The Saturday Morning Group (SMG) is a Management Committee approved, arranged play gathering, which is open to all adult and intermediate members of Basford LTC. The aim of the SMG is to provide a couple of hours of tennis between 9.00 and 11.00 on Saturday mornings with no waiting time between or before games. To facilitate this, the players for each week are arranged beforehand; turn-up and play is not available. Players must arrive promptly at the allotted time and be available to play until 11.00 unless replaced by another player part way through the session. Up to sixteen places are available for play each week, depending on the number of available courts - the SMG may use all the courts, except when courts have been booked for another Management Committee approved purpose.

Each court plays a single set and then waits for the other courts to finish their sets. When all the courts have finished their sets, each losing pair stays on court and each winning pair moves to another court. Each new pair is formed from a winner and a loser. If a set reaches 5-5 and the other courts have already completed their sets or have nearly done so then the set should be finished with a normal service game to minimise the waiting time for the other courts.

By tradition, a Founders’ Day celebration is held annually on the first Saturday in April in recognition of the starting of the SMG in April 1960 by past members, Ian Munro, Harold Greenwood, Pete Watkin and Frank Spooner.

Each week’s play is advertised in the Events section of the club web site approximately two weeks in advance. Members wanting to play must register an account on the club web site, and use this to sign up to the SMG events in which they would like to participate. They must also subscribe to the SMG email list, which is used to send out information about who is scheduled to play. To join the SMG email list, log into your Basford web site account then under Account choose Group Subscription, then click the Subscribe button next to Saturday Morning Group. To sign up to play on a particular Saturday, log into your Basford web site account then choose Events. From the displayed list of events, find the one you want to join and click the "Sign up for event" button. If you later find you can't make it, you can use the "Withdraw from event" button, providing the organiser hasn't finalised play for that week.

A day or two before play takes place, the organiser sends out an email to the SMG email list naming the players who are scheduled for play that week and the time at which they are expected to turn up. If a selected player becomes unavailable for play after the week’s player list has been published, that player is responsible for finding a substitute and informing the organiser.

When there are too few players to make up doubles games on the available courts, the organiser may ask other club members who have expressed a willingness to make up numbers when needed but don’t want to play regularly, whether they are available to play.

When there are more players signed up to play than spaces available, excess players are asked to turn up at around 10.15 to replace 9 o'clock starters after the first two sets have been played. A rota of late starters is kept, to ensure that all players take their turn. With the current membership, it would be unusual for a member to be asked to start late more than once every three months.

If non-booked members turn up with booked late-starters at around 10.15, booked players will take priority. The non-booked members will only get to play before 11.00 if there are booked players who wish to be replaced.

After 11.00, SMG players may continue to use the courts, but must revert to the standard club rules on court access and play.