About The Somerset Fixture Exchange
This is a free fixture exchange provided by Somerset RFU for clubs in Somerset
and neighbouring counties.
It is based on a similar system which at the time of writing (2015) has been running in Essex and East Anglia for the
last twelve years. The system consists of three exchanges, one for senior men, one for youth and mini/midi teams and
one for ladies and girls. The mens and youth exchanges have always attracted a large number of fixture requests although
the Ladies version has never achieved the critical mass of users needed for it to really take off. It does however
get some use and so we keep it on the system and we have included all three exchanges on the Somerset version.
We include a short and somewhat tongue in cheek statement form the author of the original version.
How it Started
In 2002 I made the fatal mistake of pointing out that
the lack of a fixtures secretary was having an adverse
effect on the playing success of Harlow Rugby Club. No
sooner was my back turned than I found myself elected; I
suspect most of you became fixtures secretaries in the same
way. The next thing I discovered was that once your name
got around you got bombarded with emails from other clubs
sending to perhaps 50 or more clubs to set up one game. In
any less polite community than rugby it would have been
called SPAM. I was convinced that there must be a better
way. A few weeks later I was watching an Eastern Counties
Cup game with Ivor Smith, these days the secretary of
Essex. We both agreed that a web based exchange may be a
solution and I offered to write a program to provide one.
Ivor offered to promote it through his Essex site and
provided a lot of useful advice and encouragement. This was
how the exchange was born.
Dave Sharp