Before Sat: Inform select committee of players you would like for next week, and those who said they were unavailable. Also check availability chart for others who may now be unavailable.
Sat / Sun : Check the team sheets to see the team you ended up with, call any of your regular players to tell them if they have to play up or down this week.
Sun / Mon : Check the team sheets to see if any of your players have confirmed
Mon / Tues : No-one confirmed so call all of your team to tell them they are playing, also telling reserve they are not playing this week. Then one player calls back to say they can't play after all, they have guests over / have parent evening / etc. Call back reserve and now ask them if they can play after all.
Tues / Wed : No-one calls to cry off, but you get a call from team captain below to ask if they can borrow a player, offering you the reserve from the team above instead.
Tues / Wed / Thurs : Team above now loses a player so you have to give them someone, and then call team below to ask for your player back, you try and help them find someone else by calling all the might-be available players, no luck, players from all teams below now have to shuffle up to make up numbers.
Match night : Arrive a 7pm for home game, get a match ball, scorecard, pen and marking pads, and claim a court. 3 of opposition there already but none of your team are, so you prepare to go on out of position. You then find one of your players at a different court chatting to another team, you persuade them to go on instead, after justifying why they are still number 3 when they dropped less points than the number 2 last week (maybe because 2 won 3-2 and they lost 3-0 ???!). End up marking the game as no one is there yet. All 5 of opposition are there now, only 3 of you, you have to go on now as other player is a bit tired from the drive over. You tell them to sort out getting their match on the spare court, telling them to get number 3 to mark and get another ball from reception. You come off court after 2nd game and find your player still sat there, claiming to not know how to get spare court / wanting to play on the glass back. You give up, go back on court and resign to another late finish... Match over so you go to the bar to sort out food, asking how many are eating and how many veggies there are, some players want you to find out veggie option just in case its better. Finally in the bar and getting ready to sit down, last players not there yet so you get bar staff to keep their food warm, also buy opponents drinks because 2 of your team have left, one left match fee and money for drinks other didn't... You fill in scorecard and get other captain to sign it. Collect match fees and go and pay up £35 for meals - you remembered of course to put aside money you collected last week from away match and didn't just spend it on beer! Then you ask players if they are available next week and give scorecard in to reception. Then have a deserved drink and compare results with other teams, explaining why you lost the important tie 3-2 and don't say anything when told you didn't quite look focused enough on the game!!
I'm sure it'll go smoother next week.
We can all do our bit to make running teams easier, none of us wants to do it so its not fair to make it as hard as possible when someone does offer.