Warlingham Sports Club AGM
Chairman’s Report – AGM 2026
Firstly, I would like to welcome Chetun Patel who was appointed Chair of the Cricket section in November. His predecessor, Denham Earl, was appointed President of the club following last years AGM. A fitting tribute for all the hard work and commitment he gave to the club over such a long period.
Following the exciting challenges of recent years, and the major developments and improvements we were able to complete last year, I was looking forward to a quiet year of consolidation. It didn’t prove to be that way!
We have still been able to improve the club in a few areas but there have also been some setbacks which are reflected in the financial accounts and will impact how we operate for the coming year.
The new changing and entrance facilities have been in operation for over a year and together with the other many improvements introduced last year have been much appreciated by our membership, both sporting and social. The final payment was made to the contractor CPE in March. However, work on “snagging” carried on throughout the year and has only recently been completed. The issues were relatively insignificant, but we did have a few problems with roof leaks that we now hope are resolved. The contractors, both CPE and the roofing sub-contractor, have remained responsive and covered any issues Jon or Dan have raised.
We now have five separate community groups using the function hall on week days (at no cost) which is helping to expand our profile in the local area.
Sean and the Padel team continue to drive this exciting project forward and have been offered a CIL grant for £200k which will cover part of the projected cost. Planning permission, which was submitted at the turn of the year, is still awaited.
Following the introduction of the phase 3 electrical supply to support replacement electrical heaters in the squash courts, we incurred a substantial electricity bill as we struggled to come to terms with how the new heaters could be most efficiently utilised.
Shortly following this financial set back another arrived in the form of a dangerous gas leak which could have closed the club down, at least while it was addressed. Thankfully, with the immediate help of member Kev Crozier this was avoided, but we did have to shut down the heating to the squash courts at a time when it was much needed to support the sport. This resulted in a sizeable financial hit which again is reflected in the financial outcome. The positives coming out of this are that we can now isolate separate areas around the club which should avoid the risk of a full shut down in the future. We have also resurfaced a large area of the car park resulting from the repair of the trench required to reroute the gas supply. This should buy us perhaps another 10 years before we need to carry out a full resurfacing of the car park.
In the Spring a new electronic scoreboard was installed for the cricket section, funded by the CC with the help of WSC. The protective screen was designed and installed by Dad’s Army (Tim Rolfe in particular). This new facility will no doubt provide valuable service over the coming years.
The local government reorganisation with the demise of Tandridge D.C. and the establishment of a new unitary authority, encompassing TDC, Reigate & Banstead, Epsom & Ewell, Mole Valley and Elmbridge, has presented us with the opportunity to own the freehold of Hamsey Green Playing Field. We have leased the site for the past 25 years. This in turn will allow us to seek grants to improve the facility and invest in the long-term improvement of the site, to the benefit of members.
Turning to the sport it’s been a successful year and the detail will be covered by the section Chairmen. The weather has again made it a difficult year with “monsoon” conditions for the winter months and then drought from April onwards. The playing surfaces have rarely looked as brown as they do today and it’s beginning to feel like we can expect a repeat of these difficult conditions in the coming years. Against that background Dan, our Groundsman, continues to do an excellent job in producing the sporting surfaces much of our membership rely on week in and week out to enjoy their sport.
Finally, I would like to thank our employees and the army of volunteers we rely on so heavily, for all their commitment and hard work throughout the year. Without this dedicated bunch much of what our members may take for granted would not be possible.
S J Rolfe
Chairman
AGM July 2026 Treasurer’s Report Paul Masters
Last year I was unable to present the customary accounts package at the AGM because our then external accountant had been unresponsive.
I am pleased to report that we have appointed a new accountant - Parkes and Swan Ltd, Chartered Accountants of Caterham - and things are back to normal.
For completeness’s sake, I have added a few comments at the end of this report on the 2025 figures.
The 2026 accounts
We follow the normal practice of reporting:
· An Income and Expenditure Account, which provides a financial report on the performance for the year to 31 March 2026. The format we use for this has been unchanged for 25 years, to make it easier to compare from year to year. It is normal to pose the question “how did we do compared to last year, and why?”
· A Balance Sheet, which shows – in a format prescribed by accounting conventions – our state of financial affairs, frozen at 31 March 2026. It is normal to pose questions such as “are we solvent?” or “what are we worth?” As we are a Members Club, those are really important considerations.
Headlines for the year
1. We made a loss of nearly £40k last year. Most of that is a result of deliberate choices: once the Changing Rooms Project funded by third parties was completed in March 2025, we decided to spend some of the money we had reserved on refurbishment that wasn’t included in the funded project.
2. As a result of that deficit, our “retained funds” – a measure of the Club’s net worth – declined to £94k.
Detailed comments
These comments are in the order in which the relevant rows feature in our accounts.
Page 2
Bar sales, or turnover, has fallen by some £17,000. We are not yet sure whether this represents a normal year after a “bumper harvest” in 2025, or a sustained reduction. Of course, we hope that the enhancements to the club in recent years will make it a more attractive place to come.
Gross profit is higher by some £12,000. Last year we showed “annual sponsorship”, the retrospective discount we get from our brewer, under “other income” on this page. This year, we netted it against the cost of our drinks purchases.
Repairs and maintenance Once we knew that the changing room project would come in on budget, we decided to spend some of the funds we had accumulated in case we had to deal with cost overruns. We decided on the following enhancements:
· Refurbishing the old changing rooms £10,000, which had originally been part of “phase three” of the changing room project
· Redecoration of the bar £7,000
· New burglar alarm £3,000
· New CCTV £2,500
In addition, we had to deal with a major gas leak and reinstall the gas supplied to the squash courts. As that required digging, we brought forward resurfacing that we had always planned to have done to the car park. The combined cost of this was some £27,000
Page 3
Quotas from sports sections: all sections paid in full; the figure for cricket recognises that the sports club made a contribution towards the cost of their new scoreboard.
Telecommunications rental. The income for 2026 will be the last ever significant income. From now on, our contractual income falls to £1,500.
Electricity and gas has climbed to £17,576. The switch of the squash courts from (obsolete) gas heating to electricity came at a price: the meters were poorly set and leaked electricity for a couple of months. We expect that this is under control but we'll need to monitor carefully once the squash courts need heating again.
Grounds maintenance In the current year, as well as recurring work on the ground, we have absorbed the costs of the new Astro lights; bought a new mower; had full services on the tractor and wicket mower; and removed a number of trees
Depreciation and grant release Almost identical figures of £193,804 and 193,703 relate to the changing room project. Rather than “expense” the project in year 1, we have reflected it in our balance sheet. Over four years, we will “depreciate” the fixed asset and “release” the grant.
All the money changed hands in the year to 31 March 2025: these are normal accounting processes.
We will see similar figures in our accounts for the next three years.
Page 4 Balance Sheet
Fixed assets We show a figure of £581,165, greatly reduced from last year. The figure is dominated by the changing rooms project. The reason it is much lower than last year is the “depreciation” - the amount by which we are writing off the changing room project each year
Cash at bank and creditors: amounts falling due within one year. Although we incurred a deficit last year, our cash balance has only dropped by £10,000. The main reason for this is that we are holding a deposit in our bank account for the squash and racketball section of about £45,000. We recognise this liability to the squash and racketball section by including it in the figure for “creditors.”
The answer to the question “are we solvent?” can be found here: we had cash at 31 March 2026 of £165k, and immediate obligations, or liabilities, of £80k. The difference between the two shows that we are comfortably solvent.
Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year £582,351. We do not actually owe this sum to anyone! As mentioned above, we are spreading the income we received from Tandridge and Your Fund Surrey across four years, and writing off the cost of the changing rooms project over the same.
This figure, which accountants call “deferred income,” is an accounting contrivance that allows us to spread the project over 4 years. It's perfectly normal for multi-year projects, but something that we at the Sports Club see rarely.
Clubs retained funds £94,409. This is the measure of “what we are worth?” Our retained funds have declined by the exact amount of our deficit last year.
Is the figure large enough? Our absolute minimum would be just over £50,000. Our plan for 2026/27 is to have a more frugal year after several years of heavy expenditure to improve the club. That said, such plans can run into issues such as an unexpected gas leak...
Being solvent and having positive retained funds should not be taken for granted. In 2006, we had retained funds of £49k ….but the decided to embark on the Astro project. We knew that was not something we could fully afford to do, and we borrowed. It was “only” £25,000, but taking out the loan and spending money on the project meant that we took five years to return to having positive retained funds
Comments on the 2025 accounts and my report at 31 March 2025
As mentioned above, I presented my own draft accounts to last year's AGM. I made detailed comments in my report about the changing rooms project and observed that it would dwarf many other aspects of our accounts. But I also observed that most of the work that was being done was fully funded by grants from Tandridge and Your Fund Surrey.
I also made a comment about the significant amounts of VAT that we had paid on the project.
In the formal accounts for 2026 produced by Parkes and Swan, the changing rooms project has been fully reflected, much as you can see in the 2026 accounts.
My other observations about the accounts had included that turnover stood at around £417k and our surplus was around £17,900. In the formal accounts produced by Parkes and Swan, the comparable figures were pounds £411k and £10,600.
I don’t feel that much will be gained from any more detailed line by line comparison…