What it is
Junban takes the job the organiser normally does on a scrap of paper: dividing whoever turned up across the courts you have, pairing them differently each round, and making sure nobody sits out more often than anyone else. It runs the match clock and sounds an alarm when the round is over. It needs iOS 18.2 or newer and works on iPhone and iPad.
The name is the Japanese word for turn, or order — 順番.
Getting started
Add people first: Members, then the + button. A nickname is all that is needed. You can add a photo, which is cropped to a circle and shown on the rest list and the results.
Then Start a Training Session. You are asked three things: singles or doubles, how many courts the hall has, and how long a match runs. Tick who came, and start.
Groups
If you play with two different crowds — a badminton night and a pickleball night — put them in Groups. The setup screen can then filter to one group and tick everyone in it at once. People can be in both groups, and anyone can be ticked whatever group they are in, so a visitor from Thursday is not a problem.
Play dates
A group can hold the nights it plays, with a time and a hall. The next three show on the main screen, and tapping one starts a session with that group already chosen. There is no calendar sync and no server: this is your own list, kept on your own devices.
The warm-up
Every session opens on the warm-up screen. Set how long one set runs and how many of them — four sets of two and a half minutes is the default — and a sound marks the end of each so the group changes ends. The last one ends with the full alarm, and then you start round one. Skip Warm-up goes straight to playing.
During a session
Each court shows who is on it and which side is which. Start Session runs the clock for every court at once; the alarm sounds when time is up.
Marking the winners
Tap the side that won. Tap again to unmark. Nothing is compulsory — a court with no winner marked simply does not count, which is the right answer for a match that was abandoned because somebody turned an ankle. Moving on with a court unmarked asks first, because that is also what forgetting looks like.
People arriving and leaving
Players in the top right adds somebody who turned up late or removes somebody who has gone home. A late arrival joins level with everyone else rather than being owed every rest going, and removing somebody takes effect at the next round rather than pulling them off court mid-rally. Whatever they played still counts.
How the pairings are chosen
Each round is drawn fresh, weighted so that resting is spread as evenly as possible. Sitting out more often than everybody else is the thing people mind; playing with the same partner twice in an evening is not, so an unfair rest outweighs any number of repeated pairings.
The alarm
The alarm plays at the media volume, not the ringer, and it sounds even when the device is set to silent. The screen also stays awake while a match is running, so the alarm never has to fall back to a notification.
I cannot hear it
Open Settings → Test the alarm. It sounds after three seconds, which is deliberate: the volume buttons only move the channel that is currently playing, so being able to reach for them while it is ringing is what makes the setting stick. The volume reading underneath moves as you press them.
If you have an iPad propped on a bench, this is worth doing once before the first session rather than discovering it mid-evening.
Results
When you tap Finish you get the evening: who won how many of how many, as a percentage, and who took the most. Tapping Done adds the evening to the season.
The season table
Results on the main screen shows the season so far, sorted by score or by win rate. The date it is counting from is in the header, and Reset the season puts everyone back to zero — behind a confirmation, because it cannot be undone.
What the score means
Wins alone mostly measure who turned up most. The score measures something better: a win is worth the strength of the side you beat — their win rates added up. Beating two strong players is worth more than beating two weak ones, and both winners take the whole amount rather than half each, so a win is worth the same however strong your partner happened to be.
A thin record is not taken at face value. A player’s rate counts more the more games are behind it, and fully from twenty games on, so somebody who won their first match is not treated as a hundred-percent player.
Everyone’s rate is fixed at the moment the evening starts. Otherwise the same win would be worth a different amount depending on whether it happened in round one or round six.
iCloud
People, groups, play dates and season results sync through your own iCloud, so the same list is on your iPhone and your iPad without entering it twice. It needs both devices signed into the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive on.
A training session itself is not saved. It lives for the evening and is gone when you finish it — only the results are kept. That is deliberate: a history of every round would turn a training night into something it is not.
If something is not working
Nothing syncs to the other device
Check both are signed into the same Apple Account and have iCloud on for Junban, in the system Settings. The first sync after installing can take a minute, and it needs a network.
The alarm was not heard
See The alarm above and test it in the app’s Settings. If the test is loud and a real session is not, tell us what the device was doing at the time — locked, in a bag, playing music — as that narrows it down quickly.
Start a Training Session is greyed out
There are fewer than two people on the list. Doubles needs four.
Reporting a problem
What helps most: the version, which is at the bottom of Settings and looks like 1.0 (1); what you did and what happened; and whether it was an iPhone or an iPad.
See also
日本語 · Junban Privacy Policy · Support · Credits · treasureboat.org