 members and 2 talkers, the 6.58pm cancellation, the ladder nobody updates, the beginner on court two who just wants a rally that lasts longer than a sneeze.

The honest bit

We'd rather you knew this up front.

  • Jake is real. A member at our club, Jake built Rallio, the app our socials, ladders and mixers run on. Several posts here mention it, because it really is what we use.
  • Everyone else is a composite. That's Bev, Dan, Priya, Graham, and the coaches and club chair who write here too (Coach Terry, Coach Mel and Malcolm). Each one is stitched together from real people and real things that happened at real clubs (we've all met a Keith). Names and details are changed so nobody's mum recognises them, and so we can be rude about the booking system without getting a letter from the committee.
  • The stories started life as articles on the Rallio blog. We've retold them the way they actually felt from the court, the clubhouse and the car park.

Getting around

There isn't really a menu, sorry. It's that kind of blog. Use the Blog Archive and Labels on the right, the "Older Posts" link at the bottom of the page, or the search box at the very top. Feeling brave? Click "Next Blog»" and see where you end up.

Get in touch

Comments are switched off for now because of the spam robots. If you want to say hello, tell us your own club stories, or report a typo (Graham will want to know), use the Rallio contact page. It goes to Jake, who passes things on. Or find us on court. We're the ones apologising.

Want to try the app the stories keep mentioning? It's on the App Store and Google Play, and there's more at rallio.io.

The gang

  • Bev on the Baseline – Thursday social organiser since 2019. Keeper of the clipboard. Has strong opinions about tramlines.
  • Deuce Dan – 34. Intermediate forever. Ran the club ladder off a spreadsheet for seven months and lived to tell the tale.
  • Priya K. – Picked up a racket in July. Have apologised more times than I've hit a winner.
  • Graham (Squash Sec.) – Retired. Squash section secretary. Has sat through more committee meetings about booking software than any man should.
  • Coach Terry – Tennis coach for 22 years. Has opinions about pickleball, padel, ball machines and parents. Mostly the same opinion.
  • Coach Mel! – Tennis AND pickleball coach. Thinks every racket sport is the best racket sport. Overuses capitals.
  • Malcolm (Chair) – Club chair. Writes as he speaks at the AGM: briefly, and with a sigh.
  • Jake S. – Designer and developer, member at a big multi-sport club in Surrey. Accidentally built an app because of a WhatsApp group.