Urban Rec Blog - Urban Rec Newcastle Social Sports Leagues

Nov 16

Win your team a night at Strike Bowling on us!

November 16, 2022 - one year ago

You know we love a good giveaway and this season we are giving away an absolutely epic experience!

If your team registers during Priority Registration Week (Monday 28th – December 5th ) then your team will automatically go in the draw to win a night at Stike Bowling on US! Woohoo! FREE STUFF!!

WHAT IS PRIORITY REGISTRATION?

Most of our leagues sell out quick fast – priority registration is our way of giving all the current teams in the Spring league first opportunity to register before the public and other teams on the waitlist snap up the spots.

WHEN IS PRIORITY REGISTRATION?

MONDAY 28TH NOVEMBER – MONDAY 5TH DECEMBER

WHAT IS THE PRIZE?

Free entry for 2 games of bowling (8 people)
$250 Bar Voucher to use at Strike Bowling

HOW DO WE ENTER?

Re-register your team into the Summer competition between Monday 28th and Monday 5th and you’ll automically go in the draw to win the prize.

WHEN WILL THE PRIZE BE DRAWN?

The prize will be drawn on December 12th. Winners will be announced on our instagram account and an email will be sent to the winning team.

* Term and Conditions

Pay the full registration amount, no deposits are allowed and only teams playing in the current SPRING season are eligble.

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Sep 5

GO IN THE DRAW TO WIN FREE REGISTRATION

September 5, 2022 - one year ago

!!PRIORITY REGISTRATION!!

Go in the draw to win your team registration back for SPRING!

WHAT IS IT?

If your team is planning on returning for the SPRING season then listen up! Your captain will be sent a link to re-register into the SPRING league on September 12. They will need to re-register the team between September 12 – 19. Once your team has registered using the link, your team will be placed in the draw to win Free Registration! Woooohooo!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The team that is drawn will win free registration for the Spring season and will be REFUNDED their team fee on the first week of the SPRING season. We will annouce the winner in the last week of the WINTER Season.

WHEN DOES MY TEAM NEED TO REGISTER BY?

The link your captain will get sent will expire on September 19 at midnight. If your squad isn’t registered by then, you will miss out on going in the draw to win free registration.

WHEN WILL IT BE DRAWN?

The competition will be drawn on September 26th. We will draw the winners on our social media account. An email will be sent to the winning team and they will be refunded their team fee.

Remember you’ve got to be in it to WIN it, so make sure you get your captain to register your team.

*Term and Conditions

Pay the full registration amount, no deposits are allowed and only teams playing in the current WINTER season are eligble.

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Sep 1

Theme Week - ALOHA

September 1, 2022 - one year ago

ALOHA!

With the weather heating up and Spring upon us we thought there is no better way to dress than in Hawaiian theme!

It’s time to get get out your leis and your Hawaiian shirts and get into theme. This season our dress up week will be September 4^th – September 8^th. You can coordinate with your team and get all matchy matchy or you can do your own thing and get the leis and coconuts out. Whatever you decide make it pop and stand out as players who wow their hosts will be getting prizes! Woohoo!

Have fun dressing up – we can’t wait to see you all in theme.

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SPRING 22 Leagues are OPEN!

August 29, 2022 - one year ago

With the weather heating up we have a stack of new leagues running in the Spring season. Check them out below!

MULTISPORT

Mondays @ Revolution Sports Park, Maryville
Tuesdays @ Revolution Sports Park, Maryville
Tuesdays @ Waratah Park, Waratah (FIELD)
Wednesdays @ New Lambton Public School
Thursdays @ Revolution Sports Park, Maryville

BASKETBALL

Tuesdays @ YWCA, Cooks Hill
Wednesdays @ YWCA, Cooks Hill
Thursdays @ New Lambton Public School

SOCCER

Mondays @ New Lambton Public School
Wednesdays @ Revolution Sports Park, Maryville

NETBALL

Mondays @ National Park Courts, Cooks Hill
Tuesdays @ National Park Courts, Cooks Hill
Wednesdays @ New Lambton Public School

TOUCH FOOTBALL

Thursdays @ Waratah Park, Waratah

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Sundays @ Nobbys Beach

Find out more info about the leagues and register online https://newcastle.urbanrec.com.au/leagues

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Jun 12

Free Tee's For Returning Teams!

June 12, 2022 - one year ago

WHEN DOES MY LEAGUE HAVE PRIORITY REGITSTRATION?

JUNE 20TH – JUNE 27TH

MULTISPORT TUESDAY AND THURSDAY
SOCCER WEDNESDAY
BASKETBALL TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

JULY 4TH – JULY 11TH

NETBALL MONDAY AND TUESDAY
MULTISPORT MONDAY

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Captains will need to register using the secret link we will send them. They have 7 days to use the link before it expires. If your captain does this, your team will receive the team t-shirt pack on Week 1 of the Winter competition.

WHEN DOES MY TEAM NEED TO REGISTER BY?

The link your captain will get sent will expire at 11:59pm on either the 27th of June or 11th of July. If your squad doesn’t register into during their pri rego week, then you will miss out on a free set of team t-shirts.

How does colours and sizing work?

Each team t-shirt set will include 8 t-shirts. Netball and Touch Football teams will get 10 t-shirts.

Sizing for a set of 8 1 x S, 3 x M, 3 x L and 1 x XL.

Sizing for a set of 10 – 2 x S, 3 x M, 3 x L and 2 x XL.

Additional t-shirts can be bought for $10 each. We have 5 colours to choose from, you can request one of the five colours to choose from however if two teams in the competition choose the same colour we will flip a coin to see who gets what colour. This is the best way for us to make sure it is fair.

Colours are Black, White, Purple, Army Green, Blue.

T&C’s – To be eligible for entry into the priority registration pool, a team must –

Register during priority registration week (Mon 20th – Mon 27th June or July 4 – July 11th) – No late comers.
Be registered back into the same league they had played in the season before. (No transfers)
IF using the deposit system, the BALANCE must be paid before end of yourpriority registration week.
For any other additional information and FAQs please see HERE.

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May 4

HOW DO I NOT BE A DOUCHEBAG WHILST PLAYING SOCIAL SPORT

May 4, 2022 - one year ago

The million dollar question, ‘How do I not be a douchebag whilst playing Social Sport’, well it’s simple. Just, don’t! Not being a douchebag is a lot simpler than you think...

Still need some tips? Take a seat in my office, lets talk.

Let’s set the scene shall we..

It’s a nice Summer Thursday night, around 19 degrees, no wind, beautiful sunset & the vibes are immaculate.

🏐We head over to Netball, bibs are on, smiles are on (tip number one: always smile) and the games are getting started. You quite quickly figure out that your opposition are newer to the sport and are still picking up the rules and concept of the game.

DO NOT: Show them how it’s done by intercepting every ball, defending at 100%, putting players in positions of strength.

DO: Mix up your positions, give them extra space to pass and shoot, encourage them, help them, HAVE FUN WITH THEM.

🏀If we look over to our left, we have a Basketball game, the sounds of ‘Shoot a 3’ and ‘Half Court, you wont’. The laughter is broken with a ‘oh come on man, that was a dick move’. Let's go over and see what it’s all about.

DO NOT: Assert your dominance by swatting the ball on someone half your size, stealing the ball from behind when they’re not looking or out of their hands. Full court pressing to get those defensive stats up & act as if you’re in the NBA (hot tip: they don’t even full court press 90% of the time).

DO: Take & encourage the 3 point & half court shots. Someone on a roll and dribbling towards to hoop? Give them space and let them give it a go. Half court defence is the best defence (why tire yourself out for no reason ya know?). Yelling out plays? No one thinks your cool.

🏉What’s that to our right? Touch Footy & ‘Untouched’ by The Veronicas blasting from the sideline. Hell yeah, lets go. Doesn’t take long on the sideline to notice the guy with backwards hat is really making an impression, not in the good way…

DO NOT: Notice a female on the wing, drive as hard as you can towards her, goose step left, no, goose step right, spin, burn her so hard she slips over, jump over her and sprint towards the sideline, TRY!

DO: Notice a female on the wing, keep running straight, you might be able to get around her, she slips over, stop running and help her up. Take the tap and start again from where you are. Not all heroes wear capes, or backwards hats..

As you can see, it really isn’t hard. Being a douchebag is not cool, especially in SOCIAL sport. If you need any more tips, hit us up, were always happy to help make douchebags less douchey.

This article was written by Leish Charters – League Manager, Canberra.

If you would like to play non-douche bag sports with us, check out our leagues to get started.

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Mar 16

Dress Up and Save your Team $100

March 16, 2022 - 2 years ago

The Autumn season is right around the corner and we want to give all current teams in the summer competition early entry to their league next season with a sweet discount.

We are making it super easy for your team to save money on registering for Autumn. All you need to do is get into theme and have fun with it.

Dress in Bogan theme next week at your game (March 21 – 27)
Take a pic of your team all dressed up
Tag us on social media @urbanrecnewcastle with the #urbogan
Your captain will get sent a secret link with $100 off team registration if your team do all of the above. Easy right!?

Here are the important dates:

March 21 - 27 - Dress up as a bogan at your game, take a pic of your team, tag @urbanrecnewcastle on social media with the #urbogan.
March 28 - April 4 - Teams that do the above will be sent a secret link on March 28 with $100 off team registration. Link expires on April 4.

It’s a pretty easy and fun way to save you and your team a bit of cash!

Urban Rec xx

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Feb 17

Urban Rec Wedding: Nick & Sophie

February 17, 2022 - 2 years ago

So, word has it you guys met through Urban Rec and are NOW MARRIED, how did that happen? What sport? What league? What situation?

We met in 2018 in the UrbanRec flag gridiron season in an individual team (our team is still playing today with a few new faces). Although the team were all strangers when we started playing we would usually go to the bar after each game to relive the highlights of the game and get to know each other. After a few weeks of this, Soph and I started messaging privately and not in the team's whatsapp and before I knew it we were on our first date. It was funny watching the rest of the team slowly catch on, the major give away was me no longer asking for lifts from everyone and consistently arriving with Soph.

One eerie detail we discovered later was how we both got into UrbanRec. I already knew of UrbanRec, previously playing in the indoor soccer league on the North Sydney Tennis courts. Soph however was new to it and discovered UrbanRec when her usual tennis partner was injured and couldn't play with her anymore. Looking for a new way to play sport she recalled seeing UrbanRec flags on the courts next to her when she would play at North Sydney. That's right, for about six months each Tuesday night, I would play soccer and Soph tennis on the courts next to each other. On top of that we independently moved to join the same team in the gridiron league. Small world.

How long have you been together and when did you get married? Tell us about your wedding?

We will be celebrating our 4 yr anniversary this year as well as our first year of being married. Our wedding was in June 2021, one week before the Sydney lockdown. We were extremely lucky because we were not only able to have our 80pax wedding with no restrictions, but also squeezed in a honeymoon to QLD before being locked down

With your dating history, is online or offline dating better or worse?

Neither of us have much experience with online dating so can't compare too well

Tell me why you think Urban Rec was the inevitable way for you to meet your hubby or wife?

I think the great thing about individual teams in UrbanRec is that it gets you out of your comfort zone and usual routine. It's a great way to meet new circles of people, friends and partners alike. In the same team I met Soph, we both became great friends with another couple and regularly catch up. They were even part of my groom's party.

Tell me one thing about your partner that would make them cringe for you sharing? I

won't fall for this trap

What's the secret sauce to making your relationship fun?

For us, we are both spontaneous and enjoy joking around. So trying new things and not taking things too seriously is a winning recipe for us.

Describe your partner in 3 words!

Spontaneous, empathetic and funny

If you could only play one sport with your partner for the rest of time, what would you choose and why?

Squash, we got into it recently and it has bought out the competitiveness in both of us. We are both pretty clumsy on the court but the games are very close

Lastly, tell others why you think meeting people and dating through Urban Rec is a good idea?

UrbanRec makes it easy to try new sports with no pressure to be good at them. Every individual team I've joined has had great people to become friends with that I would otherwise have never met.

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Feb 10

Urban Rec Lovers: Leish & Darcy

February 10, 2022 - 2 years ago

So, word has it you guys met through Urban Rec, how did that happen? What sport? What league? What situation?

We had known of each other from a mutual friend a year before Darcy started playing with Urban Rec. Darcy started in one of the Basketball Leagues and I didn’t really see much of him. He then joined one of the Netty Leagues and I started slowly stepping up my sideline banter whilst he was playing (telling him was shit at shooting 3s). Short story short, the banter got more and more & that turned into getting a drink, which turned into a second date and 2 weeks later we were officially dating.

How long have you been dating? How serious is this? Living together? engaged? babies on the way?

Almost 14 months, basically lived together since COVID lockdown but officially roommates since December! No babies, Leish is impatiently waiting for a puppy….

Were you both using online dating apps before or when you met?

We were on them but both kind of weren’t that active with using them. A date here and there, a bored swipe every other day. Shits & Gigs.

With your dating history, is online or offline dating better or worse?

OFFLINE! We both have old souls and think meeting the old fashioned way is the best way! Meeting organically is wayyy less pressure.

Tell me why you think Urban Rec was the inevitable way for you to meet your current squeeze?

We didn’t know until it happened! Whilst we knew of each other before we definitely wouldn’t have started dating without UrbanRec! Like we said before, our old souls brought us together organically. It’s an easy, less stress way to meet to people and have genuine connections.

Tell me one thing about your partner that would make them cringe for you sharing?

Darcy does ‘fake’ wrestling and his wrestler name is Hugh- Beauty (I can hear him say ‘it’s not fake Leish’). Leish sometimes gives a little piggy snort when I make her laugh too hard

What's the secret sauce to making your relationship fun?

We are definitely on the same wave length and have the same sense of humour. We’re constantly laughing and always never go to bed mad at each other, say I love you at least once a day! Also, never watch a tv show episode without the other person…

Describe your partner in 3 words!

Leish about Darcy: Nerdy, Gentle, Goofy. Darcy about Leish: Compassionate, Smiley, Social

If you could only play one sport with your partner for the rest of time, what would you choose and why?

Basketball, all day, every day. We just have so much fun when we’re playing together, collecting dimes, shooting 3s and playing smart not hard (also known as not playing defence).

Lastly, tell others why you think meeting people and dating through Urban Rec is a good idea?

It is the absolute best and easy way to meet people. There’s no pressure, you’re always having fun together & you’re being active. You never take yourself or each other too seriously and that’s the best part. Perfect bonding

To find out more about signing up as an individual with Urban Rec, check out the FAQ’s!

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Jan 18

Celebrating Turning 10!

January 18, 2022 - 2 years ago

By Madeleine Wilkie, Managing Director.

When Urban Rec turned 10 last year, we decided it was a milestone worth celebrating. Our 10-year anniversary was chosen as our original launch party which happened back in 2012. Embarrassingly, the event was a small group of friends who were promised free drinks… and looking back… it was a cringeworthy few hours.

But persistence pays off! In the Summer of 2012, not even 1 team had registered to play in the upcoming season. Going into 2022, Urban Rec Australia boasts 4 cities, 265 leagues, 2,303 teams and thousands more individuals. This tiny side hustle has certainly grown some legs.

Throughout our 10th year, business is up 38%, which for a pandemic-prone business – is something we should be pretty proud of! Over the years our humble team of just 1 part-time founder is now employing 10 staff across all the cities.

So during our second lockdown, I made us fix our thinking caps and we curated a collection of way that Urban Rec Australia celebrated turning 10.

We designed a 10-year logo. Inspired by the 90’s basketball era, the logo had to be fun and nostalgic. If sport is our bread, then beer us our butter, so it made sense to have a can of frothy Aussie inspired beer as the main character. After several iterations and a lot of hilarious feedback “Is it a condom, no, it’s a tennis ball can”. We finally landed on the below. Let’s call him Rick. Watch this space for more Urban Rick appearances.

We made our own 10-year anniversary beer! In collaboration with the fine folks at Freshie Beer Co, we were able to can and label 60 cases. The limited edition fresh pils were used as prizing for our members as well as a giveaway for our “Mad Monday” promotion. These cans will forever be kept as part of our Urban Rec historic museum.

We got some vintage eskies and stubby holders. Merchandise is a fun part of what we offer and we knew we wanted to create some pieces that fit in with our Aussie Summer theme. So, vintage eskies and stubby holders seemed like the right idea. There were only ever 50 eskies made, and the stubby holders were designed in 2 colours and will never be printed again. They were used as prizes throughout our 10-day promotion.

We hosted a 10-day promotion for our members. Turning 10 was about giving back to our members, some of which have played for the entire 10-year span. Each day we had a special giveaway, discount or event for our members to help us celebrate.

Our 10 day promotion included discounts for members!

Our 10-year boat party! – La Nina has really enjoyed ruining our Summer and this day was no exception. With a vision of our closest partners and staff in white linen sipping champagne as we cruise under the harbour bridge, sun beaming down - this was going to be the over-the-top, treat yoself celebration we all deserved. Instead, in true Urban Rec style… it absolutely pissed down. The winds whipped, the lighting cracked, and the drinks flowed steady and strong because we were all trapped inside a catamaran sized lightning rod. Proudly we cracked on with an afternoon of cancellations, interruptions, changes and too many shots of Fireball. The team at Urban Rec are not adverse to making fun out of unexpected and uncontrollable factors, and this event was no exception.

Leish and Darcy still found a way to party!

So, as we embark on our full 10th year in business, I want to say a huge and special thankyou to all our members, players, staff and employees who have helped grow this brand in Australia to be something I’m very proud of. Here’s to the next 10 years!

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