Put it on your phone
Do this first. It is not optional housekeeping — it is what stops your scores disappearing.
- Open the tracker link in Safari. It has to be Safari — Chrome on iOS cannot install it. And if you tapped the link in WhatsApp, you are in its built-in browser: tap the share or ⋮ menu and choose Open in Safari first.
- Tap the Share button — the square with an arrow coming out of the top.
- Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen.
- Tap Add. The icon appears with your other apps.
- Open it from that icon from now on, not from a browser tab — and set your box up inside the app, because the installed app keeps its own copy of the data.
- Open the tracker link in Chrome. If you tapped it in WhatsApp, tap the ⋮ menu and choose Open in Chrome first — the built-in browser cannot install apps.
- Either tap the Add to home screen button in the tracker's own toolbar, or use Chrome's ⋮ menu → Add to Home screen / Install app.
- Confirm. The icon appears in your app drawer.
- Open the link in Chrome or Edge.
- Click the install icon in the address bar — a small screen with a downward arrow, at the right-hand end. Or use the ⋮ menu → Cast, save and share → Install page as app.
- It opens in its own window and pins to your taskbar or dock.
On Safari for Mac: File → Add to Dock. A plain bookmark works fine on a computer too — the week-long expiry is an iPhone problem.
Set up your box
Once, at the start of the round. Two minutes.
- Pick your box number. Each device runs exactly one box — yours.
- Type the players' names. Anything from two up to ten. Fill in as many as you need and leave the rest blank. As you type it tells you what you are building: "8 players · 28 matches · 7 each · max 21".
- Create box. Every pairing is generated for you — everyone plays everyone else once, and nobody plays the same person twice.
If the box changes mid-round
Someone joins or drops out — hit Edit players. Adding a name creates their fixtures and leaves every existing result alone. Removing a name tells you how many played results that will delete before it does it.
Use the same names people use in the WhatsApp group. It makes matching posted scores to players much faster.
Enter a score
The bit you will do twenty times a round.
- Tap the cell where the two players cross on the sheet, or tap any row in Results to correct one you have already entered.
- Type the two set scores. Enter them from the left-hand player's side — the initials above each column tell you which is which.
- Extra boxes appear when they are needed. Enter a set as 7-6 and it asks for the tiebreak — that one is optional. Enter one set each and it asks for the championship tiebreak — that one is required, because otherwise nobody has won.
- Check the panel at the bottom. It spells out who won and what each player gets before you commit.
- Save score. The tables update instantly and it saves itself.
If it queries your score
Type something unusual — 8-6, say — and it tints the field amber and mentions it. It does not stop you. Save it anyway if that is what happened. The only two times it will hold you up are a set with the same score both sides, or one set all with no championship tiebreak, because in both cases there is genuinely no winner to record.
Match format it expects
- Two sets, each with a 7-point tiebreak at 6-6.
- At one set all, a 10-point championship tiebreak settles it and counts as the third set.
- Record a set tiebreak and the score shows in proper notation: 7-6(5).
Read the tables
Three views of the same box.
The Sheet
Every pairing in the box at a glance. Each row reads from that player's side, so their wins are green and their defeats are red or amber. Every match shows up twice — once in each player's row — but it is one fixture underneath. The blocked-out diagonal is where a player would meet themselves.
- Green — won the match
- Amber — lost, but won a set
- Red — lost without winning a set
On a phone the grid scrolls sideways and the names stay pinned to the left edge.
Standings
Bonus set counts the matches a player lost after winning a set — each of those is worth 2. Level on points is settled by head to head first, then set difference, then game difference. Games and Sets are hidden on a phone; turn a laptop on it if you need the detail.
Still to play
Sorted by who owes the most matches. The dots are one per fixture, filled in as they are played. This is your chasing list.
Tap a player to see exactly who they still have to play. Their outstanding opponents appear as buttons — tap one and it opens the score form for that match. That is usually the fastest way in: someone posts a result in the group, tap their name, tap their opponent, type the score.
Points
Per match. A player earns exactly one of these — they do not stack.
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Won the match — 2-0 or 2-1 | 3 |
| Lost the match but won a set | 2 |
| Lost in straight sets | 1 |
| Did not play the match | 0 |
A 2-1 win is worth the same as a 2-0 win. The only way to score 2 is to lose the championship tiebreak, because a match at one set all always goes to one. In a box of eight that means seven matches each and 21 points on offer; a smaller box scales down accordingly.
Where your data lives
Read this bit properly. It is the one thing that can bite you.
It saves the moment you change anything — the dot by Saved at the top blinks each time it writes. There is no save button and nothing to remember.
But it saves into the browser on the device you are using. That means:
- Your box lives on your phone. It is not on a server. Nobody else can see it and you cannot pick it up on another device.
- One admin, one device, per box. If two people enter scores on two phones, you get two different tables and no way to merge them.
- Clearing your browsing data wipes it. So does deleting the home-screen icon on some phones.
So back it up
Export backup downloads a small file with everything in it. Do it once a month, and always before you clear scores or change phone. Import backup reads it back — that is also how you move a box to a new device.