**Sutton Churches Tennis Club**
Charity Number 1195245
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
## **for the period 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023**
## **Objectives and Activities**
## _**Our objectives**_
The promotion of community participation in healthy recreation and the advancement of amateur sport in particular but not exclusively by providing facilities and coaching for participation in the sport of tennis. Further, through the provision of tennis facilities, the CIO shall ensure continuity with the manner in which the former Gander Green Trust performed its object in respect of the property which it administered and whose Charity Deed stated ‘To and For the General Purposes of the Religious Work carried on at Trinity Methodist Church Sutton, Surrey (now known as Trinity URC/Methodist Church, Sutton).’
## _**Our Activities**_
## _New member courses_
Throughout the year the club holds a series of New Member Courses. These are sixweekly introductory courses for adults which are particularly suitable for those wishing to try tennis for the first time or to return to the sport after a break. The course teaches the basics of tennis and introduces the participants to other club members.
## _Children’s courses_
There are also various courses for children from the age of three upwards to learn the basics of tennis in a fun and friendly environment. These courses help to build a child’s love for tennis and sport in general and help to improve coordination, balance and agility.
## _Social tennis sessions_
The club holds seven club sessions each week. One session is aimed at beginners or “rusty” players, another is for those who would like to play singles and the rest are for doubles matchplay. A new session has been started for junior members to introduce them to playing social tennis. A peg-board system is used to ensure a fair and easy rotation of players and the balls are provided by the club.
## _Surrey LTA league tennis_
The club has 5 ladies’, 5 men’s, 4 mixed and 3 veterans’ teams in the Surrey LTA leagues where matches are played against other clubs in the area. The teams cover a wide range of standards and everyone is welcome to put themselves forward.
## _Internal tournaments and leagues for both adults and junior members_
An annual tournament is held every summer with singles competitions for ladies, men, girls and boys. There are also ladies’ doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles events. All doubles events have a plate competition for first round losers to ensure every pair plays at least two matches. The events are open to all members.
Two box league competitions are held during the year for mixed doubles and singles where matches are played against other club members and trophies are awarded at the end of each season.
## _Cardio tennis sessions_
Group based tennis sessions set to music offering a full-body cardiovascular workout. Suitable for all abilities and particularly good for those wishing to improve their fitness, though all participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
## _Coaching_
A wide range of group coaching courses or private lessons are available from the club’s qualified and experienced coaches.
## _Social activities_
There are regular social activities where members and guests can socialise in a non-tennis setting. Recent events include a quiz night, bingo, bowling and the annual Christmas Dinner.
## _**Public benefit**_
All Trustees are aware of the guidance issued by the Charities Commission with regard to public benefit and have adhered to the guidance throughout the year.
## **Achievements and Performance**
## _**Summary of main achievements**_
One of our committee members pointed out that 2023 marks 100 years since tennis was first played on our site with the formation of one of our predecessor clubs, Sutton Trinity Lawn Tennis Club. We decided that this could not go unacknowledged, so we picked the August Bank Holiday Monday to celebrate the milestone. After discussing a few ideas, three events were organised for the day, all with a nod to nostalgia. These were a Junior Reunion, in which recent former junior members were invited to come back to play a session together; a Wooden Racquets tournament in which – you guessed it - we all played with old wooden racquets (and some of us dressed in 1920s style apparel); and a Welcome Back Club Session to which past as well as current adult members were invited. We were blessed with good weather and all three events were much enjoyed and wellattended, by both past and present members. We also offered some Centenaryembroidered club kit.
In general terms, the club has been ticking over steadily. Membership numbers are almost identical to this time last year, with slightly more adults and slightly fewer juniors. It is usual to see between 10 and 20 percent non-renewals each new season, so it’s good to see that we are replacing these with new members. There have certainly been plenty of new faces at Club Sessions, club competitions and social events.
The various internal competitions at the club continued to attract high numbers of entrants, from all ages and standards. We’ve had the reintroduction of a format after a number of years’ absence, namely the Singles Ladder. There was a short trial ladder at the beginning of 2023, and we currently have one junior and two adult ladders running this autumn in place of the Singles Box League, which will return in the New Year. The idea is to offer three formats for singles competition each year, with the main annual knockout tournament running from May to July. There continue to be Mixed Doubles box leagues in both autumn and new year.
The Annual Tournament results saw a mix of retentions, comebacks and first-time winners. In contrast to 2022’s July heatwave, we have surely never suffered such appalling weather yet still managed to get all matches played on Finals Day. The rain and wind barely let up all afternoon, but with the summer holiday period starting the following week and so many players going away, the prospect of rearranging final matches ad hoc was seen as worse than just getting on with it. Hats off in admiration to all players who took part, and
tremendous thanks to the poor umpires who didn’t get the compensation of running around to keep warm.
There were three events added for the first time this year: Girl’s and Boys’ Doubles and Over-60s men’s singles (an Over-60s ladies’ event was offered but there were insufficient entrants this time).
Thanks to everybody who entered an event: the large participation of our Tournament every May, June and July is what makes it such an enjoyable feature of the club’s year. I hope everyone who took part enjoyed being part of it. The taking-part really is the most important thing, but of course congratulations to all this year’s champions - there are few sweeter feelings than actually winning.
Despite the weather we had another excellent turnout (around 90!) for the Finals Day Party.
This year we ran an adult competition for Play Your Way To Wimbledon as well as a junior one as we have done in previous years. This is the first time that there has been an adult version offered. We had around 50 players playing in our Boys Singles, Boys Doubles, Ladies Doubles and Mens Doubles events with winners going forward to represent the club in the next round. This was played at the All England facility at Raynes Park and at Purley Sports Club. Unfortunately, we did not have enough entrants to run a Girls events this year but we will be running the events again in 2024. Well done to all entrants and winners!
After a reasonably successful winter 2022/23 season in the Wilson Surrey Leagues, our teams generally found things harder going this summer. For those who don’t know, we enter five ladies' and five men's teams in both the winter and summer open Surrey Leagues, four teams in the summer open mixed league, a ladies’ team in the Over-50s and two men’s teams Over-55s in both summer and winter.
We had four teams last winter achieving promotion by winning or running-up their division: Ladies 2nd and 5th teams and Men’s 5th and Over 55s. Despite wins being a lot harder to come by in the summer, our Men’s 1st and 3rd teams both achieved promotion with second place in their respective divisions.
Thanks to our Social Secretary who organised a succession of events during the year which attracted an excellent number and variety of members. Social events this year included -
A country walk; a charity quiz in aid of “I Play 30” disability tennis; ten-pin bowling and the traditional Finals Day Party at the club as well as the aforementioned Centenary Celebrations.
In addition to the organised events it has been great to see a lot of impromptu socialising at the club. This gained particular momentum during the weeks of the Annual Tournament when members would often stay on after playing in Club Sessions, or even turn up specially, to watch tournament matches with other members and enjoy a few drinks (and sometimes pizza). With many matches played on Saturday evenings after the Club Session, it became an almost guaranteed weekly social event for many of us. The same is regularly the case on Thursday mornings after the Cardio session, and on Friday lunchtimes after the Club Session.
The SCTC Bridge Club was formed last winter for members wanting to learn and play bridge in an informal setting (and you can’t get much more informal than our pavilion). The club meets on Monday evenings.
Developments regarding the purchase of the clay court-side land from the Methodist Church, a price and general agreement in principle has been reached. Hopefully this can all be concluded within a few weeks.
The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that we have had our car park and lane resurfaced, with parking space lines painted which has certainly helped maximise capacity. The chief motivation was to eliminate the huge puddles which appeared after rain and caused wet feet as we got in and out of our cars. Since the work was completed we have had ample rain to test the effectiveness of the work, and happily no puddles now appear.
Following a prompt from one of our members, SCTC entered into the LTA Sustainability Pledgeball League. Sufficient of us pledged to undertake various 'environmentally green' changes in our lives for the Club to win one of the two rounds of this league, thereby being awarded £250 for some very useful coaching equipment.
Friday mornings have seen the introduction of a “Walking Tennis” session on Courts 5&6. The “Walking” sports initiative is designed to provide a way into sports for those who require a gentler-paced start. The session was offered free to new participants, thanks to grants from the Sutton Befrienders. Walking tennis participants have been encouraged to stay for coffee afterwards, watch the Club Session sets and get to know existing members. All of this has proved so popular that most of the first group have taken up membership of the club and are continuing to play (and improve) and socialise on Friday mornings, and an additional session is soon to be started.
The Walking Tennis sessions provide yet another example of the incalculable value of our club in sporting, physical exercise and social terms. We may not compete at national level (or even very high up at county level) in competitive tennis terms, but I like to think we are up there with the best of them in terms of social and community value. One of the things that I noted from comments from the longer-past members who played at our Centenary celebration was that they said, despite certain obvious changes such as the clay courts and floodlights, and numerous current members they didn’t know, the club still felt like just the same place with the same atmosphere (and they meant this approvingly!). Let’s hope the same can still be said in another hundred years.
## **Financial Review for the period 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023**
## _**Financial position at the end of the period**_
Total receipts (gross income) for the period were £58,777 and total payments £42,495, giving rise to a net increase in cash and bank account balances of £16,282 to £239,933.
Membership subscriptions and floodlight income were down slightly on the previous year at £48,732 and £4,063. The sponsorship amount of £1,560 was kindly donated by a local business to sponsor the Junior Club Session so that this could be offered free of charge to junior members. Mainly due to some large interest rate rises during the year, interest received was significantly higher than last year at £2,830.
Repairs and maintenance expenditure for the year was £18,482. The largest item was to tarmac and paint lines on the car park which cost £13,750. Cleaning the hard courts cost £1,920 and electrical testing £1,200.
There were two items in professional fees relating to the purchase of part of the land that the club occupies. Advice from a surveyor on the valuation of the land cost £1,728 and solicitor’s fees paid on account were £7,275.
## _**Reserves**_
At 30 September 2023 the club’s reserves totalled £267,741.
|Cash and bank accounts|239,933|
|---|---|
|Fixed assets|47,138|
|Stock and debtors|2,325|
|less: Liabilities|(21,655)|
||-----------|
||267,741|
||-----------|
This was an increase of £12,583 on the position at 30 September 2022.
Cash and bank accounts increased by £16,282 from £223,651 to £239,933. Other assets and liabilities reduced by £3,699.
As well as the general undesignated fund, the club has a designated repairs reserve fund. This is money set aside to pay for future maintenance work such as court resurfacing, repainting and floodlight maintenance that is essential to keep the club’s facilities in good condition.
£10,695 was added to the repairs reserve during the period leaving a balance of £78,131 at the end set aside for planned future maintenance.
This left the total undesignated funds balance in the general fund at £189,610.
The club is currently in negotiations to buy the freehold of the land on the wooden clubhouse side of the site. Once this is finalised the next objective is to replace the wooden clubhouse which is old and rather run-down.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
- The charity’s constitution is it’s governing document.
- The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) based on the Charity Commission’s association model.
- Trustees are selected in accordance with the constitution.
**Reference and Administrative details**
Charity name – Sutton Churches Tennis Club Registered charity number – 1195245 Address – 99 Gander Green Lane, Sutton, SM1 2ES
## _**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**_
_(Dates are shown where trustees acted for part of the period)_
Richard Garrett (Captain) Carolyn Graham (Vice Captain) Carolyn Jones (Secretary) _appointed 16/11/2022_ Tony Farrell (Treasurer) Dominique Delhalle (Membership Secretary) David Garrett (Grounds Secretary) Jacqueline Halls (Social Secretary) _appointed 16/11/2022_ Helen Parnell Ross Gorbert Joan Sillery Kirsty Garrett _appointed 16/11/2022_ Nasir Sulery _appointed 16/11/2022_ Gerald Barry _appointed 16/11/2022_ Prashant Kumar _appointed 16/11/2022_ Annabel Faulkner (Secretary) _resigned 16/11/2022_ Rebecca Tucker (Social Secretary) _resigned 16/11/2022_ Pauline Martin _resigned 16/11/2022_ Greg Allen-Hirst _resigned 16/11/2022_ Justin Meiland _resigned 16/11/2022_
## **Declarations**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the trustees**
|**Signature**|||
|---|---|---|
||||
|**Full name**|Richard Garrett|Anthony Farrell|
||||
|**Position**|Captain|Treasurer|
||||
|**Date**|3 March 2024|3 March 2024|
**Sutton Churches Tennis Club**
**1195245**
**CC16a**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
## **For the period from**
**01/10/22 30/09/23 To**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**
Members subscriptions
**48,732**
Income from floodlights
**4,063**
Sponsorship
**1,560**
Visitor fees
**774**
Court hire fees
**120**
Fund raising
**121**
Sale of tennis balls
**110**
Teas
**206**
Social Events
**261**
Interest received
**2,830**
**58,777**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 58,777**
**A3 Payments**
Rates
**454**
Water & Sewerage
**477**
Electricity
**2,169**
Building insurance
**1,190**
Repairs & Maintenance
**18,482**
Cleaning
**2,499**
Tennis balls
**2,564**
Coaching
**2,725**
LTA fees
**1,615**
Music licences
**377**
Professional Fees
**9,003**
Account charges
**370**
Phone
**72**
Sundries
**498**
**_Sub total_ 42,495**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 42,495**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 16,282**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**(10695)**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**156,215**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 161,802**
**Undesignated**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**10,695**
**67,436**
**78,131**
**Designated**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**48,732**
**4,063**
**1,560**
**774**
**120**
**121**
**110**
**206**
**261**
**2,830**
**58,777**
**-**
**-**
**58,777**
**454**
**477**
**2,169**
**1,190**
**18,482**
**2,499**
**2,564**
**2,725**
**1,615**
**377**
**9,003**
**370**
**72**
**498**
**42,495**
**-**
**-**
**42,495**
**16,282**
**-**
**223,651**
**239,933**|_Previous 12_
_Months_|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**||_50,566_|
|||**-**||_4,758_|
|||**-**||_-_|
|||**-**||_808_|
|||**-**||_642_|
|||**-**||_153_|
|||**-**||_167_|
|||**-**||_117_|
|||**-**||_-_|
|||**-**||_282_|
||||||
|||**-**||_57,493_|
||||||
|||**-**||_-_|
|||**-**||_-_|
||||||
|||**-**||_57,493_|
||||||
|||**-**||_558_|
|||**-**||_208_|
|||**-**||_1,977_|
|||**-**||_1,101_|
|||**-**||_10,772_|
|||**-**||_2,608_|
|||**-**||_1,773_|
|||**-**||_2,352_|
|||**-**||_1,565_|
|||**-**||_339_|
|||**-**||_2,500_|
|||**-**||_325_|
|||**-**||_72_|
|||**-**||_528_|
||||||
|||**-**||_26,678_|
||||||
|||**-**|||
|||**-**||_-_|
||||||
|||**-**||_26,678_|
||||||
|||**-**||_30,815_|
|||**-**||_-_|
|||**-**||_192,836_|
|||**-**||_223,651_|
- 3 -
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
24/11/2022
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
_Note: The Designated Fund_
_is the Repairs Reserve Fund_
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|**Details**
Bank savings accounts
Bank current account
Stripe account
Groundsman’s petty cash float
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Clay courts
Clay court lights
Stock
Debtors & prepayments
**Details**
Advanced subscription income
Creditors
Signature
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**Undesignated**
**funds**|**to nearest £**
**Undesignated**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
|||**159,649**|**78,131**|
|||**1,884**|**-**|
|||**108**|**-**|
|||**161**|**-**|
|||||
|||**161,802**|**78,131**|
|||OK
**to nearest £**
**Undesignated**
**funds**||
|||**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|
|||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||
|||Undesignated funds||
|||Undesignated funds||
|||Undesignated funds||
|||Undesignated funds||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||**Fund to which**
**liability relates**||
|||Undesignated funds|**21,621**|
|||Undesignated funds|**34**|
|||||
|||||
- 4 -
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
24/11/2022
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
## **Report to the trustees/** Sutton Churches Tennis Club **members of**
**On accounts for the period** 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023
**Charity no** 1195245
**Set out on pages** 3-4
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the period from 01/10/2022 to 30/09/2023
**Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
**Date: Signed: Name:** Peter Stewart **Relevant professional** N/a **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** 41 Warren Road, Banstead,
**October 2018**
-1-
**IER**
Surrey, SM7 1LG
## **Section B Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
**Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .
**October 2018**
-2-
**IER**