Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club Charitable Incorporated Organisation - Charity number 1185646 Annual report and financial statements for the period 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025
Report of the trustees
1. Introduction
The trustees submit their report and financial statements for the period 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.
The trustees have overall responsibility for the direction, management and control of the CIO.
2. Objects and activities
The club’s primary purpose is to encourage the sport of croquet to everyone. Croquet is particularly suited to encourage healthy recreation for people of all ages and physical abilities. At the same time it can be played as a serious competitive sport.
The club is situated in a large public park in Watford, and is easily accessible to all.
Our aim is to provide a welcoming social environment for casual players, and in parallel to develop as one of the top clubs in the region for competitive croquet.
3. Review
The CIO was set-up in October 2019 by simple transfer from the old unincorporated club. This was therefore our sixth year of full operation as a CIO.
The club had a fairly standard year in 2025 with the usual activities and competitions carried out in much the same way as in previous years. During the first three months, i.e. the second half of the winter season, once again we had one court available for casual club play when weather conditions permitted, while the other three courts were rested. Then all courts opened for the summer season, this time for the first full year with the benefit of the newly installed irrigation system. It was vey gratifying to see that this new system did indeed work as intended, and for the first time the club’s courts remained green, even-paced and in good condition for the entire summer season. Several visitors offered complimentary comments, and we are optimistic that they will be encouraged to return on future occasions.
The club had a particularly good summer with its inter-club team competitions, winning one national championship for the fourth time in 13 years, three East Anglian Federation regional championships and one local league. We also held 9 open tournaments - more than in any previous year - with the majority of them fully subscribed, and 18 internal club tournaments of various kinds, all of which were successfully completed on schedule. One of them was a charity event run in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society, which once again raised about £1000 (after adding recoverable Gift Aid).
For the 23[rd] consecutive year the club once again arranged its annual summer Association Croquet tour. This tour comprises seven one-day away matches on consecutive days against seven different clubs in southern England, though as a slight variation in 2025 the seventh “match” was replaced by an activity new to our club, a one-day open Short Croquet tournament at Blewbury in which the club’s tourists all participated. Short Croquet is a variant of Association Croquet played on half-size courts with a specially adapted handicapping system. This proved popular with the participants and, with encouragement from the national governing body Croquet England, for the first time we scheduled our own one-day open Short Croquet tournament at home into the national 2026 calendar. It remains
to be seen whether Short Croquet will continue to be a popular addition in future to the club’s usual diet of Association and Golf Croquet formats on full-size courts.
There was one regrettable incident which should be mentioned. During an informal coaching session intended to help members practice their jump shots for Golf Croquet, a stray shot was played on court in the direction of the club-house, and it hit someone sitting outside on the patio on the leg. Although nothing was broken the victim experienced some pain for a while afterwards. Dealing with the consequences proved somewhat problematic because there was conflicting evidence about the incident from those who were present at the event, and in particular about the identity of the person who had played the unfortunate stroke. In the end all the trustees could do was to remind all club members of standard croquet safety protocol - that players should always warn anyone, and in particular spectators at court-side, to step out of the firing line or take appropriate defensive measures before hitting a ball hard in their direction.
The summer playing season ended towards the end of October, a little later than usual thanks to the combination of favourable weather and courts that were more resilient to wear than before because of the new irrigation system.
4. Finance review
Financially, 2025 has been the first "normal” year for some time, with no major costs being incurred. We spent around £1000 on installing internet, solar/battery lighting for the equipment hut, remote access to the watering system and a new set of balls and hoops.
As expected, the pavilion rent increased to £2500 and it will rise again next year to £3000 before coming under review.
The court maintenance charge rose slightly to nearly £2900, but remains very good value.
Our membership charges to Croquet England and the East Anglia Croquet Federation dropped slightly to just over £1000.
With other costs including insurance, consumables and tournament entry fees, the total outgoings were around £9300.
The main income, from member subscriptions, remained constant at about £7500 from 70 members, down 3 members from last year.
Income from open tournaments increased slightly to about £2100 and we expect this to increase in the future now that our 4 courts are benefitting from the new irrigation system.
Other income from court hire, guest fees, interest and donations came to about £1300, making the total income about £10900.
The surplus for the year is therefore about £1600, and, together with our savings/bank accounts we now have monetary assets of over £19800.
The full statement of accounts follows as Appendix A.
5. Trustees
Under the constitution of the CIO, there must be at least three and no more than twelve trustees. At the end of the year there were 8 trustees (marked *), and the trustees serving during the year were:
Janet Lewis (re-elected 13 March 2023 to 2[nd] term) Chair André Machell (re-elected 11 March 2024 to 3[rd] term) Treasurer Jonathan Lambton (re-elected 3 March 2025 to 2[nd] term) Secretary *Simon Hathrell (re-elected 13 March 2023 to 2[nd] term) Mike Grossmith (re-elected 3 March 2025 to 2[nd] term) Kevin Currie (re-elected 3 March 2025 to 2[nd] term) *Kevin Connolly (elected 11 March 2024 to 1[st] term) Şebnem Kaya (elected 11 March 2024 to 1[st] term) Linda Williams** (elected 11 March 2024 to 1[st] term, resigned 4 November 2025)
The trustees meet regularly, approximately six times a year, and as needed to resolve any ad hoc issues that arise.
The trustees are satisfied that our governance processes are in accordance with our constitution and fully compliant with the requirements of the Charities Commission.
This report was approved by the trustees on 22 January 2026 and signed on its behalf by:
Janet Lewis Chair
Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club
Charitable Incorporated Organisation - Charity number 1185646 Annual report and financial statements for the period 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025
Independent examiner’s report to the trustees
[Sample text, may be re-written].
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, for the year ended 31 December 2025.
As the trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which give me cause to believe that in, any material respect, the accounting records were not kept in accordance with the requirements of the Act.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Arthur Reed Independent examiner 26[th] January 2026
Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club
Charitable Incorporated Organisation - Charity number 1185646 Annual report and financial statements
for the period 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025
Appendix A
Statement of accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025
| Amounts in £ Member subscriptions Tournaments Key deposits Hire charges Guest fees Charity 1-Ball receipts Interest Irrigation donations/grants Gift Aid Donations Total income Pavilion rent Park season ticket (Veolia cost) CA/EACF Member Registration Entry Fees - CA/EACF tournaments Equipment - Playing Equipment - Non-playing Irrigation costs Refreshments and consumables Defibrillator Trophies Insurance Other administration expenses Charity 1-Ball payment Total expenditure Surplus for the year Funds at start of year Funds at end of year Represented by: Cash at Bank Informal Meal prepayment Cash at Skipton BS |
2025 70 members £ £ 7,535 2,119 (23) 345 127 810 475 385 11,773 (2,500) (2,870) (1,042) (392) (618) (410) (93) (681) (170) (458) (108) (810) (10,152) 1,621 18,220 19,841 841 19,000 19,841 |
2024 73 members £ £ 7,375 1,873 30 661 150 885 937 20,950 4,039 785 37,685 (3,500) (2,414) (1,351) (265) 0 (41) (35,450) (498) (1,074) (366) (364) (26) (885) (46,234) (8,549) 26,769 18,220 418 (198) 18,000 18,220 |
2024 73 members £ £ 7,375 1,873 30 661 150 885 937 20,950 4,039 785 37,685 (3,500) (2,414) (1,351) (265) 0 (41) (35,450) (498) (1,074) (366) (364) (26) (885) (46,234) (8,549) 26,769 18,220 418 (198) 18,000 18,220 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37,685 (46,234) |
|||
| (8,549) 26,769 |
|||
| 18,220 | |||
| 418 (198) 18,000 |
|||
| 18,220 |
The accounts were approved and authorised for issue by the trustees on 22 January 2026, and signed on their behalf by:
Janet Lewis Chair
André Machell Treasurer