Northampton Croquet Club
Trustees Annual Report 01/11/2022 to 31/10/2023
Charity # 1191519
1. Introduction
This report covers the first year of full operations at its new home in Roade, Northamptonshire. The trustees accept that they have overall responsibility for the direction, management, and control of the CIO.
2. Objectives and Activities
The object of the CIO is the promotion of community participation in healthy recreation for people of all ages in Northamptonshire and the surrounding area by providing facilities to participate in the sport of amateur croquet at both competitive and social levels (facilities means land, buildings, equipment and organising sporting activities).
The CIO is also involved in promoting croquet as an activity that contributes to both physical and mental welfare and through social interaction creates a supportive environment for its members.
The membership is engaged in social and competitive play both as individuals, and teams. The latter ranging from doubles partnerships to larger teams involved in competitive play in the regional croquet leagues (at various levels of play) and inter-club competitions.
As of the 1st of April 2023, Northampton Croquet club relocated to its new home in Roade, Northamptonshire. The club has continued in its fund-raising efforts to support the purchase of ground keeping equipment and materials to maintain the lawns that have been previously commissioned. It has also established a water line into its area to support modest lawn watering during dry spells. It plans to develop this to ultimately add a more substantial irrigation system for lawn care.
The volunteers that assist the trustees are drawn both from the membership and those that are associated with the club commonly these are partners of members. The club regularly runs introductory sessions and coaching to all levels and ability, and this year promotional activities and fund raising have featured extensively with two open days to introduce the club and sport to our new local community.
As part of regular maintenance, the trustees regularly review the club risk registers, club handbook and key policies updating and communicating them to the membership as appropriate. These policies include Safeguarding, Equality, Disciplinary, Reserves policy and Data Protection (GDPR).
As Trustees, we have regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance and have taken it into account in all decision making. We are fully aware of our place in the wider community and believe that we have complied with our duty to have regard to the published guidance on public benefit. Membership is open to all, including those with a restricted ability to pay.
All Trustees gave their time to the Charity voluntarily and received no Honorarium, emoluments, or other benefits aside from receipted expenses.
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3. Achievements and Performance
This year has been another challenging one as we have moved to our new home. Some members living in the more northerly aspect of the county felt that the move to Roade was too great. The club supported a small group to establish another club at our previous temporary location with both advice and loans of equipment to help them grow and thrive.
Our success in running a ‘Crowdfunder’ campaign has been of interest to many clubs within the croquet world and we have provided advice and assistance to these groups and given sessions at webinars driven by our governing body. Moving forward we decided to mount a second campaign related to the provision of a modest club house to escape the inclement weather and provide a meeting place for members and visitors.
We have also been successful in obtaining further grant funding through the governing body of our sport (Croquet England) and regional federation to support the clubhouse project.
Further ground development also took place this year to create a third ‘quality’ lawn by using the spoil heap created with the unused topsoil resulting from the development of our two primary lawns, and so began phase 3 of our site development plan.
On the participation front our members have been fully engaged with both competitive and social play. We entered teams in the East Anglian Croquet Federation (Regional body) leagues. These teams represent a cross section of all abilities and codes (types) of croquet and all did well. Especially our top golf croquet players who won their league competition.
Members who enjoy the competitive aspect of croquet were also able to participate in tournaments and several made it through to the National finals of their class.
At the top level of performance, two of our members represented the club and country at the Ladies Golf Croquet World Championships held in the UK this year. Both doing extremely well with one reaching the top 32 and the other going on to be in the top 16. Another key club member was also chosen to represent his country in the Over 50’s Golf Croquet World Championships held in Bunbury, Australia.
On a more social level several ‘friendlies’ were held with other local clubs and enjoyed by all with the club being well represented. The most notable, receiving local media coverage and enhancing the profile of the charity, was that with Peterborough Croquet Club – The Nene Challenge. Signalling to all that the Northampton Croquet Club is still going strong despite its change of circumstance. We have also held our equally varied club competitions and publish the results on social media such as Facebook.
We regularly host groups for ‘Have a Go’ events during the summer. Local WI groups, Northampton Rotary, and a regular u3a group were introduced to the sport, not only providing a modest source of revenue but as importantly introducing new people to the sport and the club. The club also supported national croquet week, an open event for people to come and try our sport, this was well attended by the local community and from which we drew new members. We continue to publicise the club and sport through local magazines and have plans to do more in the coming year. The focus for next year will be on recruitment to improve the long-term sustainability of the club.
As part of establishing our place in the community the club also regularly contributes to the parish magazine and other local media outlets.
The ‘buddy’ scheme set up to help support new members by providing an established and knowledgeable member as mentor continues to operate effectively.
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The trustees believe that the club is forging links with its new local community and looks forward to continuing to develop the site and promoting croquet for the benefit of its members and all those that it supports.
Next year we are also planning a return to hosting competitive events for the wider croquet community and re-establish Northampton as a venue to enjoy top croquet.
4. Financial Review
On exiting the previous financial year, the club had set aside significant funds to cover outstanding liabilities these were commissioned works that would be paid for in this financial year such as paving groundworks and establishing a water connection to site. We also for a period ran two sites of operations one being our temporary playing site the other our new home where ground works were taking place with play not possible. In compliance with the charities financial policy its current account holds sufficient funds to manage its running costs such as ground rent, affiliations, insurance, and administration support costs, whilst a separate account holds surplus monies to assist in the longer term development requirements.
As at 31/10/2023 the total club funds stood at £10,976
The income for the year was £29,432, with an expenditure of £42,610 and outstanding liabilities of £4,500. In the following year we also have grant income payable on completion of the installation of a clubhouse of £4,500 from our regional federation and sport’s governing body.
The substantial increase in income arose from the extensive fund raising conducted in the year with local communities, members past and present generous in their giving and the associated gift aid.
The expenditure largely relates to the professional development of the space both playing and non-playing and the purchase of the necessary ground care materials. A reasonable amount of the non-playing space has also been cultivated as a wildflower area in support of wildlife.
All outstanding liabilities will be settled from the unreserved funds. The trustees monitor the outstanding payments that are accrued from work commissioned or orders placed, recording the liabilities above £1,000 that will be settled prior to the next subscription round (1[st] April each year).
Given the level of income and expenditure the club continues to conduct an independent examination it has traditionally commissioned one and will continue, reflecting the professional way the finances are dealt with and giving confidence to the membership and any interested third parties.
The trustees maintain both a business risk register and a Health and Safety register. These are reviewed regularly regarding all issues pertinent to the charity.
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4.1 Receipts and Payments Account
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21/12/2022 21/12/2022
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4.2 Independent Examiner’s Report
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5. Structure, Governance and Management
The charity is setup as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and controlled via its constitution.
Trustees are elected from the membership according to the process and provisions within the constitution.
The constitution sets out the eligibility requirements for a trustee and the process for those eligible to be considered by the membership. The incumbent trustees offer advice to anyone wishing to be considered regarding the role and associated responsibilities along with the Charities Commission documents including the ‘Welcome Pack for New Trustees.’
On election each new trustee will receive:
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(a) a copy of the constitution and any amendments made to it.
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(b) a copy of the club handbook and policies.
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(c) a copy of the CIO’s latest trustees’ annual report incorporating the statement of accounts.
The charity has a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 trustees. It also has introduced several specialist teams to assist the trustees in taking the club forward.
Northampton Croquet club is a member of the sport’s governing body – Croquet England and it also affiliates to the regional organisation the East Anglia Croquet Federation (EACF).
The trustees serving over the period of this report were:
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Trustee Role
Paul Chard Chair
Mike Hills Secretary
Martyn Palmer Treasurer
Lionel Tibble
Archie Brown
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In setting up at our new home and the issues involved in re-locating the club then the trustees meet via the Zoom video conferencing tool fortnightly. With special meetings set aside for risk register review or the management support teams.
The trustees are satisfied that our processes and systems are both legally compliant and adhere to the requirements of the charity commission.
The appointed Independent financial examiner for the period of this report:
John Deakin FCA Dorset House, Prestwood, Bucks. HP16 0JN
The charity has no corporate or advisory trustees. It has no trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity and no Funds are held as custodian trustees on behalf of others.
There are no reasons supporting ‘non-disclosure’ of key personnel details.
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6. Reference and Administrative details
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Charity name Northampton Croquet Club
Other name the charity uses Not applicable
Registered charity number 1191519
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Charity’s principal address The principal office of the CIO is: Northampton Croquet Club The Leys, Roade, Northampton. NN7 2NR
7. Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Full name(s) Paul Chard Lionel Tibble Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Chair of Trustees Trustee Date 24/12/2023
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