## **Goxhill Bowling Club** # **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period to 31 October 2022** **Charity registration number** 1195169 **Trustees** (currently & for whole period unless shown otherwise) Irene EM Ballam Harold S Dixon Christine M Ellis John Guggiari Anthony W Hebblewhite Trustee from 09/11/2022 Peter Cox **Address** Goxhill Bowling Green Manor Lane, Goxhill, North Lincolnshire DN19 7LB **Telephone** 01469-530363 or 01469-530579 **Email** chris.bowler12@icloud.com **Website** https://goxhill-bowls-club.weebly.com/ **Banker** Barclays Bank plc The Trustees submit their annual report and financial statements covering the period from the charity’s registration on 14 July 2021 until its accounting year end of 31 October 2022. Goxhill Bowling Club (‘the Club’) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that converted from the community amateur sports club Goxhill Memorial Hall Bowling Club. ## **Objects** The objects of Goxhill Bowling Club CIO (‘the Charity’) are the promotion of community participation in healthy recreation by the inhabitants of Goxhill and the neighbouring area through providing a green and other facilities for bowling. ## **Review of activities during the period** The Club became a charitable incorporated organization primarily to make it a legal entity in its own right and enable a lease to be held in the Charity’s name. To date occupation of the site at Manor Lane has been by ‘custom and practice’ since the 1950s, rather than anything formally documented, meaning that the existing tenancy is legally fragile. Whilst the Club/Charity’s landlord, the registered charity Goxhill Memorial Hall & Recreation Ground, continues to support the letting of a long-term lease, the legal process has taken longer than expected but should come to fruition in 2023. For 2022, instead of our usual open day to encourage and attract new bowlers, we arranged a ‘crazy bowling’ day as part of the village’s celebrations to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This offered a variety of fun bowling challenges like knocking down skittles, bowling around an obstacle into a box, and through doors in a wall – all using normal biased lawn bowls. With fine weather on the day, the event was very well attended, by family groups in particular, and justified our investment in junior size bowls for younger children. We gave a prize of £5 to the highest scoring adult and child and are grateful to Barrow Bowls Club for the loan of their novelty obstacles. As well as raising the profile of bowling in the area, it was pleasing that five adults returned subsequently during the Summer to try conventional lawn bowling for themselves. Hopefully regular publicity through this and similar events will deliver a return in the form of new bowlers over the longer term. Weekly Tuesday afternoon bowls drives ran throughout the summer season and were open for anyone to attend on a pay-as-you-go basis. As well as being a fun way for new bowlers to Page 1 ## **Goxhill Bowling Club** learn and develop, these provide a shop window for us and an opportunity for bowlers to play on our green and hopefully form a positive view of the Club and its facilities. Similarly, we hope that making our green available as a neutral ground for cup finals and the like helps to generate interest in the sport and encourages spectators to try their hand. We continue to invest in a regime of high-quality maintenance of the bowling green in the firm belief that the best way to make bowling enjoyable and help players achieve their potential is to provide a first-class playing surface. We are fortunate to have a highly motivated ‘Green Team’ of volunteers who commit their time weekly to the numerous behind-the-scenes tasks necessary to keeping the green, and the Manor Lane site generally, at their best. In North Lincolnshire the average age of lawn bowlers is probably not far away from the national statutory retirement age so it is unsurprising that recruitment plays a large part in the health of every club. We were fortunate in 2022 to recruit several new bowlers who brought down the average age of our membership and we hope their examples will attract more recruits in 2023. Our policy of loaning equipment and providing coaching at no cost to participating individuals is integral to such recruitment and will continue as in prior years. First-hand experience tells us that most bowlers, new and old, want to play regularly so limited opportunities can mean they switch clubs or, worse still, give up bowling completely and become lost to the sport. Having joined a fourth league in 2022 we hope, and will try to ensure, that will not be an issue at our Club. For 2023 we will compete in: the Premier Division of Grimsby, Cleethorpes & District Bowling Association; the Barnetby & District Bowling League; the Second Division of Scunthorpe & District Bowls League; and the Mixed League of North Lincolnshire Bowls Triples Leagues. The Charity’s finances are in a sound position with financial reserves sufficient to cover replacement of machinery and routine maintenance of the buildings and equipment as well as providing a cushion against the unexpected. The Trustees will continue to monitor reserve levels to ensure that funding streams are sufficient for the Charity’s future needs and will seek grants for any major new plans. The Trustees are very grateful to the many volunteers who help in the Club’s success with such enthusiasm and dedication. That includes not only the Green Team but everyone who helps out through fundraising, helping to run gala days & competitions, team selections & match arrangements and all of the many administrative tasks necessary to helping the Charity and Club achieve its objectives. ## **Management and responsibilities** The Trustees collectively administer the charity. The Trustees, who must be Members of the charity are elected at its Annual General Meeting with one-third of them retiring at each AGM but eligible for re-election. Further Trustees to fill vacancies may be co-opted by the Trustees during the year until a maximum of nine trustees in post is reached. Names of the current Trustees, and all who have served during the year being reported, are shown on page 1. The Trustees recognize their collective responsibility for keeping proper accounting records and preparing financial statements each year. The appended financial statements have been prepared on a cash basis and independently reviewed, with the resulting report included as part of these financial statements. Approved by the Trustees on 26 / 01 / 2023 and signed on its behalf by: John Guggiari Page 2 Goxhdl B(Avlino Club CIO (ragisf•rnd &wity 1195169) Receipts and Payments A¢￿Unt for the year endiw 31 O